Rationality and sensibility are essential parts of human’s life. The explanation of rationality in the dictionary is “based on clear, practical, or scientific reasons; sensible and able to make decisions based on intelligent thinking rather than on emotion ”. And the explanation of sensibility is “an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another ”. People always want to separate rationality and sensibility into two opposite things, even the dictionary says that rationality is “intelligent thinking rather than on emotion”. In the book Sense and Sensibility, each of the two female main characters, Elinor and Marianne, stand for rationality and sensibility, but both of them pass a difficult time when they being pure rationality or sensibility. There is an idiom in China called “things will develop in the opposites direction when they become extreme”, and this is exactly what should think about how to balance two consciousness. Being excessively rational or exceeding sensible cannot make things happen just as you want it will be. Finding a “balance” between them is the correct way to live as Jane Austen suggest in the book. Problems would happen while the “scale” of consciousness being amesiality, either the rational side or the sensible one. Excessively sensible makes people show everything exterior, including their weakness. But being exceeding rational cannot make the thing totally different, it just let people hide everything internal. According to these, a fulcrum between these two extreme is necessary.
Excessively sensible makes people brittle exterior. In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne, was a totally sensible character at first. Opposite to her elder sister, she is almost a compl...
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...d. New York: Anchor Books, 2011.
Becoming Jane. Dir. Julian Jarrold. Perf. James McAvoy, Julie Walters Anne Hathaway. 2007.
Sense and Sensibility. By Andrew Davies. Dir. John Alexander. Perf. Janet McTeer, Hattie Morahan, Charity Wakefield, Dan Stevens, Dominic Copper, Mark Williams, Claire Skinner, Anna Madeley, Daisy Haggard David Morrissey. Prod. Anne Pivcevic. 2008.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. GreenPenguin, 1996.
Spence, JoN. Becoming Jane Austen. New York: Continuum, 2007.
Walpole, Horace. Thinkexist. 2012. 09 5 2012.
http://thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation.asp?search=Walpole%2C+Horace
The information of when Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility and when was the first published come from
Jane Odiwe. Webring. 2012. 09 5 2012.
http://janeaustensequels.blogspot.ca/2009/10/sense-and-sensibility-first-published.html
In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, the necessity of marrying well is one of the central themes. In Austen’s era a woman’s survival depended on her potential to acquire an affluent partner. This meant a choice of marrying for love and quite possibly starve, or marry a securing wealthy person, there was a risk of marrying someone who you might despise.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin and adapted by Kate Hamill tells the story Elinor (Shanelle Leonard) and Marianne Dashwood (Emily Bosco) who represent sense and sensibility respectively. Both women have their respective love interests and express their feelings based on their personalities. Elinor is more restrained in displaying affection while Marianne openly expresses the fact that she in love. Societal rules of the time, such as marrying money, ruins the fantasy of love for both sisters. Elinor and Marianne both experience heartbreak and display their emotional distress. Elinor is reserved and bottles her emotions while Marianne allows her emotions to become physical ailments. Throughout the play various dramatic and production elements
By discussing the maternal figures in this work, I hope to illustrate the varying possibilities of what mothering and motherhood can entail in Austen, and what this curious spectrum of strengths and weaknesses means for the heroine involved. When discussing the mothers in Sense and Sensibility, it is only logical to begin with Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor and Marianne's mother. We meet her just a few pages into the novel, and are immediately told of her genuine and unassuming interest in Elinor's relationship with Edward Ferrars. Unlike most of Austen's mothers, Mrs. Dashwood is neither calculating nor preoccupied with a particular agenda for her daughters: "Some mothers might have encouraged intimacy from motives of interest...and some might have repressed it from motives of prudence... but Mrs. Dashwood was alike uninfluenced by either consideration.
The first of Jane Austen’s published novels, Sense and Sensibility, portrays the life and loves of two very different sisters: Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The contrast between the sister’s characters results in their attraction to vastly different men, sparking family and societal dramas that are played out around their contrasting romances. The younger sister, Marianne Dashwood, emerges as one of the novel’s major characters through her treatment and characterization of people, embodying of emotion, relationship with her mother and sisters, openness, and enthusiasm.
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is well noted for its ability to question social norms. Most importantly, Austen explores the institution of marriage, as it was in her time, a time where many married for security rather than love. Her characters Elizabeth and Charlotte are renowned even more for their outspoken nature and different views on marriage. Though both Elizabeth and Charlotte yearn for a happy marriage, Charlotte has a more pragmatic and mundane approach while Elizabeth is more romantic and daring with her actions. Through the romantic involvements of both Elizabeth and Charlotte, Austen shows that happiness in marriage is not entirely a matter of chance, but is instead contingent on an accurate evaluation of self and others
Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen is centred on characters that either gain self awareness and knowledge or possess none at all. Happiness is found even when one has no understanding of selfhood but the most happy and satisfied people in the novel are those who have self knowledge. People that possess self knowledge understand their strengths and weaknesses and characters that gain self knowledge are able to decipher these characteristics and act upon them. As marriage was seen as a great achievement for women in their society, happiness in Pride and Prejudice relates to whether one is happy or unhappy in their marriage.
In her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen brought to life the struggles and instability of the English hierarchy in the early 19th century. Through the heartaches and happiness shared by Elinor Dashwood, who represented sense and her sister Marianne, who stood for sensibility, Austen tells a story of sisters who plummet from the upper class to the lower crust of society and the characters that surround them. Austen juxtaposes the upper and lower classes in English society to give the reader a full understanding of the motivation to be a part of the upper class and the sacrifices one will give up to achieve such status. Austen exposes the corruptness of society, the significance of class and the fundamental building blocks both are to the decision-making surrounding her protagonists, Marianne and Elinor.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.
Austen was a recondite writer with a new inside perspective with an outside view on life in the early 19th century. Born on December 16, 1775, Austen was a curious child given the unseal luxury of an education. Her father was a part of the gentry class and raised a family of ten, but was not well off by any means (Grochowski). Sense and Sensibility, written by Jane Austen, tells a dramatic story of three sisters and their emotional journey where they encounter love and betrayal. Because Jane Austen was raised in a liberal family and received a comprehensive education, her dramatic analysis of societal behavior in Sense and Sensibility was comparable to the hidden truths of social and class distinctions in 18th and 19th century Europe.
Inspiration for her novels, like Pride and Prejudice, came from everyday life. She wrote in the family sitting room while life happened around her; thus, her novels do not depict fantasy or utopian family but an everyday family. Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice when she was twenty- one, but struggled to find a publisher. Because it was one of the first novels to deal with an entire family (Anderson 233), it was sixteen years before it was published. A major change she made to the book was the title, which was originally First Impressions. First Impressions underwent revisions to become Pride and Prejudice, but there is not any evidence which shows what was changed. Austen’s novels are popular, “due to the superficial impression they give of a secure and confident society, but hers was in fact a period of major social change, of increasing industrialization, and of fears inspired by the French revolution and a lengthy war with France in which two of her brothers were engaged” (Bottoms 1). Austen used what she witnessed and experienced to create a realistic and intriguing love
“No other English woman of letters ever lived a life so entirely uneventful…” (Tucker 509). Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in Steventon,
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. New York: WW Norton &. Company, 1996.
Jane Austen is known for her never ending satirical criticism towards England’s social stratification in “Pride and Prejudice” along with her other works. We see the difficulties Elizabeth Bennet faces with the marriage system and her social class rank that was faced by women all over the world. Elizabeth Bennet’s personality complexity breaks the women stereotype in this novel, showing how independent and logical they could be. “Pride and Prejudice” is a reflection of gender oppression and social roles influenced by Jane Austen’s life during eighteenth century England.
Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The novel Pride and Prejudice, is a romantic comedy, by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story about an unlikely pair who go through many obstacles before finally coming together. Pride is the opinion of oneself, and prejudice is how one person feels others perceive them. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, uses plot, the characters of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and the status of women and social standing, to portray the theme of the novel - pride and prejudice.
Fergus, Jan. “Biography.” The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen. Ed. Janet Todd.