“Anne could not refuse; but never had she sacrificed to politeness with a more suffering spirit” (188).

Sometimes it can be tiresome reading about characters with perfect manners and attitudes that robotically accept and agree with every rule of society. There’s nothing wrong with adhering to the rules of civilization -at least not in this case- but there has to be times when the rules become bothersome or at least inconvenient. This quote is an example of one the few times that we see Anne struggling with how she is expected to present herself in public. It shows that she is indeed human. She wants to continue talking with Captain Wentworth, but her cousin, Mr. Elliot, interrupts and requests that she help those who are in her party by translating the Italian of the concert. Throughout the novel, it seems that Mr. Elliot is always around. Evidently, Captain Wentworth agrees with this statement. However, for a while Anne doesn’t think anything of it until she does. Mr. Elliot’s intention was to marry her, and he was unaware that anything could be going on between Anne and Captain Wentworth. I do believe that the middle-class audience of this novel would have been persuaded by this small quote. As I said before, following rules can become tedious when it gets in the way of expressing oneself. There had to be men and women who wanted to articulate frustration with someone or even love, but it would’ve been seen as inappropriate to voice such thoughts. Both of these could apply to Anne and her eventual husband. Jane Austen was against public outburst of love and affection. This becomes obvious as we read through the novel and are forced to follow the painstakingly slow development of Anne and Captain Wentworth’s relationship.