Mary Musgrove from Persuasion
In Persuasion, Jane Austen presents her dislike of the English gentry by pointing out the flaws of her characters, which are representative of the class. Mary Musgrove, daughter of Sir Walter, sister of Anne, and wife of Charles personifies these flaws, and is thus the object of Austen's contempt. Through tone, comparison with Anne, syntax, and irony, Austen portrays Mary as a self-absorbed, uneducated, mean, self-pitying person. Austen's biting tone towards Mary and Mary's own words reveal her self-obsessed nature. Austen first presents this trait in, "While well, and happy, and properly attended to, she had great good humour and excellent spirits" (p. 33); when Mary is not the center of attention she becomes depressed. This is just how Anne encounters her, "unwell and out of spirits" (p. 33) because her husband is out hunting, and her friends have not dropped by to visit; there is no one there to make her the center of attention. Like Elizabeth and father, Mary had "a considerable share of the Elliot self-importance" (p. 33). Here, Austen uses a mocking tone with Mary and her family members. She has neglected her children, which should be the foremost concern of a good wife during this period. She only attends to them
Irony of situation further accents her self-obsessed nature. Mary complains that "[The Musgroves] never put themselves out of their way" (p. 34), but when Anne first encounters her, Mary is "lying on the faded sofa" (p. 33). Not only does Mary not take any responsibility and perform her duties, she criticizes Anne by saying, "what can you possibly have to do?" (p. 34). Here, Austen has Mary project her own lack of work on her smarter, better sister-a very unflattering thing to do. By italicizing "you," Austen also shows Mary's snobbish tone. In fact, Anne has been doing "a great many things" (p. 34), as opposed to Mary, who has just feeling sorry for herself. In Persuasion, Austen presents Mary as self-obsessed, worse than Anne, stupid, and self-pitying. She does this through her use of tone, irony, syntax, juxtaposition, and character development. From her depiction of Mary, Austen makes her dislike of the English gentry obvious. when it pleases her, and "as long as [she] could bear their noise" (p. 34). Austen does not approve of this behavior, which is implied by her scathing tone. Mary then immediately shifts the conversation back to herself by commenting on how unwell she is rather than talk about her children with Anne. By setting up a ru
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Approximate Word count = 857
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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