Mrs. Smith (née Hamilton) is a character in Persuasion. She is an infirm, helpless widow in reduced circumstances who resides in Bath during the novel. An old school friend of Anne Elliot, Mrs. Smith is high spirited and loves gossip. In character, she is elastic and adaptable to circumstances. Mrs. Smith is instrumental to revealing Mr. Elliot's motivations and past to Anne, and can be considered to represent one possible fate Anne might have had if she had married Captain Wentworth, instead of being persuaded otherwise.
Biography[]
Girlhood[]
Mrs. Smith first met Anne Elliot at school, where Anne had been sent after the death of her mother. Mrs. Smith, being three years older than Anne[1], cheerfully outgoing, and a more experienced student, was instrumental in assisting Anne climatize to the school environment and adjust from her grief. Mrs. Smith's home situation as a girl is described as "unsettled" and lacking in close relations. But unlike Anne, she had no alternate parental figures, like Lady Russell, to provide advice and guidance.
Marriage[]
The former Miss Hamilton married Charles Smith, a man of "warm feelings, easy temper, careless habits, and not strong understanding".
The young couple had a happy marriage and were part of a "thoughtless, gay set, without any strict rules of conduct," and they "lived for enjoyment".
During this time, the young couple became close and intimate friends with the then young and unmarried Mr. Elliot. At the start of their friendship, Mr. Elliot had been younger and significantly poorer than them, barely able to maintain lodgings and the appearance of a gentleman. The generous, spendthrift, couple considered him as family, inviting him to stay when he had lost lodgings, and treating him whenever they socialized, since the young Mr. Elliot could not afford it.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith were well aware that Mr. Elliot despised Sir Walter Elliot and, before his marriage, were frequently treated to his rants about how awful he and Elizabeth Elliot were. In response, Mrs. Smith often spoke about Anne Elliot in glowing terms, holding her up to Mr. Elliot as an idealized foil to her sister to show him not all Elliots are bad.
Unable to endure the Elliot's plans that he marry Elizabeth and become dependent on them as he waited for his inheritance, Mr. Elliot, (with the approval of Mrs. Smith,) sought out and then married his heiress wife, Mrs. Elliot. In doing so, he gained his freedom and a fortune. Mrs. Smith objected a little to the background of his choice in wife at first, but admits that Mrs. Elliot, whom she became friends with, was a fine, well educated, woman who loved Mr. Elliot dearly, and felt at the time that Mr. Elliot was doing the duty to himself of making the best chance.
Unfortunately for the Smiths, they had been living well above their income for quite some time, and it was as their young friend's wealth rose, that their own fell. They spent even more money attempting to keep up with their now extremely rich friend, Mr. Elliot, who did not return their previous favor of covering expenses or paying their debts. The Smiths begged friends for money, including Mr. Elliot, who refused to lend them any, becoming prudent in his wealth. Eventually, the couple bankrupted themselves and fell into ruin, shortly followed by the death of Mr. Smith, approximately 3 years before the events of the novel.
Since then, she held a profound dislike of Mr. Elliot[2].
Widowhood[]
Poor and ruined, a partially-disabled Mrs. Smith moved to Bath for reasons of recovering her health and saving expenses. She employs Nurse Rooke to care for her, who supplies Mrs. Smith with a great deal of gossip, learned from the nurse of Mrs. Wallis, wife of Mr. Elliot's best friend, Colonel Wallis.
Mr. Elliot was named the executor of her late husband's estate after his death. Mr. Smith left his wife and estate in a position of bankruptcy and ruin, so there were no funds or properties for Mr. Elliot to dole out. Mrs. Smith became convinced that her husband had additional properties hidden in the West Indies, which had previously been seized or frozen. The distance, lack of evidence, and dubious legal status of the properties mean if they even exist, a fact which is in doubt, recovering their ownership would be a feat of considerable complication, time, and expense. Mrs. Smith does not have the funds or capability to pursue the matter herself, and Mr. Elliot declined to take on the task, likely viewing it as fruitless. Mrs. Smith began to obsess over these properties as her means of salvation from poverty, and harassed Mr. Elliot endlessly to look into them with Mr. Elliot responding with growing harshness to the constant inquiries. Mr, Elliot eventually cut off all contact with Mrs. Smith, and the pair had not spoken in 3 years as of the novel.
After Mr. Elliot cut contact, Mrs. Smith began to resent Mr. Elliot to a profound degree. She blamed his example of profligate spending after becoming wealthy and refusal to lend the Smith's money for their financial ruin, and holds his refusal to look into the West Indies properties as the cause of her current lot in life.
Mrs. Smith and Anne became reacquainted after the Elliot's retrenchment from Kellynch Hall to Bath. Upon hearing through Nurse Rooke that Mr. Elliot has become infatuated with Anne and wishes to marry her, Mrs. Smith saw an opportunity, through Anne, to regain access to her wealthy former friend and use Anne to convince him to pursue the West Indies properties. She attempts to persuade Anne to marry Mr. Elliot by extolling his virtues and sincerity towards Anne.
When her plan is thwarted by Anne, who is uninterested in Mr. Elliot due to her recent revelation that Frederick Wentworth still has feelings for her, Mrs. Smith switches to condemning Mr. Elliot to her. Mrs. Smith provides letters where a young, pre-marriage Mr. Elliot insults Anne's father and sister, and her tail of woe about Mr. Elliot refusing to due his duty as executor resulting in her current state, after he caused the ruin of her husband by pressing him into expenditure. Mrs. Smith also reveals that Mr. Elliot's true motivations for coming to Bath was to scare off Mrs. Clay, thus preventing Sir Walter from remarrying and possibly producing a son who would supplant Mr. Elliot's current inheritance. His friend, Colonel Wallis, who resides in Bath, informed him of Mrs. Clay's scheming, and agreed to help him ingratiate himself to the Elliots in order to get close enough to remove the danger.
Despite her voiced dislike of Mr. Elliot, Mrs. Smith remains convinced that his affections for Anne are true and sincere, and, despite herself, admits he is an admirable and charming man with many good qualities, despite being on the cold and calculating side. Even after revealing Mr. Elliot's disdain for Anne's relations, Mrs. Smith continues to press the possible match as a good and beneficial one. Anne's opinion of Mr. Elliot is permanently altered by his insults to her family, revealed by Mrs. Smith, and she marries Captain Wentworth without second thought.
Following Anne's marriage to Captain Wentworth, he acted as an agent for her and helped secure Mrs. Smith's access to her husband's property in the West Indies. Her fortune and her health both improved, and she later visited the Wentworths at their marital home.
Relationships[]
Charles Smith[]
Mr. Smith was a very sweet man and husband. He was kind, but was easily led astray. Their marriage had been a happy one at first, until William Elliot had urged Smith to spend more than he ought, and to fall into vices[2]. Their marriage had been unhappy after that[1], although she did not blame him completely[2].
Anne Elliot[]
She helped Anne get out of her misery and grief over her mother while at school, forever endearing her to the girl. When Anne was a woman grown and staying in Bath, she visited Mrs. Smith, at first surprising her. It was awkward in the beginning, but they soon settled and became dear friends.
William Elliot[]
- "Mr. Elliot is a man without heart or conscience; a designing, wary, cold-blooded being, who thinks only of himself; who, for his own interest or ease, would be guilty of any cruelty, or any treachery, that would be perpetrated without risk of his general character. He has no feeling for others. Those whom he has been the chief cause of leading into ruin, he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction. He is totally beyond the reach of any sentiment or compassion. Oh! He is black at heart, hollow and black!"
- —Mrs. Smith to Anne Elliot; discussing Mr. Elliot[2]
Mrs.