Thank you Robbin for bringing forward these excellent comparisons - right and wrong indeed!

There are any number of charcaters in PERSUASION to look at - and now I will have to give some concerted thought to see if I can come up with more parallel (or nearly so) situations. It is easy to think well of the "good" characters, and see the ridiculous in the others, but I wonder if we can find some not quite right ways about some of the people we like.

I think we could find examples of Lady Russell, Mrs. Smith, Charles Musgrove, even Captain Wentworth, behaving in ways that they should be above, given what we know of them. Anne is sterling, to be sure, and I don't mean to say she acts wrongly, but I wonder sometimes if she is not a little too long suffering. Bless her for finding some joy in doing her duty, but was she somehow not living up to the excellent mind and character that Wentworth has admired all these eight years and a half?