" Anne Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty, and mind, to throw herself away at nineteen; involve herself at nineteen in an engagement with a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connexions to secure his farther rise in that profession; would be, indeed, a throwing away..." (Austen, 27).
Anne gave up her happiness for a chance to remain in the same society she had grown up in and been prepped for. Austen is showing that she regrets her decision, at least slightly. It was unfortunate that she had to choose a more profitable marriage over someone she could of been truly happy with. Austen is also foreshadowing the future plot of the novel. By bringing up this past conflict of Anne's early in her novel, a reader can guess that the conflict isn't resolved and will be an important plot in the book.
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foreshadowing?
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