Comparing Reinstein's Essay 'Sense And Sensibility'

In Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, the themes sense, and sensibility critically capture women in the 18th century. In the novel we can see two main characters portray themselves on opposite ends of the spectrum. To understand the ideologies, present in the woman sex one can use Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Existential Paralysis of Women” that outline how women are controlled in society. In “Sense & Sensibility” we can see how gender is shaped by social constructs and how it determines one’s disposition like mentioned by Simone de Beauvoir.

In this romantic fiction, Austen illustrates the courtship of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy taken place during the late 18h century. Written in a period of political crisis and social mobility, Austen’s skillful use of romance shapes her detailed analyses of social class, which addresses the moral values and manner of behavior taken place during the regency period. Austen is one of the first female authors to have shaped a character during a century where women where restricted, later portraying how women are looked at for centuries. In Pride and Prejudice, she introduces Elizabeth Bennet, who is a well-read and intelligent individual out of her five siblings. Pride is also an important issue that Austen depicts through her characters.

Often, two people who have endured similar life experiences and share an unmistakable parallel in lifestyles can be viewed as duplicates of one individual. In Sense and Sensibility, the two main characters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood can be seen as two extensions of the same character. The sisters are relatively close in age, grew up with the same social expectations of the same time period and household, and they evidently experienced similar childhood and family trauma and problems. Although it could be argued that they are the same character, these young women are very different from each other, in respects to their roles and practice of responsibility, their display of emotions, and openness to love. Jane Austen has cleverly titled

This article analyzes the way Austen portrays women in her novels. Kruger mentions that Jane Austen’s work is often deprived by the

Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels written by Jane Austen. This romantic novel, the story of which revolves around relationships and the difficulties of being in love, was not much of a success in Austen's own time. However, it has grown in its importance to literary critics and readerships over the last hundred years. There are many facets to the story that make reading it not only amusing but also highly interesting. The reader can learn much about the upper-class society of this age, and also gets an insight to the author's opinion about this society. Austen presents the high-society of her time from an observational point of view, ironically describing human behavior. She describes what she sees and adds her own

    "Like all true literary classics, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is still capable of engaging us, both emotionally and intellectually" (Twayne back flap) through its characters and themes. This essay illustrates how Jane Austen uses the characterization of the major characters and irony to portray the theme of societal frailties and vices because of a flawed humanity. Austen writes about the appearance vs. the reality of the characters, the disinclination to believe other characters, the desire to judge others, and the tendency to take people on first impressions.

Throughout history, relationships between people have been questioned based off what people have heard or seen. Jane Austen writes the love story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, that have conflicts when it comes to their relationships caused by miscommunication. In Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen reveals the danger of making judgements on insufficient information through relationships between the characters. Miscommunication creates confusion and a mix of emotions from the characters.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin was a moralistic novel depicting the two main forms of attitudes at that time; the neo -classics and the romantics. The period in which it was written, nineteenth century England, was laden with social etiquette and customs imposed on people of that time; and thus the characters of Jane Austin's novels. The novels' two main protagonists; Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, exemplify the Neo classical era and the romantic era, respectfully. Jane Austin instils Neo-classic and romantic ideals in Elinor and Marianne as to present a view of each attitude and to further enhance the discrepancies of social nineteenths century England.

Sense and Sensibility written by Jane Austen is a novel that does not only deal with two sister’s love matters, but how two dissimilar personalities respond to society and love. The theme of “society vs. sense” is existed throughout the novel because it is concerned with the ruling of one’s feelings, or the incapability to do so. Declaring love for someone, nurturing one’s self and not caring what people think is important in expressing this kind of “social duty.”(Pam Morris, 43) This kind of theme is always present, with some dramatization, within Emma Thompson’s 1995 film adaption. Literary critic Deborah Kaplan argues that Thompson’s film adaption demonstrates “harlequinization”, where the narrative structure of the “mass-market structure”, where a lot of people really like them, it focuses on a hero and a heroin’s courtship at the expense of the other characters and experiences. Kaplan is stating that the film is negative because some characters are underrepresented. She’s right, but at the same time it is to be expected because it is a film adaption. I argue that Kaplan is right, the film adaption does demonstrate this “harlequinization” to the point where it ignores all the important scenes within the novel such as how the Dashwood sisters are represented, Marianne’s rescuers Willoughby and Colonel Brandon in contrast to the novel.

Willoughby and Marianne sparks an interesting relationship. Marianne is enthralled with the charming, handsome, and intelligent man who carried her down the hill in the rain. “His manly beauty and more than common gracefulness were instantly the theme of general of admiration.” (Ch. 9 pg. 40) Marianne already the constant romantic, finds him to be everything she could hope for. “His person and air were equal to what her fancy had ever drawn for the hero of her favorite story.” (Ch. 9 pg. 41) It is at this point in the novel when the reader begins to realize the meaning behind the title Sense and Sensibility. The two protagonists, Elinor and Marianne, represent sense and sensibility. Elinor’s personality and relationship with Edward is certainly sensible, while Marianne is more emotional and passionate, as reflected by her budding relationship with Mr. Willoughby. Every once and a while there is a clash between “sense and sensibility” through the two sisters. As the novel progresses perhaps Austen will reveal whether reason can influence emotion, vice versa, or if they both influence each other throughout the sister’s

Austen’s novels have always been lauded for their social commentary and critique. The most common issue they depict is the dependency of women in society upon men, specifically their reliance on marriage as a source of income. The characters of Marianne and Elinor in Sense and Sensibility are two such characters, who due to their estate and income being inherited by their stepbrother, are left to their own devices of securing a favorable marriage. The two sisters, so different in character, mirror the contrast of the depictions of interiors and nature in the novel. The free-spirited

Jane Austen's 1811 novel "Sense and Sensibility" puts across an account involving two English sisters who come across a series of hardships in their endeavor to find their personal identities in a relatively hostile environment. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are forced to leave their home, the estate at Norland Park, consequent to their father's death. The two experience economic problems and come to see the world with different eyes as they move in a small house and as they interact with people who are primarily motivated by finances. Even though the two sisters have diverging personalities, they go through similar experiences and they come to have similar perceptions of society.

Love comes in many shapes and forms, whether it’s an inanimate object or a person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Jane Austen’s novel, “Sense and Sensibility”, revolves around two sisters who try to find true love, while requiring a balance of reason and emotion. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are viewed as two completely different people. Elinor is known to represent “sense” while Marianne represents “sensibility.” In the novel, Jane Austen emphasizes two common women’s characteristics, and shows us how Elinor and Marianne both find love and happiness only by overcoming their struggles and learning from one another’s actions and mistakes.

The novel Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen explores many aspects of everyday and long term life. There are many characters that show different emotions and ideas, and cause the book to become real in the mind, because of the similarities found between the character’s lives and others. These people such as Marianne, Elinor, Willoughby, and Lucy all present different personalities and contribute differently to the composure of the book, and the way the storyline was made. One major aspect of the book is love with its benefits and downfalls, and is arguably the heart of the book, as this is almost constantly a present topic.

Jane Austen's groundbreaking novel Sense and Sensibility is a relationship-driven account of female protagonists. Sense and Sensibility shares much in common with other novels by and about women. Themes like autonomy versus independence and the role of women in a patriarchal society are explored in Sense and Sensibility. Using two sisters to symbolize the different directions the female spirit can be pulled, Austen shows the variable ways women respond to political, social, and economic oppression. The women of Sense and Sensibility are both trapped by, and breaking free from, the conventions of marriage and motherhood. Marriage and motherhood are portrayed ironically as the natural course of women's lives, but also as the chain that prevents their self-fulfillment. The social norm of patrilineal inheritance leaves Elinore and Marianne Dashwood, and their mother, penniless and dependent on distant male family members. Marriage and motherhood are restrictive roles for women, and yet Austen never provides a satisfactory alternative for Marianne. Marianne seems willing to break free from patriarchal social norms, but she ends up being a slave to heterosexual romance. The message in Sense and Sensibility ends up being rather bleak: women remain socially, economically, and politically oppressed because they cannot envision or enact suitable independent alternatives.