Jane Austen's Heroine, Anne Elliot: A Daughter to her Husband
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's essay "Jane Austen's Cover Story (and It's Secret Agents) attempts to define the requirements of an Austen heroine she will make a conscious effort to reject an inadequate father, who is, in essence, a representative of authority. Gilbert and Gubar also maintain that this heroine will be fulfilled and a conclusion to the plot will be achieved when the 'girl becomes a daughter to a husband ...whereas becoming a man means relinquishing achievement and accommodating oneself to men.' By a brief exploration of Jane's Austen's Persuasion, we may begin to see the character of Anne Elliott as one of Austen's heroines as defined by Gilbert and Gubar.
Anne Elliott seeks male approval in an attempt to complete a circle that will bring her from her ineffectual and effeminate father to realising her relationship with Captain Wentworth. Miss Elliott conforms to Gilbert and Gubar's profile of a submissive female trying to survive; this survival id dependant on gaining male approval and protection; Persuasion offers us such a heroine but one who acts submissively not only out of a sense of duty but also unconsciously: we see Anne's aiding Louisa after her fall as an immediate reaction and one which is not solicited and one which Captain Wentworth appreciates; perhaps Anne is beginning her reconciliation with Wentworth as he sees her as 'no one so proper, so capable as Anne!' Captain Wentworth acts as sort of authority figure throughout the plot, however, his authority is more reminiscent of Anne's father than the 'stronger, more sensitive' man as suggested by Gilbert and Gubar. We see Anne's father as a poor representative of Anne's world as his is a vain and self-absorbed one. Throughout Volume I we see Anne filling the vacancy left by her mother by attempting to somewhat substitute herself in the role a wife to her father; she, unlike her father, is sensible and conservative, and in some aspects, perhaps more adult than Sir Elliott; we are told that Lady Elliott 'had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct had never required indulgence after wards.' (p. 36). It is s easy to see Lady Elliott's disposition in Anne and one hopes that that Anne will not fulfil her mother's legacy of an early death although tragedy is hinted at in the novel's concluding chapter.
This role reversal may serve to fill the psychological need of both Anne and Walter as Anne, through her sensibilities wishes to be perhaps viewed in an adult role whilst Sir Walter, with his self-absorption and triviality, may very well ask to be viewed as the child in the relationship. This transferral of the adult/child roles may be indicative of an ironic reversal of the 'girl becoming
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