Anne Ehrlich In Jane Austen's Persuasion

Anne Ehrlich is a rather interesting main character, with complex development that is hidden throughout the story. However the seemingly disjointed plots do connect at several points, between the stress of college applications and complications of romance as well as status. The common phrase to seize the day; you only live one life, so what will you make of your life? Alike to her counterpart in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Anne Ehrlich was urged to leave her significant other, Benjamin Cutler because his status at the time was not good enough for the Ehrlichs. Nearly 13 years later, Ben Cutler takes Anne’s place in wealth “I could never contact him now. He’s probably married with kids-and it would seem like I was only interested because he’s …show more content…
A logical reason, considering that she deals with a wide range of emotions and tackles issues (both at work and personally) that are held most important in society these days; the concept of moving out, going to a good college, settling down with a significant other, etc. “I think you do your son a disservice. He has a mind of his own.” “Like hell he does! He never had a mind of his own before. What business has he having one now? I want that little sh*t to go to Williams, and now he says he won’t go.” This discussion involves the rather ignorant father of a Fenimore senior, who thinks lowly of his son and only sees him as an heir to his business in their cycle of wealth. Unfortunate as it is, because of this meeting Anne has a better understanding of how easily people, including herself, can be manipulated. How easily he disregards what his son wants in life and instead focuses on enforcing what he wants for his son without giving him a chance to protest. It’s all too familiar; it’s Anne’s breakup with Ben, just in different context. Among this mess, Ben makes his way back into Anne’s life while assisting his nephew at Fenimore. She does not dwell on the meeting afterwards the familiarity of it all seems to strike a nerve and changes her behavior as shown on page 159, retaliating against her grandmother Winnie. “No, I’m blaming myself for not …show more content…
Ehrlich to tell us the truth, even when we didn’t want to hear it. She always had our best interests in mind, and she wasn’t afraid of our parents. Let’s face it, we wouldn’t have made it this far without her.” (p.271) Even through the students’ words Anne has been described as trustworthy and genuine. Focusing on his words regarding how Anne handled the truth and wasn’t afraid of what their pushy parents had to say, she was concerned with only how the students felt themselves as to what they needed or what they could do, rather than the twisted expectation of shoving a failing student into an Ivy League school. “They would grow up slowly, at their own rate, making their own mistakes and gaining ground in their own time.” (p.272) And now we see the connection, finally, between Anne’s life and her life at Fenimore. Although it is not stated clearly by Anne herself, it seems that her experiences and conversations with the Fenimore seniors may have made an impact as to how Anne decided to find her own way in her life. While Winnie and Marcy, a fellow teacher, have been telling her to get over Ben, she kept her head up because that wasn’t what she felt that she wanted to do. “Perhaps, soon, she would be joining the ranks of nuttiness herself. But for now, she would revel in being in love and childless- which is to say, carefree and sane.” (p.275) From breaking up with Ben for a reason as trivial as wealth and status to having enough strength to slowly recover