Austen's narration of Sanditon is highly fragmented compared to her other novels. Chapter 4 unfolds with Charlotte as the observer of Mr. Parker's ramblings, but this particular paragraph seems to be free indirect discourse via Mr. Parker's perspective. Austen usually adheres to an interplay of narration between her heroine and the speaker (Ex. Elizabeth of Pride and Prejudice and Fanny of Mansfield Park), yet Sanditon is less defined and balances several different perspectives.

This exchange demonstrates the dynamics that characterize the Parker's relationship. Mr. Parker is domineering, while Mrs. Parker is passive. Austen uses their relationship to explore married life, similar to her characterization of the Gardners of Pride and Prejudice or the Westons of Emma as positive examples, and the Bennetts of Pride and Prejudice as a dysfunctional example.

Modernity and fashionability are desirable characteristics that Mr. Parker is actively trying to cultivate in Sanditon. This is a marked departure from the value system that is practiced by characters in previous Austen novels. Pride and Prejudice's Darcy or Northanger Abbey's General Tilney are concerned with a preservation of inherited wealth and status, rather than the active generation of new wealth.

Here Austen gives her readers the details of a rather scandalous encounter. In previous novels, the rules of courtship were broken off stage, only to be recounted later (Marianne and Willoughby, Lydia and Wickham, Maria and Henry). However, in this moment, the heroine is the sole witness of an unchaperoned visit, leaving the reader to wonder what plot Austen was planning to develop.

The setting of Sanditon is unique from the settings usually featured in Austen. Most of her previous novels take place at large stately manors, symbolic of the wealthy and titled gentry class. Sanditon, however, is a location that is being actively developed, much like the rising middle class that is uniquely featured in Sanditon.

:)