“Taste in Noises”: Registering, Evaluating, and Creating Sound and Story in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

This essay examines the focalization of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and argues that the ear (and not the eye) of Austen’s heroine, Anne Elliot, primarily guides the novel’s narration. Furthermore, this essay revises conceptualizations of Anne “as a listener” by tracing the parallel changes in Anne’s relationship to sound and the development of her character. Listening does not define Anne’s character; instead, changes in Anne’s character define how Anne listens. Anne’s aural attention shifts as she transforms from a passive auditor to an involuntary commentator, an evaluative analyst, and, at the novel’s close, a creator of sound and story.