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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Persuasion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Status and Social Class
Marriage
Gender Inequality
Persuasion
Summary
Analysis
Louisa recovers slowly under the capable Mrs. Harville’s care. Various family friends bring updates of her health. Anne makes herself helpful around the distressed Uppercross household, and after persuading the entire Musgrove family to visit Louisa at Lyme, she decides to visit Lady Russell in Kellynch.
Anne continues to display her capability, sensibility, and compassion in her interactions with the Musgroves. These qualities also give her advice considerable weight among those who know how to properly appreciate them.
Themes
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Anne leaves Uppercross with mixed feelings; it has been a place of some reconciliation and friendship, but also renewed grief. Lady Russell receives Anne with some anxiety, but is delighted to find her improved in plumpness and looks. Anne finds it hard to adjust again to the concerns of Lady Russell—that of her father and Elizabeth—which so differ from the events that have recently absorbed the Musgroves. Anne informs her about the attachment between Captain Wentworth and Louisa.
Lady Russell further affirms Anne’s returning vitality and beauty, which may be attributed to the confidence that she has gained during her time with the Musgroves. The recent events confirm her helpfulness and abilities—as well as Captain Wentworth’s returning regard, if not romantic feelings for her.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Lady Russell and Anne call on Mrs. Croft. Though Anne is pained to have her home occupied by others, she has the highest regard for the Crofts. They discuss the accident at Lyme, and the Crofts report that Captain Wentworth has praised her helpfulness in all of it. Admiral Croft kindly invites Anne to make herself at home as she pleases, demonstrating a generous sensitivity to her feelings. The Crofts will soon vacation, and Lady Russell and Anne plan to visit Bath, thus ending all danger of future encounters between Anne and Captain Wentworth at Kellynch.
Anne’s feelings towards her aristocratic heritage and home are further nuanced in her visit to the Crofts; though she is not vain and possessive like Sir Walter and Elizabeth, she possesses a real and touching attachment to the estate as her home. She sincerely grieves its loss and the degradation of her family, even as she esteems the new tenants and recognizes their model behavior and marriage.
Themes
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