Whilst Austen was writing, women were becoming more and more important in literature, both as readers and writers, so the cult of ‘sensibility’ was developing rapidly:
‘It is arguable that the novel’s success in exploring the private world, the subjective self, could never have been accomplished without the contribution to the genre of that introspective self-knowledge and sensitive perception of interpersonal relations that women’s domestic imprisonment had trained them to be so expert in. No man could ever have written Jane Austen’s novels.’ (Hawthorn 38)
The patriarchal society that Austen lived in meant that women were expected to obey their fathers and husbands. Middle to upper class women, such as the Dashwood sisters, had very little choices over how to occupy their time. They were expected to remain in the home and to learn skills which were seen to only be useful to appeal to a man, such as how to play an instrument, a language or how to draw.
We can see from the opening lines of Sense and Sensibility that the main theme of the novel is reputation and social status, as Austen starts her novel with, ‘The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate was large [...] where for many generations they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance’ (Austen 1). An economic value is placed on the Dashwood sisters’ attractiveness by the rationality of society’s views. However, this practical intelligence is shown in a positive light through Elinor, the heroine. The story of the novel is told through her eyes and she embodies all of Austen’s ideal qualities in a woman: she is patient, good looking and possesses a strong and realistic mind. Those who can appreciate her good nature admire her, but the more shallow characters such as Fanny Dashwood and Lady Middleton envy her. Elinor’s character is best shown through her distress when she discovers that Edward is engaged to Lucy. She does not envy Lucy, but instead is sad that Edward has ‘not even the chance of being tolerably happy in marriage’ (Austen 145). Elinor is able to analyse situations thoroughly before casting judgement, showing that she favours ‘sense’ over ‘sensibility’. When Elinor reveals Edward and Lucy’s engagement to Marianne, Marianne is shocked, exclaiming, ‘So calm! So cheerful! How have you been supported?’ and Elinor explains that she managed ‘By feeling that [she] was doing [her] duty’. Elinor’s selflessness can be seen when she says, ‘I did not only love him; - and while the comfort of others was dear to me, I was glad to spare them from knowing how much I felt. Now, I can think and speak of it with little emotion.’ (Austen 254) Some believe that Elinor’s sense is a masculine quality, and Mooreland Perkins ‘argues that the "gender dissonance" of a masculinised Elinor Dashwood and a feminised Edward Ferrars amounts to a conscious reconstruction of eighteenth-century gender stereotypes: Elinor's intellectualism and civic-mindedness appropriate traditionally masculine virtues, just as Edward's shy, retiring domesticity appropriates feminine ones.’ (Clark)
In contrast to Elinor, the excessively sensitive Marianne represents ‘sensibility’ as she shows extreme emotions and possesses an idealistic mentality. Her mind has been fed on romantic poetry and books, and on first meeting Willoughby, we learn that ‘His person and air were equal to what her fancy had ever drawn for the hero of a favourite story’ (Austen 40). Throughout Sense and Sensibility, Marianne’s rebellion against society’s standards of how a woman should behave nearly lead to her losing her honour, for example, when she agrees to give Willoughby a lock of her hair. The youngest of the sisters, Margaret, tells Elinor that she ‘saw him cut it off [...] Last night [...] he took up her scissors and cut off a long lock of her hair [...] and he kissed it’ (Austen 58). By giving Willougby a lock of her hair, Marianne commits herself to a man she hardly knows but without fully realising the seriousness of her actions, and we can see this when she assumes that the lock of hair Edward carries with him belongs to his sister. Marianne’s romantic nature can be seen through her love of ‘wildness’ (Austen 298) and taking long walks outside. This reminds us of the gothic genre’s representation of the sublime, for example, in Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian where Ellena takes comfort in ‘the sunshine landscape, which had long appeared to bound this shadowy pass’ (Radcliffe 63) as she is kidnapped and being transported to the convent.
Overall, it is obvious that the Dashwood sisters represent ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’. However, I do not believe that we can simply read this novel as a clear-cut comparison of extreme opposites as Elinor does not lack sentiment and Marianne is not utterly irrational. By the end of Sense and Sensibility the Dashwood sisters have found the right balance of ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ to be happy in marriage. Elinor marries Edward, a male representative of ‘sensibility’ and we can see this from how morally responsible he feels and how self sacrificing he is concerning Lucy. However, Edward’s ‘sensibility’ conforms to the constraints of his society, showing that he has the right balance of ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’. Marianne marries the male representative of ‘sense’, Colonel Brandon. Many believe this union acts as a punishment for Marianne having behaved inappropriately earlier on with Willoughby. This is shown when Willoughby tells Marianne, ‘There are some people who cannot bear a party of pleasure. Brandon is one of them.’ (Austen 62) However, in my opinion, though Brandon may at first appear dull, he is arguably the most romantic character in Sense and Sensibility. He falls in love with Marianne at first sight, partially due to her resemblance to the love of his life, who married his brother and whose daughter was treated appallingly by Willoughby. Brandon shows his ‘sensibility’ and concern for Marianne when he says that Marianne and Eliza’s ‘fortunes cannot be the same’ (Austen 201). Marianne and Elinor learn from their husbands and one another, the importance of balance between ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ in the society which they belong to and how to articulate sentiment whilst remaining dignified.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. London: Penguin Books, 2007.
Clark, Lorrie. "Reshaping the Sexes in Sense and Sensibility." JASNA. 1999. 5 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jasna.org/bookrev/br151p14.html>.
Forster, E. M. Howards End. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. 7 Feb. 2008 <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MFvrt38jCukC&printsec=copyright&vq=howards+end#PPR4,M1>.
Hawthorn, Jeremy. Studying the Novel. London: Arnold, 1997.
Radcliffe, Ann. The Italian. Oxford: Oxford's World Classics, 1998.
