Marriage is thought about and figured variously by the different characters in Persuasion. For Elizabeth, she pursue Mr. Elliot because he is the means of enhancing her fortune. In assessing him as a future mate, this seems to be the sole criteria she employs. Such a view would imply that to consider other factors is not worthwhile. Clearly, marriage is not looked to for companionship or emotional intimacy.
While Elizabeth and her father's view of marriage is fairly uniform and simple, Lady Russell's views seem equivocal. When Anne is courted by Frederick the first time around, Lady Russell fears Anne will be "sunk by him ino a state of most wearing, anxious, youth-killing dependence"(30). I'm not sure if the state alluded to is necessarily marriage, but it would seem to be so. However, later, she expresses a different conception of marriage. After Anne turns down Charles Musgrave, Lady Russell "began to have the anxiety which borders on hopelessness for Anne's being tempted....to enter a state for which she held her to be peculiarly fitted by her warm affections and domestic habits"(32).
Note-
There is much reference made in Persuasion to natural and unnatural. Anne looks back at her youth and concludes, "She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older-the natural sequence of an unnatural beginning"(33). Such language evokes scientific types of discourse and express a desire for predictable patterns.
Natural is what people expect and others affect in accordance. Everybody's day has a natural pattern. Thus, when the Crofts visit Kellynch Hall, Anne "found it most natural to take her almost daily walk to Lady Russell's, and keep out of the way till all was over; when she found it most natural to be sorry that she had missed the opportunity of seeing them"(34).
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