Q 19

In the following passage, Austen develops one of the novel’s major concepts. What is it? Who is the narrator commenting on? How does it make a commentary on the character of Anne and Captain Wentworth?

“Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to him now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether it might not strike him, that, like all other qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits. She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness, as a very resolute character” (143-144)