Women in books: Anne Elliot

I realize that my opinion might not be a popular one, but I think Anne Elliot is the very best of Jane Austen’s heroines.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Elizabeth Bennet too, but Anne is the one I identify most with.

She might seem like an odd choice for a blog post about feminism, but let me tell you why she isn’t, because it takes more than one kind of feminist to make the movement a success.

Anne is quiet, gentle, unassuming, and kind. But she is also strong and principled. She’s not assertive or brash (those are good qualities in their own way too, let’s be clear), but she has the fortitude of character not to shy away from doing what she feels to be right, no matter who decides to pressure her to do otherwise.

She is the women she is in the novel because when she was very young she was persuaded by her family to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth. The Napoleonic Wars were at their height, and Wentworth was heading off to sea. Her family did not think it wise for her to marry a man who probably wouldn’t come back. And her snobbish father turned his nose up at Wentworth because he was not a wealthy man at the time. Anne decided to break things off out of concern for Wentworth. She didn’t want him to have to deal with a lifetime of snobbery at the hands of her family. She suffers because of her decision, but still she feels that she has done the right thing.

When the novel opens, eight years have passed since then and Anne is still unmarried. At 27, she is like to remain single the rest of her life. She has been proposed to by another man in the meantime, but she turns him down because she doesn’t love him (he eventually marries her sister).

That night seem like nothing much in this day and age, but in the early 19th century, that was a big deal. By refusing this offer of marriage, Anne pretty much guarantees that she will not be getting married. In this society, that means she will always have to rely on the kindness of friends and family to provide her with a home, and her style of living will only diminish as she grows older, thanks to her father’s debts. Aristocratic women did not work, and Anne’s future as a single woman will be fairly bleak, unless perhaps her married sister takes her in as part of their household.

Anne might not be as lively and spirited as Elizabeth Bennet, but this is an incredibly brave decision to make. She will not marry a man she doesn’t love, and she is going to stick to her convictions. Of course, in the end Wentworth comes back and we know Anne will have a happy life with him.

Anne is a great example of why feminism should have many faces. Sometimes, marriage and running a household is what a woman chooses to do with her life. Other times, she chooses a career, or both! What’s important is that she is able to make that choice, without anyone else influencing such an important decision. These are all worthy choices, and women should be free to make them on their own. What’s important is that women embrace and celebrate their differences, as well as each other’s choices. Because when we do that, we are stronger for it.