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“He is not at all a well-bred young man. I am sure you will not like him.”
“There we differ, Mary,” said Anne. “I think Lady Russell would like him. I think she would be so much pleased with his mind, that she would very soon see no deficiency in his manner.”
Anne and her family have different standards when it comes to defining a gentleman. The Elliots look to the peerage and historical significance of a person’s family connections to determine their worth. By contrast, Anne values a person based on their character. This quotation from Chapter 14 demonstrates the divide between these two ideals. Mary and Anne each have their own idea about how Lady Russell would feel about Captain Benwick. Whereas Mary dismisses him as ill-bred, Anne appeals to his intelligence and his conduct.
[Anne] had in fact so high an opinion of the Crofts, and considered her father so very fortunate in his tenants, . . . she could not but in conscience feel that they were gone who deserved not to stay, and that Kellynch Hall had passed into better hands than its owners’.
Kellynch Hall symbolizes Sir Walter’s status in society. It is proof of his heritage as a titled, landed gentleman, and his responsibility to maintain and eventually pass it down to his heir. However, in this passage from Chapter 13, Austen paints it as a moral failing that he would rather allow renters to take over Kellynch Hall than change his lifestyle to maintain it himself. Even though the Crofts only lease the estate, they take better care of it than Sir Walter, and they point out to Anne the improvements they have made. They are kind, generous, and pleasant company. The more Anne comes to know them, the more she sees Admiral Croft as a better gentleman than her father.
The truth was, that Elizabeth had been long enough in Bath to understand the importance of a man of such an air and appearance as his. The past was nothing. The present was that Captain Wentworth would move about well in her drawing-room.
At the beginning of the novel, Sir Walter, and by extension Elizabeth, are opposed to the presence of members of the navy in their house. Sir Walter does not like them because he thinks the rough conditions of sea-life make them ugly. More than that, he does not agree with the idea that a person can improve their own rank. By Chapter 22, however, Wentworth has proved popular enough in society that Elizabeth is happy to associate with him. She feels he has enough of a reputation, and enough wealth, to be considered a very respectable gentleman.
