“She gloried in being a sailor’s wife”: A Postcolonial Reading of the Marriage Plot in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Abstract

The British Empire and imperialism are crucial parts of Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion. To investigate how the novel represents and purports imperialism, this paper combines a structuralist with a postcolonial approach and applies Said’s method of ‘contrapuntal reading.’ In addition, the approach of cultural materialism is relevant for the novel’s representation of class. My argumentation first consists of an analysis of the character constellation, in particular the opposition of gentry and naval characters, and narrative situation before turning to the novel’s marriage plot. I argue that Austen’s realist novel Persuasion legitimizes British imperialism due to its use of narrative techniques, plot, and character constellation. The narrative does not question the represented empire which functions as an opportunity for wealth and social mobility for the characters. The marriage plot, in which the female protagonist chooses a naval captain over her cousin from the landed gentry, further corroborates the novel’s support of the British Empire and demonstrates the increasing importance of the navy as well as the professional classes for England at the beginning of the nineteenth century.