Persuasion: Stage 4. Jane Austen

In nineteenth-century England young women were expected to follow the advice of their families when choosing a husband, but Anne Elliot is not lucky in her family. Her mother is dead, and her father, Sir Walter Elliot, is a vain, silly man, who cares more about social rank than the happiness of his daughters. Anne’s sister Elizabeth is cold and selfish, and her married sister Mary is always worrying about her imaginary illnesses and complaining about other people.

Only Lady Russell, a close friend of Anne’s dead mother, has Anne’s interests at heart. Persuasion from Lady Russell has a powerful effect on Anne when she is nineteen, and in love with a young naval officer with neither money nor social rank. Eight years later Anne knows she made a mistake, and she wishes she had accepted Frederick Wentworth’s offer of marriage.

And when he returns, wealthy and successful, she realizes that her love for him is unchanged. But Captain Wentworth’s love for her has clearly died, and Anne must hide the feelings in her heart. . .