Persuasion ~ Elizabeth Bennet as Anne Elliot

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my silly little blog where I take Jane Austen characters, put them in other stories—one at a time, of course—and analyze how the story would change with them in it. Occasionally, my ADHD brain must be allowed to explore and play. So I’ll write about other things that catch my fancy (mostly books, songs, movies, art, philosophy, etc.); thus, the random musings.

I love fantasy and history as much as I love Austen and plan to throw her characters into many fantastical and historical stories. Some of you may wonder how a love of all things Austen meshes with stories of magic. Very well, I think. Hopefully, you will too.

I’ll give each story a peacock feather rating for how similar they are to the original story. This is purely subjective, of course, as is my story analysis.

Let’s begin our journey in the Regency-era world with two of my favorite Austen novels and two of my favorite characters. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Anne Elliot from Persuasion.

Elizabeth Bennet as Anne Elliot

Plopping Elizabeth Bennet into Anne Elliot’s shoes changes the story before it even begins. Elizabeth would never allow herself to be persuaded from marrying someone she loves. So she would marry Captain Wentworth at nineteen. They would encounter resistance from her family and possible exile from her family.

This changes the entire backstory for Persuasion. Instead of persuasion tearing the couple apart, it would drive them together. Since Wentworth would feel like he had to provide for Elizabeth in the way she was accustomed to, he would still earn a great fortune. It might even be a larger fortune because he has the love of his life at his side to assist in his rise.

Sir Walter would continue to exceed his income and need financial help to pay off his debts by the time Elizabeth was twenty-seven when the book begins. If the family kept a cool, but civil relationship with Elizabeth, the story would be fairly short. Sir Walter would appeal to his daughter and Wentworth for help. They’d loan him the money. The End.

Assuming the family had cut her out of their life, this new Persuasion becomes a story about how the Elliots try to bring Elizabeth back into the family and convince her to rescue them from their debts. She would want to help them, causing tensions with Wentworth as he’d vowed to hate her family forever for ostracizing his wife. Of course, he’d changed his mind once he realized the pain it caused Elizabeth and pay her family’s debt.

Mr. Elliot would still be a problem, but Elizabeth wouldn’t be as concerned with his designs as she’d have her own household to run and very likely a couple of children to look after.

In conclusion, different story. Same happy ever after.