“Persuasion” (post 2) by Jane Austen (post 5): Austen describes her protagonist as having double consciousness, each part with its own opinion

“Captain Wentworth must be out of sight. She left her seat, she would go, one half of her should not be always so much wiser than the other half, or always suspecting the other of being worse than it was…He was more obviously struck and confused by the sight of her, than she had ever observed before; he looked quite red…Still, however, she had enough to feel! It was agitation, pain, pleasure, a something between delight and misery (Vol. II, Ch. VII, 1., p. 332).

Two halves with opinions of each other and contrasting feelings suggest double consciousness (multiple personality) (each alternate personality seeming to have a sense of itself, with a mind and opinion of its own).

Am I taking the author’s words too literally? No, I am respecting the author’s ability to have chosen her words and said what she meant.

1. Jane Austen. Persuasion [1818]. Annotated by David M. Shapard. New York, Anchor Books, 2010.