Methods of persuasion

Austen’s Persuasion shows how the Romantics’ investigation into the human psyche yields consistent results. People are, have been and will always be the same, meaning persuasion is not just based on logic.

Even with the Enlightenment, tremendous uprisings (e.g. French Revolution) and the Romantic period, tumultuous times in history did not bring about great changes in human psychology as Austen points out. Sir Walter, even though he lives in the last flickering moments of nobility, he still acts like he God’s gift to Earth. England had gone through so much, and Sir Walter too with the accumulation of debt, etc, yet he is not persuaded that he needs drastic change with logic, but with the sweet talk of Mr. Shepherd and other emotional factors. One would think that Sir Walter would act differently in light of his situation, yet Austen demonstrates that methods of persuasion are static because people don’t change.