A scene I found particularly interesting in today’s reading
is the debate between Anne and Captain Harville about how men and women
experience love. As always Anne is very aware of her surroundings and knows
that Captain Wentworth is listening. Anne notes that while men “…have always a profession,
pursuits, business of some sort or other, to take you back into the world
immediately…” (241) women do not have such a luxury. Men are allowed to move on
into other things to occupy their lives while women are not. Anne falters in
her conversation with Benwick and allows her own emotions to come through in
this topic capturing Wentworth’s attention.
When Harville tries to fall back on the debate tactic we have
seen many characters use in this course of quoting books Anne blocks this move.
She reminds us, “Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story.
Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their
hands.” (243) Anne has been established as a well-read character but she
acknowledges that there is a problem in trying to determine the nature of women
through a male lens. Both Harville and Anne are sincerely describing what they
have felt in the past but neither can really claim a superior feeling of love. Their
lives and perspectives are so different that they can’t come to a true
understanding of the other’s experience. As Anne states they each have a
natural bias to their own sex and their very different experiences have built
upon it. That being said they can still try to listen to one another.
By having this discussion with Harville, Anne has revealed
her side of things to Wentworth. After
Wentworth’s jealous reaction to Mr. Elliot she is sure he has feelings for her.
In this time it would not have been proper for Anne to propose to Wentworth but
in an indirect way she has. Anne cleverly made a full confession of her
continuing feelings and made it clear that she has never stopped caring for
Captain Wentworth without saying a word directly to him. She instead compels him
to act.
This is a really interesting interpretation of this scene. I definitely read it a little differently, but I can also understand the perspective of: "...they each have a natural bias to their own sex..." From what I gathered, this is a really pivotal scene in the second to last chapter, one that is absolutely necessary to the novel's ending (it's missing from the cancelled chapters) because Anne is advocating for women's rights in marriage. She states, "'We certainly do not forget you, so soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit" (241). Meaning, women are expected to abide by certain "laws" of marriage that men are not. I think Dr. Porter's use of the word "bureaucrat" in describing Anne is very fitting. Just as you said, she is aware of Wentworth's presence and uses this moment to reveal her true feelings.
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