Jane Austen Quote of the Week 272

Sorry for the delay in posting.

I have recently been doing an introduction to counselling course and it has been really eye-opening for me personally. We have covered very basic principles such as active listening and questioning but becoming conscious of these things and how we use them in everyday interaction has become really interesting.

I chose to look at communication in relation to some of our favourite novels and I was considering which characters are best to quote. My first is Lydia Bennett as she always has made me chuckle at her inability to listen and her total inappropriateness in communicating. The second quote is a favourite extract on this blog - the letter from Frederick Wentworth to Anne Elliot in Persuasion.

From Pride and Prejudice Chapter 39 Lydia Bennett is talking to Jane and Elizabeth and demonstrating her total lack of tact and comical communication.



``Now I have got some news for you,'' said Lydia as they sat down to table. ``What do you think? It is excellent news, capital news, and about a certain person that we all like.'' Jane and Elizabeth looked at each other, and the waiter was told that he need not stay. Lydia laughed, and said, ``Aye, that is just like your formality and discretion. You thought the waiter must not hear, as if he cared! I dare say he often hears worse things said than I am going to say. But he is an ugly fellow! I am glad he is gone. I never saw such a long chin in my life. Well, but now for my news: it is about dear Wickham; too good for the waiter, is not it? There is no danger of Wickham's marrying Mary King. There's for you! She is gone down to her uncle at Liverpool; gone to stay. Wickham is safe.''


The next quote is the perfect love letter from Frederick Wentworth to Anne taken from Chapter 23 in Persuasion. I used this for a valentines quote this year but I love it so using it again! Our other references on the blog have omitted the first line but this time its the most pertinent part related to communication. As part of the counselling training we have had to do numerous role plays just active listening with no use of language, it is so difficult, but incredibly effective to nurture a person to speak. Frederick Wentworth is feeling the frustrations of not being able to say what he is thinking and in this scenario it is magical when he does.

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W."

Pic: Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth