“她的快樂源自於內”：珍‧奧斯汀《勸說》裡安‧艾略特孤單的幸福與獨立自主

＂Her happiness was from within＂: Anne Elliot's Bliss of Solitude and Self-Reliance in Jane Austen's Persuasion

Likely Jane Austen's most solitary, abject heroine, Anne Elliot suffers from indifference from her family circles and often has to supply useful employment to those around her. However, even though Anne Elliot may be Austen's most alone if not the loneliest heroine, she not only relishes her solitude the most but thrives in it. Through frequent solitary observation and reflection, Anne acquires critical faculty, moral discernment, and self-reliance, which attest to her superiority over her family, and eventually over Lady Russell and Captain Wentworth. Although Anne marries Captain Wentworth happily in the end, the looming doom of being a sailor's wife, uncertain of future wars and casualties, reveals that Anne's self-reliance is of the utmost importance in securing her own happiness. In Persuasion, the narrator deprives the reader of that gratifying, proverbial conjugal felicity at the fictional conclusion and suggests that Anne, as a sailor's wife, will have to be alone much, take care of most things herself, and be prepared for her husband's and her own volatile happiness and uncertain fate. Austen movingly and sympathetically embeds her advocacy for female solitude and self-reliance in the quiet, pensive, ignored, yet self-enlightening character of Anne Elliot. 安‧艾略特可能是珍‧奧斯汀作品中最孤單、卑微的女主角，不僅受到家人冷漠的對待也常得對週遭的人提供協助。然而，雖然安‧艾略特也許不是奧斯汀最孤單、最寂寞的女主角，她不僅最享受孤獨而且如魚得水。透過經常的單獨思考與省思，安得到判斷的能力、敏銳的道德辨識力、以及獨立自主的能力，也證實了她優越於自己的家人、羅素夫人、以及溫特沃斯船長。雖然安最後和溫特沃斯船長有情人終成眷屬，但身為水手之妻始終籠罩在未來不可知的戰爭、傷亡的陰影下，也因此突顯出安的獨立自主才是她保障自身幸福最重要的關鍵。在《勸說》中，敘事者剝奪了讀者在小說結局經常會得到令人滿意的完美幸福婚姻，且暗示安，身為水手之婦，得習慣孤單、獨自處理大小事、並隨時為自己和丈夫無常的幸福和不確定的命運做好準備。奧斯汀動人且感性地透過安、艾略特其安靜、深思、被忽略、但能自我開導的角色倡議女性的孤獨與獨立自主。