Midterm Written Celebration: Jane Austen

The first 200 words of this essay...

Maureen McKenzie

Jane Austen

Chesley

29 October 2008

Midterm Written Celebration

Mansfield Park: What role does sense play in character development?

Jane Austen used sense and sensibility as personality gauges for her characters within her novel. Sense was a measurement of a character's intellect, judgment, and self-knowledge, while sensibility was a measurement of emotions, taste, and responses. These characteristics are used to define characters as to their virtue in the Jane Austen world. The sense shown in the relationship between Edmund, Fanny, and Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park is an example of how Jane Austen uses sense and one's change in sense to define her characters' virtue and how the character's personal storyline turns out in the end.

Edmund Bertram is a character who fluctuates in his sense, but as long as he fluctuates back to good sense, he is worthy of a wedding in the Jane Austen world.

Fanny Price is the character who displays good sense. She displays intellect, good judgment, and has a sense of self; though by modern definitions her muteness would probably not be counted as such great sense. But the