It had been a while since we got a movie that broke the fourth wall for the audience. Movies where actors’ performance from a first-person perspective are not just interesting to go on listening to as a story but also captivates our mind and speaks right through our subconscious mind. Netflix now has such a piece of art streaming currently all across the globe since the 15th of July. Persuasion star Dakota Johnson adds it to the list.

Dakota Johnson featuring Persuasion breaks the fourth wall for the audience

Dakota Johnson featuring in Jane Austen’s adaptation movie, Persuasion is basically from the first person’s point of view. Though Anne Eliot (Dakota), the main lead of the movie, doesn’t narrate the entire storyline herself, it’s mostly through her eyes that we get to know about the details. A clear example of this is the scene when they see Captain Wentworth through the window and this gets Anne all elated. She doesn’t add anything to it but rather leaves it to the audience to see witness Anne’s actions. While in the scenes where she is not present, we find out about those occurrences only when Anne hears about them.

There are many such movies and shows currently on Netflix where the actors see right into the camera lenses and break the illusion of fantasy. One of such all-time favorite movies featuring Brad Pitt is Fight Club. Edward Norton’s character often speaks into the camera and so does Brad’s Tyler. No one forgets about Jim from The Office when it comes to breaking the fourth wall. Also in Enola Holmes where Enola directly looks into the camera to communicate with the viewers.

Contrasting narrative techniques and styles used by Jane Austen in her novels

This was Jane Austen’s last novel, soon after which the writer met with her death. Most of her works seem to manifest Ms. Austen’s narrator’s point of view. At times they even create a delusion that seems as if it’s Jane herself who’s speaking to us through the pages/screen. To be precise, she uses third person narration and free indirect discourse in her novels. This is most probably to show that no matter how dominant or powerful her female leads are, they are all vulnerable to certain situations.

Almost all of her novels have become motion pictures primarily home to Netflix. All of them maintain a similar line of plot of social conventions, family stories, and marriage. Each of them has the pivotal female lead around whom the entire story revolves. Let it be Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice, Anne Eliot from Persuasion, Emma Woodhouse from Emma, or Catherine from Northanger Abey, they all personify woman empowerment which is basically the principle of Jane Austen’s works.