#Louisa musgrove

[bookhoarding]

Don’t take leap day too literally.

[ID: Louisa post-fall in Persuasion. “happy leap day.”]

#jane austen #Louisa Musgrove #persuasion #leap year #leap day

[bethanydelleman]

Hi! Love your blog :) I saw your previous reply about Jane Austen and cognitive neuroscience and it reminded me of a question I have about Persuasion that still haunts me, which I can't seem to find a definitive answer for on the general internet. So after Louisa is injured, its like she undergoes a pretty massive personality shift, leading up to her falling in love with Captain Benwick etc. My question is, is that change (in your opinion) supposed to be a mental trauma reaction, or more of a physical trauma reaction? Like are we supposed to infer that the brain tissue injury changed her or is it more like, she was in mental shock and also an invalid with plenty of time to brood on her role in things and that's what resulted in her being in a state of mind to love some poetry & Benwick? I do wonder if the total personality change is temporary or permanent, because sometimes people who undergo near-death experiences often have mental trauma-based reactions including apparently 180 degree personality shifts, but those don't last and as they heal from the trauma, they become closer to their older selves. In Louisa's case that would make for an interesting dynamic in her married life with Benwick if she goes back to her earlier personality eventually.

I personally think Louisa and Benwick's marriage is the most questionable one in all of Austen's works! Forget age gaps, no one should be getting married a few months after major brain trauma... I mean unless they were already engaged... maybe.

These are the two quotes about Louisa after the injury that are important here:

She saw no reason against their being happy. Louisa had fine naval fervour to begin with, and they would soon grow more alike. He would gain cheerfulness, and she would learn to be an enthusiast for Scott and Lord Byron; nay, that was probably learnt already; of course they had fallen in love over poetry. The idea of Louisa Musgrove turned into a person of literary taste, and sentimental reflection was amusing, but she had no doubt of its being so. The day at Lyme, the fall from the Cobb, might influence her health, her nerves, her courage, her character to the end of her life, as thoroughly as it appeared to have influenced her fate.

and

He answered rather hesitatingly, “Yes, I believe I do; very much recovered; but she is altered; there is no running or jumping about, no laughing or dancing; it is quite different. If one happens only to shut the door a little hard, she starts and wriggles like a young dab-chick in the water; and Benwick sits at her elbow, reading verses, or whispering to her, all day long.” Anne could not help laughing. “That cannot be much to your taste, I know,” said she; “but I do believe him to be an excellent young man.” “To be sure he is. Nobody doubts it; and I hope you do not think I am so illiberal as to want every man to have the same objects and pleasures as myself. I have a great value for Benwick; and when one can but get him to talk, he has plenty to say. His reading has done him no harm, for he has fought as well as read. He is a brave fellow. I got more acquainted with him last Monday than ever I did before. We had a famous set-to at rat-hunting all the morning in my father’s great barns; and he played his part so well that I have liked him the better ever since.”

So firstly, Louisa was already into the navy and Wentworth, she has retained that interest. However, we will recall that Louisa's interest in the navy sprang to life in moments after meeting the handsome captain. But she's 19 years old, so sudden interests in things that a handsome guy likes are perfectly normal! I'm sure she's learned to appreciate poetry in all the time she had to be quiet and still.

Secondly, what Charles observes is likely lingering effects of brain trauma or what we might call post-concussion syndrome (Louisa had a worse injury than what is commonly called a concussion). Louisa's brain is still healing. She will probably begin to dance again at some point, depending on what damage is long lasting. This is the tricky thing with brains, permanent damage can be extremely varied. One person ends up with aphasia (trouble speaking), another with ataxia (trouble with muscle coordination), and a third with memory problems and so on. However, Louisa is young and her brain is still plastic (adaptable); hopefully she will recover completely without deficits.

Lastly, I included the part about Benwick being a great rat-hunter because we have to remember, he's not all poetry. He is in the navy, he is apparently competent to be promoted so early and we know he has a good fortune. He's a good guy, he's passionate, I'm sure he wants to make his wife happy.

So... I think they'll be fine. Louisa was going to mature no matter what, Benwick is a good person, and they will grow more alike. If not, navy wives weren't always able to travel with their husbands, so Benwick might be away for long periods of time and Louisa might be home with the kids.

But I still advise anyone to wait at least a year before marrying after a major brain trauma! (semi-expert advice, don't sue me)

#question response #jane austen #louisa musgrove #captain benwick #bad life decisions

[firawren]

#persuasion memes #persuasion #jane austen memes #jane austen #english lit memes #louisa musgrove #the cobb #my stuff

[gifshistorical]

PERSUASION (2022)

#persuasion #persuasionedit #persuasion 2022 #nia towle #mia mckenna-bruce #louisa musgrove #mary musgrove #perioddramaedit #weloveperioddrama #perioddramasource #mine #they were the best part of the movie

[nasty-bog-boy]

one thing i find funny (but probably shouldn't) about persuasion is that jane austen writes herself into a bit of a corner with regards to louisa musgrove and to get herself out of it she gives louisa permanent brain damage !!!!!!!!

wentworth himself admits all of the flirting prior to the fall has made everyone think theyre engaged (and possibly louisa thinks so too) and so he cannot pursue anne like he truly wants too because he won't jilt lousia.

and obviously jane austen needs to find a way for this couple to face obstacles but also end up together, so when shes got everyone convinced there something between wentworth and louisa she gives louisa a massive head injury that permanantly alters her behaviour. at the end of the novel charles musgrove tells anne that ever since her accident and coma louisa hates loud noises and twitches about and needs to be soother by captain benwick. obviously now we can read that as brain damage from her huge head injury.

idk theres just something so extreme about jane austen's most romantic and melancholy novel about reuniting with your lost love also featuring brain damage as a plot device to break up a potential relationship!!!!!! its bananas to me!

#persuasion #anne elliot #captain wentworth #jane austen #literal brain damage #lyme regis #louisa musgrove #the accident #persuasion novel #charles musgrove #mary musgrove #wentworth and anne #persuasion jane austen #jane austen books

[violaobanion]

LOUISA MUSGROVE'S OUTFITS in Persuasion (2022), requested by anonymous

#persuasion #persuasion 2022 #persuasionedit #janeaustenedit #perioddramaedit #perioddrama #perioddramagifs #pdgifs #moviegifs #filmgifs #weloveperioddrama #perioddramasource #louisa musgrove #nia towle #request #edits

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

Not to be mean or anything but Louisa Musgrove's actual fall is so funny in any filmed adaptation of Persuasion it's just like. Oh! Look at that full adult jump into open air when Frederick is clearly not ready to catch her, clearly she is going through her infomercial actor phase girl's gotta pay the bills I guess.

#persuasion #louisa musgrove #jane austen was a little to keen to make the fall Thematically Appropriate #and I'm over here like she doesn't need to be less headstrong she needs better motor skills

[haly-reads]

Louisa Musgrove, mid air, jumping from the stairs. She's so down to earth. I mean literally. 🥴🤦‍♀️

#louisaasaflyingpossum #persuasion #jane austen #austen #perioddramagif #period drama #perioddrama #persuasion 2022 #netflix persuasion #louisa musgrove #captain wentworth #anne elliot #books #lit memes #literature #studyblr #reading #english literature #classic literature #novel #studyspo

[peri0dicity]

Louisa Musgrove - Persuasion (2022)

#nia towle #louisa musgrove #my beloved #poc in period dramas #me trying to find positives about this movie #Persuasion 2022 #netflix #period drama #jane austen #lol #persuasion #perioddramaedit #my gifs

[rationalseries]

Captain Benwick and Louisa Musgrove through the Persuasion adaptations

#captain benwick #Jane Austen #rational creatures #louisa musgrove #persuasion #persuasion 2022 #persuasion 1971 #persuasion 1995 #persuasion 2007 #modern persuasion

[bethanydelleman]

Is there a symbolism in Louisa jumping off the Cobb at Lyme?

Louisa's jump off the Cobb is a culmination of the stupidity that her and Wentworth have been engaging in up to that point. He has been encouraging her to be headstrong:

My first wish for all whom I am interested in, is that they should be firm. If Louisa Musgrove would be beautiful and happy in her November of life, she will cherish all her present powers of mind.

She's be delighting in acceptable physical contact:

In all their walks, he had had to jump her from the stiles; the sensation was delightful to her.

And this leads to the inevitable, Louisa insists on doing something dangerous and will not hear opposition, she gets hurt while doing it. The opposition comes from the very man who had encouraged her to be headstrong.

Now is there symbolism? I don't know. Louisa the Hazelnut did not outlive the storms of autumn, she cracked her nut instead? Her head was not in fact strong? The admiral does actually make a few jokes about this so I'm in good company.

Anyone else see symbolism? I just see character driven narrative.

#persuasion #louisa musgrove #symbolism

[lochiels]

Captain Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove, PERSUASION (1971)

#this frederick is so sweet <3 #persuasion #persuasion 1971 #frederick wentworth #louisa musgrove #period drama #jane austen #austenedit #persuasionedit #persuasion (1971) #our gifs #our creations #perioddramaedit

[eurekavalley]

I'm trying to tease out why I love this little sequence so much, which starts with Anne eavesdropping while Louisa tries to persuade Henrietta to make amends with Henry Hayter. I think it's the stealth protagonist energy that it gives the Musgrove girls while Anne lurks in the bushes. The actress who plays Louisa in particular feels so right - she's fresh-faced and strong-minded (and I keep trying to pick out whether or not it's really her in the Mad Men pilot too? - she has so few credits), but not silly or callous.

I love that the film lets these scenes just kind of roll out of their dynamic. Louisa advocates for Henrietta and her happiness - which no one (Elizabeth...) ever did for Anne - but of course her success means that Wentworth is left for her. The two pairs of sisters in the scene have their own particular dynamics of dependence, dysfunction, control, and care.

I keep reading that Persuasion is impossible to translate to a modern setting because Anne doesn't have agency and seems passive. (Especially sketchy after reading critical interpretations of how Austen purposefully wielded *Wentworth's* inaction and passivity in the Bath chapters!) But imo it's more interesting to think about Anne's agency in relation to how Louisa acts, that they are stretched along an axis of what was possible for youngish women of their station at the time, along with Henrietta, Mary, and even Elizabeth and Sophia, along with all of us. We catch Anne at a particularly low point, but we see how Henrietta is influenced first by Mary, then by Louisa, until it's not certain what she really wants - echoes of Anne's story and how it's not always possible to *know* what the outcome of a choice will be. I think what we (the modern 'we') don't like to engage with, is the idea of Anne's seemingly lost window of opportunity to make her life what she wants, because it still applies more than we like to acknowledge in our era, although it wasn't and isn't absolute.

On top of that, the walk to Winthrop contains a reveal of Anne's agency to Wentworth. Her refusal of a highly respectable match with Charles is a huge strike in favor of herself and her own interests - the core question of the life she wants and the choices she is willing to live with. Anne does not say anything so dramatic here as the speeches Louisa makes to Wentworth, but her choice says, "I'd rather risk living in genteel poverty than commit myself for life to a man I don't love and close off any hopes of my own." (It's the beauty of the storytelling in the novel that we don't know what Wentworth makes of this revelation - whether he takes the Musgrove supposition about Lady Russell to heart or understands that there is more to Anne's choice - until the end of the book, where we learn that he has been living with that very question.

Thank you to Louisa for planting that seed.) So in this, Anne and Louisa are actually more alike than not, like the dark side and the light side of the moon.

I really like the sense of Anne in these scenes as one among many, playing against the ways she stands out to the reader and the moments when Wentworth singles her out with his attention and later with his praise. It brings out the romance in the story - that it's not necessarily virtue or character in the end that is the key to Anne moving on from her situation, she's not being rewarded for anything and there's no moral victory in it, it's just love and communication.

#persuasion 1995 #jane austen #persuasion #idk why this movie still has me in a headlock #oh well!!! #have my rambling #anne elliot #louisa musgrove #blah blah blah

[firawren]

The Louisa at the Cobb scene in a modern version of Persuasion:

#persuasion memes #persuasion #jane austen memes #jane austen #louisa musgrove #the cobb #english lit memes #literary memes #classic lit memes #brooklyn nine nine #b99 #gina linetti

[mametupa]

#Persuasion #Persuasion 2022 #Louisa Musgrove #Mary Musgrove #Henrietta Musgrove #Jane Austen

[gudvina]

I never thought there would be an adaptation that could make me prefer Louisa to Anne, and yet by making Anne whatever they made with her in the movie, i am almost certain my favourite character in this adaptation is Louisa who clearly is better than Anne or Frederick themselves.

#persuasion #persuasion 2022 #netflix persuasion #louisa musgrove #anne elliot #frederick wentworth #i promise even Mary was more likeable at times