Anne

I feel sorry for Anne at first in the story. I feel like she is being taken advantage of for sure. She is the sister that seems to be more responsible and reasonable than the other two, and she also is the daughter that is often forgotten about. Her character grows however throughout the story. I think she starts to find her true self, without being persuaded by others, she starts to find her true happiness. I think she sees how her sisters are, and how they are just settling in their ways. Austen shows us through Anne that women can create their own paths and have their own true happiness without following all the rules, and being persuaded by others in what is better for themselves. Austen believed that you should marry for love and affection, not for wealth. Although Anne is persuaded away from her happiness in the beginning, by the end of the story she has found her true self, and is reunited with the man she truly loves. I also love how Austen shows part of herself through Anne, in the discussion with Capitan Harville, and how she makes the comment that all the poetry, and stories, and most of what people have read during this time were written by men. Thus, they are all explaining how fickle women are, and yet none of what the Capitan is reading is by women. I found this very compelling because Anne is very cleaver to point this out to him, explaining that maybe women are not as fickle as he may think. Allowing her character to speak for her I think, like Anne, was very clever.