Moments of Empathy in Persuasion

“When cultural representations push our mind-reading adaptations to what feels like their limits…, we might find ourselves in rather emotionally suggestive moods. …[A] momentary cognitive vertigo induced by the multiple mind-embedment may render us increasingly ready either to laugh or to quake with apprehension.” – Zunshine, Why We Read Fiction (p. 31)

 “Anne sighed and blushed and smiled, in pity and disdain, either at her friend or herself.—The part which provoked her most, was that in all this waste of foresight and caution, she should have lost the right moment for seeing whether he saw them.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion (p. 169)

     There are numerous instances in Persuasion in which Anne is rendered emotionally drained by forces exerted on her mind. Many of these are the result of surprises and revelations, which elicit an automatic reaction that tends to leave her momentarily incapacitated. One such moment occurs in the passage excerpted above. Anne has spotted Captain Wentworth on the other side of the road, and she notices Lady Russell’s eyes directed in that general area. The narrator observes:

“She could thoroughly comprehend the sort of fascination he must possess over Lady Russel’s mind, the difficulty it must be for her to withdraw her eyes, the astonishment she must be feeling that eight or nine years should have passed over him, and in foreign climes and in active service too, without robbing him of one personal grace!” (169)

Immediately after this, Lady Russell makes a comment that reveals she has been examining the other side of the road in search of a certain style of curtains. Anne then experiences the rush of emotion excerpted above. She has been engaged intently in the process of mind-reading, thinking that she has accurately understood Lady Russell’s inner thoughts and impressions. The revelation of her mistake prompts the sigh, blush, and smile—which we, as readers, ourselves read to indicate the emotions running through Anne. This example illustrates Zunshine’s assertion from Why We Read Fiction. Engaging in the process of mind-reading may induce a certain emotional susceptibility.

     Austen seems to link these moments of emotion with important plot events. Almost every time something important comes to the surface, Anne experiences a mental rush. This likely derives from the plot itself, which boils down to a series of misunderstandings and concealed intentions that conspire to keep Anne and Captain Wentworth apart. Each instance of revelation, therefore, lifts the curtain a little higher on this web of connections between mental states. The scene with Mrs. Smith, in which the circumstances of Mr. Elliot’s past are laid bare, is a prime example of this (Chapter 21). By unveiling these mental connections in discrete moments, Austen allows her readers to participate in Anne’s narrative: we are learning the information at the same time as she is. Her reactions on the page, described with such physical detail, prompt the reader’s empathy. We read her mind while she is reading others’.

     Zunshine explores how dense a web of mental connections can become before it begins to dissolve. According to cited studies, “people have marked difficulties processing stories that involve mind-reading above the fourth level” (29). The connections between characters in Persuasion certainly go beyond four degrees of separation, and, as discussed above, this confusion of intention and meaning contributes to the powerful moments that Austen inserts into the text.

     A distinction worth noting that Zunshine makes is that this four-level limit applies only to mental states. People can follow rather easily simple successions of events. In the pivotal scene near the end of the novel, for example, Mrs. Smith outlines a path of information from Mr. Elliot to Anne: “Mr. Elliot talks unreservedly to Colonel Wallis of his views on you—which said Colonel Wallis I imagine to be in himself a sensible, careful, discerning sort of character; but Colonel Wallis has a very pretty silly wife, to whom he tells things which he had better not, and he repeats it all to her nurse; and the nurse, knowing my acquaintance with you, very naturally brings it all to me” (192). The information moves through five people on its way to Anne, but this revelation does not prompt any sort of emotional reaction. It is only when Anne comes to understand the relationship between Mr. Elliot’s intentions and his actions, and how he has deceived her family by various means, that she feels the chill of realization.

     Because the novel operates so closely on the often blurred relationship between intention and action, moments of revelation coupled with narrative empathy work well to drive the plot and steer the story toward its conclusion. Austen’s use of this device may go beyond marking the progress of the plot, however. It serves also to develop Anne as a character and encourage empathy through the use of emotionally loaded physical descriptions. When we see Anne’s body making gestures of distress, we engage in automatic mind-reading. Because we are actually experiencing many of the same emotions due to the perspective Austen has given us in the story—that of following Anne’s mind as she discovers information—this technique proves especially effective.