Please join us for a discussion on Persuasion from Mrs. Clay's point of view. Specific questions will be added closer to the time.
1. Why do Elizabeth and Sir Walter befriend Mrs. Clay? Why do Lady Russell and Anne object to her friendship with them?
2. In this novel, what other instances of friendship do we see between people of different socioeconomic categories? How are those relationships presented as being similar to or different from Elizabeth and Sir Walter's relationship with Mrs. Clay?
3. What does Mrs. Clay think of Elizabeth Elliot and how does she manage her?
4. What can we infer about Mrs. Clay as a person? What biographical details are given to us? Who might she be, behind the personality she puts on to impress?
5. What would Mrs Clay have thought of Mr Elliot on her first few meetings and how do her feelings change?
6. When Anne joins the party at Bath, she is surprised by her own reaction to Mrs. Clay. Has Mrs. Clay changed in the intervening months, or has Anne? How can we tell?
7. Does Mrs Clay sense that Sir Walter is falling for her? Would Mrs Clay have observed Mr Elliot is courting Anne not Elizabeth? Would this affect her strategy?
8. Mrs. Clay's elopement with Mr. Elliot takes many readers by surprise. Is there any foreshadowing that such a thing might happen?
9. The narrator leaves it ambiguous, so let's speculate. Do you think that "his cunning or hers" will triumph? Will Mrs. Clay marry a baronet at last?
