1. Is Sir Walter Elliot a true villain, or simply a victim of his own vanity?
2. Is Mrs Clay’s temperament and approach to survival more akin to Charlotte Lucas’s pragmatic realism in Pride and Prejudice or Lucy Steele’s manipulative opportunism in Sense and Sensibility?
3. In what ways do Mrs Clay and Mr Elliots personalities, ambitions, and methods of social advancement mirror one another? How do their strategies for manipulating the Elliot family differ?
4. Why has Mr Elliot changed his view on the baronetcy and are there any other reasons to try to stop Sir Walter marrying and producing a male heir?
5. What would have been the key factors why Mrs Clay choose to become Mr Elliot’s mistress. Are there potentially any hidden reasons?
6. Is Mr Elliots courtship of Anne purely to discourage Sir Walter from re-marrying or is there genuine admiration and emotional connectivity?
7. What separates Mrs. Clay’s ambition from Lady Russell’s social calculation to convince Anne to marry Mr Elliot?
8. What social, financial and psychological risks do Mrs. Clay and Mr. Elliot each incur when Mrs Clay is established in London under his protection?
9. Aside from Mrs Clay and Mr Elliot, which other characters in Persuasion use emotional or social manipulation exploitatively?

Mark Teltscher

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