In Austen’s novel, Persuasion, and Sterne’s novel, Sentimental Journey, both of the characters are having trouble making a decision. The passages that I have chosen were when Anne is trying to decide whether she wants to go see Captain Wentworth and when Yorik is trying to decide whether or not it is a good idea to invite Lady L into his carriage with him. Both characters first think things through and come up with reasons not to do it but in the end they always decide to just go ahead and listen to their first instincts and ignore the other thoughts.

            Different methods are used to get the characters thoughts across though. In Austen’s novel, Austen uses free indirect discourse to show the confusion Anne is going through. Anne is trying to go outside “to see if it rained. Why was she to suspect herself of another motive?” (Persuasion 129). We see Anne trying to make the decision by talking herself through it. Through free indirect discourse Austen is able to allow Anne to have the conversation with herself while also criticizing her for thinking this way. Anne wants to go outside just to see Captain Wentworth and catch him off guard but does not want to make it seem too obvious so she tells herself she is going out to see if it has rained or not. She is being made fun of by the narrator because the narrator believes that Anne should not be so weak and have to lie to herself in order to not seem like a young love sick girl.  

            Sterne uses the first person narrative in order to get his point across. In this passage Yorik is trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to invite Lady L. His first thought is to invite her but then his whole thinking process makes him second guess himself. He is telling himself that he knows “what scrapes the affair may draw [him] into,” or “You can never after…shew your face in the world,” (Sterne 19). He thinks this through but yet still ends up coming to the conclusion that he should take her with him.

Both narrators use two different methods in order to get their point across that both of their main characters have trouble making decisions and have think things through in order to finally decide what to do. Anne finally decides to go out and check the weather, while Yorik goes through the whole thought process only to decide to listen to his gut and ask her to go with him.