kazm.cdr


Acts of Persuasion 
in Jane Austen’s Novels 

The act of persuasion has been the concern of a vastnumber of psychologists and linguists who have
attempted to discover the peculiar features and the necessary
conditions for its effectiveness. It is defined as a conscious,
intended attempt of an individual to change the attitude, belief
or behaviour of another individual or a group of individuals
through the transmission of some message1. Whenever there is
some change in favour of the message, the process of
persuasion can be viewed as successful. Both attitudes and
beliefs are non-observable cognitive states, and we make
inferences about an individual’s attitudes and beliefs from the
verbal statements or overt behaviour. Attitudes and beliefs
reflect the psychological processes going on in an individual.
On the other hand, behaviour changes, including changes in
the nervous system, and verbal statements are easily
observable and overt. Moreover, getting an individual to
admit somebody’s attitude or belief is far easier than making
the same individual change his behaviour (Scheidel, 1985).

The present article is an attempt to give an insight into
Jane Austen’s characters in the light of persuasion in Jane
Austen’s four major novels: “Mansfield Park”, “Emma”,
“Pride and Prejudice” and “Persuasion”. Once Virginia Wolf
wrote about Jane Austen “Of all great writers, Jane Austen is
the most difficult to catch in the act of her greatness. Not to

like Jane Austen is to put ourselves under suspicion of a general personal inadequacy and
even – let us face it – of a want of breeding” (Trilling, 1965:29). The study of Jane
Austen’s novels can be viewed as a discovery of universal truths about human nature and
life, of ‘the supremely civilizing pursuits, the spiritual essence of the social formation’
(Modern Science and Vedic Science, 1989:326). Indeed, our investigation has shown
that the interpretation of the characters’ persuasive communication in Jane Austen’s
novels can not only give us an account of the fact how certain characters in the novels
impose persuasion upon the others but also lead us to a broader comprehension of the
communicator’s, as well as the recipient’s inner being, his/her essence.  

As in real life, every character in the novels has his/her unique way of persuading.
Some of them prefer to be straightforward while speaking and command their wish
explicitly, letting the interlocutors obviously realise their communicative intent.  In such
instances the act of persuasion may be synonymous to such directive acts as informing,

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Linguistics Armenian  Folia  Anglistika

Svetlana Galstyan

Siranoush Ghaltakhchyan



directing, instructing, urging, forcing, etc. The character that resorts vividly to this type
of persuasion is Mrs. Norris in the novel “Mansfield Park”, a boring woman who is fond
of interfering with the personal matters of other people, Lady Catherine, a proud woman
of dictatorial and insolent manners, and Mrs. Bennet, a middle-class woman of awfully
tiresome character in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”. Their speeches abound in
persuasive attempts, and it is hardly possible to find any dialogue in which they do not
have the intention of influencing their interlocutors. On the other hand, they are hardly
liable to any influence themselves as they are convinced of their ‘truthfulness’. In Mrs.
Norris’s case, for instance, the desire to persuade and direct people around her reaches
such an extent that Mrs. Norris goes beyond the limits of politeness and does not avoid
uttering the word “persuade”. Moreover, she uses the word with great pride, praising
herself and magnifying her endeavour. However, explicit persuasion, as a rule, decreases
the effectiveness of a persuasive message greatly and the source’s persuasive intent, in
this case, often falls flat. It has also been proved that foreknowledge may reduce the
chances to succeed in persuasion.2

On the other hand, most of the characters tend to choose the implicit way of
convincing, especially when an attempt is made by the source to measure and alter the
recipient’s attitude, belief or behaviour, disguising his/her real intention. Obviously, it is
only in the context of the speech act that implicit forms of persuasive communication are
revealed. This kind of persuasion is displayed in the characters of Emma Woodhouse and
Mr. Knightly in the novel “Emma”, Mrs. Darcy in the novel “Pride and Prejudice” and
Lady Russell in the novel “Persuasion”. They, too, often try to change their interlocutors’
initial attitudes and beliefs, but unlike the first group of characters, they make use of
various devices while performing persuasive acts. They pretend to be giving information
or recommendation, just praising or complimenting, encouraging or advising. This is a
more effective way of persuading, and the source, in this case, generally succeeds in
persuading the other party.

In the 1940s research was undertaken under the leadership of C. Hovland, entitled
‘Yale Communication and Attitude Change Program’ to answer many questions on the
field of persuasive communication (Byrne, 1981). One of the most precious findings of
this program is that there exist two major elements in the target individual’s evaluation
of a communicator. These are the communicator’s credibility and the communicator’s
attractiveness to the target individual.

Credibility is a set of perceptions about the source held by the recipient. A person’s
credibility depends on how much expertise the addresser has on the topic under
discussion and whether he appears trustworthy and unbiased. Hovland and his
colleagues find that high-credibility communicators may be more effective in producing
attitude change than low-credibility communicators. They also highlight the idea that the
higher a person’s evaluation of the communicator (source) is, the more he is likely to be
persuaded by the communication. Of interest in this respect is also the observation made
by the American psychologist Kelly Shaver: “If someone you evaluate highly is ‘at
variance’ with your current attitude, a ‘dissonance’ is set up that can be reduced either

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by changing your evaluation of the communicator or by changing your own attitudes”
(Shaver, 1977).

In the novel “Persuasion” the protagonist of the novel, Anne Elliot, a young and
witty girl with ‘an elegance of mind’ and   ‘sweetness   of   character’, is persuaded   by
her friend  Lady  Russell to break off her engagement with the man Anne is deeply in
love with. Here we face a dilemma, for it is a well known fact that with a clever
addressee the communicator’s chances to achieve success in a persuasive attempt are
very rare, for the more intelligent the addressee is, the less submissive he/she will be
because of his/her ‘greater critical faculties’ (Bettinghaus, 1980). The only reason for
Lady Russell’s success is perhaps the fact that she always treats her like a considerate
mother who is always ready to be of help. Anne is sure that Lady Russell is more
experienced and clever and always trusts her. Thus, Anne’s love toward Lady Russell has
blinded her in this sense. Besides, Lady Russell’s persuasive attempts are solely
predetermined. She prefers to reach an effect with the so-called ‘sleeper effect’, i.e. she
tends to produce attitude change in a longer period of time and not just immediately after
the delivery of the persuasive message in order to make persuasion clandestine (Shaver,
1977).

Kelly Shaver notes, in this respect, that people will consider you credible if you
know what you are talking about and if they think that, you have nothing to gain
personally by advocating the position you take (Shaver, 1977). She agrees with
Hovland’s suggested opinion, according to which, a communicator’s credibility will be
damaged if it is known that he is attempting to persuade a person or a group of people
since they might then be suspicious that the communication is biased and even dishonest.
This can be best illustrated if we analyse the dialogue between Lady Catherine and
Elizabeth in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”, where the lady tries to persuade Elizabeth,
a girl of ‘virtue and wit’ and an independent person who remains true to her principles,
not to marry Mr. Darcy. Lady Catherine’s speech sounds much more like an order than
an attempt of persuasion as it is deprived of endearments of any kind that would soften
her tone somehow, and not a single attempt of manipulating with words is made. Lady
Catherine obviously wants to make Elizabeth realise that she is being persuaded to reject
the proposal of marriage and expects immediate submissiveness on the part of the girl,
who is much younger and still much inferior in rank. Elizabeth, in her turn, shows
reactance3 as she does not like when her personal freedom is violated or limited. This is
already a good reason to fail. Apart from this, Elizabeth is well aware that Lady Russell
has something to gain from this: she wants Mr. Darcy to marry her own daughter. 

The other important factor in the recipient’s evaluation of a communicator is the
communicator’s attractiveness to the recipient, the degree to which he/she is liked by the
target individual. People often seek to identify themselves with or to be like people for
whom they care or admire, which leads them to adopt the admired person’s beliefs and
attitudes. Hence, the better the source’s physical appearance, style of speaking and
dressing, gestural and postural systems are, the more persuasive he may be. The
character who manipulates with her attractive appearance and good manners in order to

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succeed in imposing persuasion upon others is the protagonist of the novel “Emma”, a
beautiful and clever  woman with ‘a comfortable home and happy disposition’. Emma is
especially eager to have an influence on Harriet Smith, ‘the most gullible, naive and
impressionable girl of no social status and connections’. Harriet always underestimates
her abilities and finds herself too weak and unsophisticated to solve any problem all by
herself. Therefore, Emma does not lose the good chance and considers it necessary to
instruct her how to think and reason in the right way. Harriet, in her turn, treats Emma
as an ideal of beauty and intelligence. She has assured herself that Emma is the one who
can show her the right way of living and has ‘put’ her life in Emma’s hands. In addition
to this, Harriet completely lacks self-esteem. People with low self-esteem,4 like Harriet
Smith, appear to be less confident, less optimistic, less competent, regard themselves as
less capable and are less happy than people with high self-esteem. Consequently, such
people are, as a rule, more persuadable. Harriet always consults Emma before making
decisions or taking a position on a certain topic, even on very intimate matters, such as
marriage.

The second vital factor in persuasive communication is message content. Plato
regarded persuasion as the key to power and message as the key to persuasion. There are
certain factors that influence the effectiveness of messages. Hovland and his fellow
researchers assume that for a message to be persuasive, it must first of all be attended to
and comprehended. The style and structure of message may provide good incentives for
attitude change if they are chosen carefully and in accordance with the topic. It has been
proved that communicators who use powerful style of speaking are likely to be more
persuasive (Bettionghaus, 1980). Moreover, people are more apt  to  be  persuasive if a
message is delivered at a normal rate of speed. This is the reason why Mrs. Bennet in the
novel “Pride and Prejudice” almost always fails in persuasive attempts. She frequently
makes use of hesitation markers and hedges, such as ‘well’, ‘hmm’, ‘kind of’, ‘so’, etc.
and almost always speaks too fast and with an unconfident tone of voice. 

It is a well-known fact that alongside the verbal code system, i.e. language, all of
us use the  non-verbal code system, in other words, body language, i.e. head nodding,
shoulder shrugging, smiles, frowns, etc., to accompany our speech. However, when
accompanied   with   linguistic   cues,   non-verbal   cues should correspond to the verbal
message being transmitted. Otherwise, the recipient may be misled and this may obstruct
the proper comprehension of the message. Such a phenomenon is observed in the
character of Mr. Collins, a heavy-looking young man, in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”
when he tries to get Elizabeth’s acceptance of his proposal of marriage. His speech does
not correspond to the demands of the situation. It is performed, however strange as it
may sound, in a very formal and even indifferent manner, with a confident tone of voice.
Besides, he begins to speak about quite unnecessary matters, such as why he should get
married, how eager his aunt is to see him married and the like. Thus, a ‘discrepancy’
occurs between Mr. Collins and Elizabeth which is named ‘nonverbal leakage’, i.e. the
verbal and non-verbal message counteract each other (Byrne, 1981). It should be noted
here that for successful persuasive communication the source should be able to predict

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how the recipient will understand his verbal, as well as non-verbal behaviour and
manipulate with them accordingly. The communicator should know how and what to
utter in the specific context to get the wanted perlocutionary effect. Therefore, Mr.
Collins’s failure in this case is inevitable.      

In the process of persuasion a special and final role belongs to the recipient. It is
more than apparent that not all attempts to achieve persuasion can be successful in
human interaction, and not always do recipients yield to the persuasive message. In
many cases failure or success in persuasive communication is dependant upon the
recipient of the message. A question arises here. Are certain people more inclined to
persuasion than others? J. W. Zanden notes that there are two main kinds of people.
“Some people are ‘gullible pushovers’, while others stubbornly ‘stick to their guns’
(Zanden, 1977). 

Školnick and Keslin suggest that individuals high in their “need for social
approval”, i.e. the desire to be liked by others, are easier to influence than persons lower
in this need (as cited in Shaver, 1977). This is, perhaps, the basic reason why Miss.
Crawford in the novel “Mansfield Park” easily yields to the persuasive attempts made
by any members of the Bertram family, who are much higher in their social status. Miss.
Crawford has laid her eyes on Edmund Bertram, the elder son of the family, and does
her utmost in order to be loved and admired by him. She has created a picture of a
submissive woman and always agrees to whatever he says or pretends as if she judges
and reasons the same way as Edmund does.

To conclude, it is worth noting that persuasive communication appears to be a kind
of dishonest act in Jane Austen’s works, for it violates, to a certain extent, the
interlocutor’s freedom of thinking and reasoning, and it is often of a biased nature. This
is not merely our subjective observation. As we see, Jane Austen herself ascribes the act
of persuasion to the characters having a lower level of intelligence and a lower state of
consciousness. Surprisingly, in our real life persuasion is also viewed to be a kind of
negative act. People generally do not use the word performatively, in other words, they
never say ‘I persuade you to…’, for the form itself is rather impolite and sounds rude.
On the contrary, the expression ‘I do not persuade you’ is very often used.  

Notes:
1. See: Bettinghaus P. Erwin Persuasive Communication. USA: Holt, Rinehart &

Winston, 1980; Larson C.U. Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility. Wardsworth
Publishing Company, 1988;  Petty E. Richard & Cacioppo T. John. Attitude and
Persuasion. Classic and Contemporary Approaches. USA, 1981; Zanden W.
Wander. Social Psychology. New York, 1977.

2. Foreknowledge refers to the prior knowledge of the persuasive intent. On many
occasions, when people receive a persuasive message, they know for sure or, at
least, predict that it is designed to alter their views. In these cases, people are less
likely to be affected by the persuasive message than if they do not possess such

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knowledge. Besides, forewarning may also give people more time to recall relevant
facts and information from memory, facts that may prove useful in rejecting a
persuasive message (Bettinghaus, 1980).

3. “Reactance” means protecting our personal freedom. This term refers to the
unpleasant, negative reaction we experience when we feel that someone is trying to
limit our personal freedom. This, consequently, results in negative attitude change.
Moreover, when this threat to our freedom is direct and/or explicit, the resistance
increases and reaches the highest degree (Zanden, 1977).

4. Self-esteem refers to the value, worth or regard one places on oneself. Richard E.
Petty suggests the importance of self-esteem in persuasive communication, which
is positively related to intelligence. He highlights the following idea: “What you
think of yourself will depend upon the degree to which your actual successes
coincide with the goals and aspirations you have set for yourself” (Petty, 1981:56).
People with low self-esteem are, as a rule, pessimistic and unhappier than people
with high self-esteem, who “face the world with good impressions of themselves”. 

References:

1. Bettinghaus P. Erwin. Persuasive Communication. Third Edition, USA: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1980.

2. Byrne Donn. Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction.  Third Edition,
New York, 1981.

3. Grice H. P. Logic and Conversation. Vol 3, New York, 1975.
4. Houston H. Susan. A Survey of Psycholinguistics. Mouton, 1972.
5. Larson C.U. Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility. Fourth Edition, Wardsworth

Publishing Company, 1988. 
6. Modern Science and Vedic Science. An Interdisciplinary Journal Devoted to

Research on the United Field of All the Laws of Nature, Fairfield, Iowa: MIU,
1989. Vol. 1, No. 3.

7. Petty E. Richard; Cacioppo, T. John. Attitude and Persuasion. Classic and
Contemporary Approaches. USA, 1981.

8. Shaver G. Kelly. Principles of Social Psychology. Cambridge, 1977.
9. Trilling Lionel. Beyond Culture: Essays on Literature and Learning, New York, 1965. 
10. Zanden James W. Wander. Social Psychology. New York, 1977.                              

Sources of Data:

1. Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. London: Penguin Group, 1992.
2. Austen, Jane. Emma. London: Penguin Group, 1996.
3. Austen, Jane. Persuasion. London: Penguin Group, 1994.
4. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin Group, 1992.

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Armenian  Folia  Anglistika Linguistics



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Linguistics Armenian  Folia  Anglistika