"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen Essay examples

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.

Historical information: From 1800 to 1815 the Napoleonic Wars took place between England and France and thus government censorship of literature proliferated so that Austen could not freely expose her identity

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in the small Hampshire town of Steventon, to George and Cassandra Austen. She had one sister, Cassandra, whom she was particularly close to. The Austens were often described as a close-knit family, often reading novels together and performing home theatre. The sisters were sent to Reading Ladies' Boarding School, to obtain a formal education. However, both girls contracted typhus, which nearly killed Jane. They soon returned home due to financial reasons. Austen’s education was said not to be as adequate as her brothers’, though the sisters developed their literacy through their father’s vast library.

Jane Austen’s life began in Steventon, Hampshire, England on December 17, 1775. Born the seventh child in a family of eight, Jane enjoyed a closely knit family life and cultivated an especially close relationship with her only sister, Cassandra (Baker 3). Jane and her sister

When Jane was in her twenties, she wrote her first three major works: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. She gave them out anonymously under the name "by a lady." The same lady who was the author of Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Emma but she published under her real name.

Jane Austens literary style uses an different approach different than that of the 19th century. “Far ahead of her time in the techniques of narration, especially in the control of point of view, Jane Austen, through her fidelity to life, her declination of character, and her ironic insight, produced sophisticated comedy, unsurpassed in the English novel.” (Magill) Advancement in her work allowed it to keep popularity, and still capture readers today. “We read Austen because she seems to know us better than we know ourselves, and she seems to know us so intimately for the simple reason that she helped determine who we are both as readers and as human beings.”(Bloom) Her ability to communicate with readers seems to be a compelling argument for her success, but her irony and humor have also served as a contribution. James Collins writes “Her ironies swirl and drop like the cast of a fly fisherman. This rhythmic motion seems to me ideal for both accepting and rejecting the ways of the wretched world while maintaining balance.” It may be difficult to understand how Jane is so able to relate even though she never married herself, but her unceasing concern for others is what gets her through the most. Austen had dealt with heart break, she lost a loved one unexpectedly “While away from Bath on a family vacation, Austen fell in love with a young churchman, who it was expected would propose marriage to her. He had received permission from the

Mrs. Dashwood – Mother of Elinor, Marianne and Margret. Is a romantic, wants the best for her daughters.

Some people might assume few women of nineteenth century England, were truly successful as authors. Jane Austen is an exception to that assumption. She was an independent lady who lived and died by her pen. Despite the obstacles she encountered in her lifetime Austen did not achieve success until after her death. Jane Austen may have lived a quiet and humble lifestyle, but her literary works have made a lasting impression on the lives of women of the 20th century.

The Austen’s were highly regarded in their town. Mr. and Mrs. Austen raised their children in a loving manner, which contributed to the strong relationship that the family possessed. Furthermore, Jane’s parents focused on education and provided their children with a plethora of books that stimulated their imaginations. The atmosphere in which she grew up in were perfect conditions for an aspiring writer. Jane and her sister Cassandra enrolled in boarding school as young girls. Here, they were formally taught

She began writing as A teenager she mostly famous for original american personally which influenced her poetry.Her writing

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in England. She was the second to last of eight kids and the youngest daughter of two. Her family was not poor nor were they very well off. They were more middle class. Growing up Jane went to a boarding school for two years then finished her education at home from her Oxford-educated father and her aristocratic mother. Jane’s love for reading and writing came from being able to read from her father’s collection of five hundred books. There she found out that books could take her anywhere and she wanted to write her own stories. She began writing in her early teens and finished three novels by age twenty-three. Having support from her family, Jane decided to try to publish her novels. She published them anonymous and got good and bad responses. She later rewrote some of her

One of the most commonly read and most devoted writers in the English literature, is novelist Jane Austen. Writer of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and two other additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and lastly the novel Sanditon. Austen’s novels acted as witty, warm and consisted descriptions of the favored classes of the 18th- and 19th-century in England. Jane’s most finely known novels were Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice and Emma, all three became favorites in the world of Hollywood.

Although Jane Austen is not flawless in her works, she manages to write brilliantly and successfully connects with her audience. This pleases many critics like Susan Fraiman who explains how Jane “was praised as a brilliant stylist, but one whose work was divorced from the larger concerns of the day and recognized as a critic of gender and class hierarchies”(Steinbach). Austen was one of the only females during the 1800s who was willing to speak for women and portray society’s wrongdoings. She mostly had a connection with women and was a harsh observer for the cultural limitations men had upon women during her era. For instance, in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and her sisters are pressured to get married to inherit the father’s estate and

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

Jane Austen's characters always undergo an event that morally changes their being. In Sense and Sensibility this moral change is obvious in Elinor and Marianne. The development of these adolescents into mature, reasonable adults is a gradual transformation seen in Sense and Sensibility. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy begin Pride and Prejudice as arrogant and biased adults and end the story as liberal minded individuals.