The exhaustively courteous language used in
"Persuasion" is one of Austen's charms. However, in Chapter 9 of
Volume II, it actually becomes a mechanism for unveiling the truth about Mr.
Elliot’s deception. It is only when the cordialities are tossed aside that Mrs.
Smith able to tell Anne of the real Mr.
Elliot and his less than honorable intentions to marry her, and a reader can
therefore differentiate between the general superficialities of relations
within the upper class and truths shared between two intimate friends. Austen
even says it outright when Anne was “regretting with a deep blush that she had
implied so much” to Mrs. Smith of her opinion of Mr. Elliot (211). Furthermore,
Mrs. Smith has been mulling over whether it would be appropriate to tell Anne
of what she knows of Mr. Elliot, and is determined so when she says, “’I beg
your pardon, my dear Miss Elliot,’ she cried, in her natural tone of cordiality...
‘I have been uncertain what I ought to do. I have been doubting and considering
as to what I ought to tell you’” (213). This is interesting because it is
through the shedding of courteous diction, rather than the content of the
language alone that readers can understand the level of intimacy of
relationships in Persuasion. I think
it is also a comment by Austen herself on the superficiality of the upper class—this
hyper-courteous diction holds little substance and apparently masks true
feelings and character.
I think you make a really interesting point about relationships here. What also struck me about Mrs. Smith and Anne's relationship was that there existed a threshold of closeness between the two women. As you pointed out they hesitate to speak candidly with each other, despite the social risk Anne is taking to be friends with Mrs. Smith in the first place. It is clear that the sort of proprietal barrier for interpersonal relationships holds true to even some of the closest friendships.
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