Captain Wentworth’s letter

Captain Wentworth is a naval officer, around 31 years old. He’s handsome, confident, ambitious. He and Anne Elliot fell in love when they were younger and became engaged, but she broke it off. Now he has met her again and despite his best intentions, he’s fallen for her again.. He writes her this letter to tell her how he feels.

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‘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.

“I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.’

Persuasion, chapter 23

Watch the extract below, performed by Arthur Wilson.

Teacher resources:

This document contains a large bank of tasks, intended to bring the enjoyment of Jane Austen’s works into your classroom. We suggest a pick-n-mix approach: choose the activities that will best suit your students and remove the rest! Some of the GCSE resources may suit more ambitious KS3 students and, in turn, some GCSE students may relish the challenge of tasks in the A Level section.

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