Book Report - Sense and Sensibility 1.) In Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, the title is a metaphor for the two main characters Elinor and Marianne. Elinor represents sense and Marianne represents sensibility.We find out early that Elinor does not share her feelings. When Edward comes into the story, there was an immediate attraction. She tells no one of her feelings. It was just assumed that they are meant for each other. When Edward has to leave, Elinor says nothing.
Edward does promise he will come down and give Margaret an atlas. When the atlas comes and not Edward, the one who ends up crying was Margaret and not Elinor. We do learn, however, that Elinor can get emotional too. When Marianne was playing the piano at their new cottage, Elinor cries as she listens. She said the song was her late father's favorite. Later on in the story, Marianne kept on nagging Elinor for not sharing her feelings.
Finally, Elinor shows her emotions by telling her that she did have a broken heart after she found out that Edward had a fiancee - Lucy. Elinor would definitely represent sense. She keeps her thoughts to herself. Maybe it is because she thinks she will not end up hurting so bad as Marianne did.
Marianne, on the other hand, represents sensibility. She follows her heart. She does not let anything come in the way of showing her emotions. When she first met Colonel Brandon, it is obvious that he was in love with her at first sight.
Marianne, shows very clear that she was not interested in such an old man like him. However, when Marianne meets Willoghby, it was like a hero rescuing his princess. They fall in love with each other. Marianne does not hide her emotions about Willoughby to anyone, However, in the society that they were in, Willoughby did not think he could marry Marianne because of the social class. In the end, this almost kills Marianne.
As Marianne realizes that the Colonel has always been there, she falls in love with him. 2.) My favorite character is Colonel Brandon. I think in a way he is very much like Elinor. He does not show his emotions a whole lot, but he does talk to people about his problems.
There were so many instances when he asks Elinor about the relationship between Marianne and Willoughby. He was always depressed to hear and to know that there was no way of getting his lover from Willoughby. However, that does not stop his ...
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...old. I also learned that when things do not turn out the way we expected, or when things all the sudden turn down-side, we should react with calmness and composure and not just cry and burst out with our immediate feelings. Patience is the keyword.
With patience it is much easier to deal with painful situations. Most of the time, it turns out pretty well if you can think optimistically'. J6.) Yes, I am glad I read this book because it is one of the well-known classics. I see no harm only benefits in reading a book. Sense and Sensibility has given me a better understanding of the women and lifestyle during that time-period. Most of the women back then are pretty much like Elinor and Marianne.
Education for them wasn't viewed as highly as now. It seems their parents just want to marry them off to some rich and upper class man so that they may lead a luxurious life without bothering their parents anymore. Also, women back then are a lot more artistic than women now. Most of them play the piano "really" well; if not, they have some sort of other artistic talents. Personally, I'm glad I am born late in this century. I do not know how I could survive if I lived back then!!
The sisters also had different ideas of what to look for in a husband. Elinor was never specific on what she looked for in a suitor; h...
Gwendolen and Cecily act like air-heads and are easily won over by the men they plan to marry. Gwendolen simply wants to marry a man named Earnest. She tells Jack “my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest” (I.381-82). The mere idea of marrying a man for his name shows how easily Gwendolen can attach herself to a man. Marriage is the most serious of all relationships and Gwendolen is foolish to deter...
Darcy begins to reexamine his corrupt tone, motives, and the consequential end result of his proposal. In reviewing this, he has a change of heart and proceeds to assist in the reunion of Jane and Mr. Bingley and in the locating of Lydia from Wickham. Through these generous actions, Mr. Darcy proves he does care deeply about Elizabeth and his feelings for Elizabeth are true. Proposing a second time, Mr. Darcy completely changes his approach and therefore hopes for a different outcome. This second proposal catches Elizabeth off guard, yet she does have a more docile reaction than she did to the first proposal. Mr. Darcy’s true love for Elizabeth shines through in the sincere and loving tone of his proposal. Also, he apologizes to Elizabeth for his former arrogance, extreme pride, and rudeness in his prior proposal. Not only does his tone shift, he now has a new set of motives to support his proposal. Mr. Darcy explains to Elizabeth how fervently he loves her and how he does not care about money or social status as much as his love for her. Unlike the last proposal, he is not sure of what her answer will be, but this only causes the proposal to be more sincere. Mr. Darcy also does not want to pressure Elizabeth into marriage, so he tells her, “‘If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.’” (314). She then informs
In the Victorian era, courtship rituals were slightly different from modern time courtships. It started with couples speaking first, going out together, and finally they would keep each other company after mutual attraction was confirmed. The character Jack, in all his seriousness, refutes these rituals. Gwendolyn says “I adore you. But you haven’t proposed to me yet. Nothing has been said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on.” (Wilde, 622) This shows that Jack is ignoring the stages of courting and jumping right into marriage. Wilde is certainly satirically commenting on courting and how there really just has to be a mutual attraction. Upon Gwendolyn’s acceptance of his proposal, the problems with different social affairs begin to be unraveled. Gwendolyn says “I am told; and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence…” (Wilde, 622) In fact, Ernest's love for Gwendolyn seems rather arbitrary while Gwendolyn indirectly admits that she loves Ernest only for his name. This just adds to the satirizing of courtship because the girl only will marry him because he has the name Ernest.
Gwendolen confesses to Jack, or his confidante Ernest, “The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you” (10). That quote proved that Gwendolen’s drive to marry “Ernest” for him having the name Ernest, rather than marrying him for his character. Cecily also confesses something along the same lines as Gwendolen to Algernon, that even though she had never met him before she fell in love with him: “Well, ever since dear Uncle Jack first confessed to us that he had a younger brother who was very wicked and bad, you of course have formed the chief topic of conversation…a man who is much talked about is always very attractive…I daresay it was foolish of me, but I fell in love with you, Ernest” (32). She is led to believe that Algernon’s real name is Ernest. Cecily and Gwendolen are attracted to Jack and “Ernest” because of their histories. Gwendolen was excited to find o...
When the sisters experienced their first love, they each expressed their feelings very differently. When Elinor first met Edward in the beginning of the movie and started to fall in love with him, his character developed into a caring, kind and gentle one. When Mrs. Dashwood was talking to Franny on the porch, watching Edward and Elinor walk together, Franny said to her, "Should he plant his affections in less than exalted ground." Franny lead o...
lucy steele plays a major role in sense and sensibility as she is the climax of the plot as she had already been engaged to edward for 5 years which conflicts elinors love for edward as welll as edwards love for elinor. lucy steele's character is a support character for elinor dashwood due to the fact that elinor is able to show her sense while lucy tells her about her engagement to edward and elinor also gets to show composure when telling edward about the help that colonel brandon was giving to edward and lucy so that they may be wed without many issues as before. auste utilizes lucy in such a way as to give edward a double identity by showing that edward has secrets as well as showing some conflict in edwards character as well by submerging
She is constantly doing the opposite of what is expected of her. She falls in love with Ernest against her mother 's will. In the Victorian age, men were chosen for the women to marry by their families. She is flirty and very outgoing when it comes to what she wants. Gwendolyn 's obsession with a man her mother does not approve of is not a norm in her societal role. Gwendolyn also has a habit of going against her mother Lady Bracknell 's rules. She is forbidden to talk to Ernest, but she goes to the country and sees him nonetheless. "Ernest, we may never be married. From the expression on mamma 's face I fear we never shall. But although she may prevent us from becoming man and wife, nothing that she can possibly do can alter my eternal devotion to you." (The Importance of Being Earnest line 270-272) Along with her misbehavior, she talks back to her mother, which is not expected of daughters to do back then. Gwendolyn falls in love with Ernest even though he is not as rich as her, this is another abnormal thing in Victorian times. Many women are drawn to more wealth than they have. In her case, she was drawn to the complete opposite. Gwendolyn may have been raised by a perfect Victorian woman, but she is drawn to a more modern way of
Each of us is a complex mixture of polar opposites, the most primary of which being the division between right brain and left brain, or, more commonly, "heart and mind." Austen's technique in this novel is that of eliminating altogether the corpus callosum, thus juxtaposing the two halves into a "binary opposition," a split between the heart that throbs and exults and the mind which ascertains and evaluates. Marianne is, of course, the heart of the novel, Elinor the mind. Moreover, the remaining characters, too, fall within one of these two categories. I have arranged the most important figures of the novel in this way:
Throughout Jane Austen’s, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennett faces many challenges to realize that she was in the wrong and her prejudice against Mr. Darcy was misguided. Austen emphasizes the importance of wisdom through Elizabeth who faces the challenge of overcoming her prejudiced judgement to reach maturity and recognize the man she loves.
What role does gossip have in society? What significance does it have in the formation of both disputes and disclosures? Gossip is commonly believed to be a cause of conflict between individuals in society; however, one can assert that it can also be beneficial via means of influence. In being influenced, people can harness the gossip for their benefit. Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility approaches gossip in a way that shows how it can both resolve and initiate conflicts within the novel’s plot. By exemplifying gossip from this approach, Austen’s novel encapsulates it’s both detrimental and beneficial uses. Gossip exacerbates emerging conflicts because of the both positive or negative influences it has on characters’ perceptions of each other. I will argue that the novel uses conflict-causing and conflict-resolving properties of gossip as a device for moving and turning the plot, demonstrating that to understand the novel, we have to also understand that social conversations, even the most idle and frivolous ones, are what push the plot; the things that are most important in Austen’s world — reputation, marriage, social relationships — are extremely vulnerable to influence by gossip. In this essay, I will analyze three moments of gossip that exemplify consequences of conflict-causing, conflict-resolving, and both, respectively.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Elizabeth cries for a half hour afterward and retreats to her room when everyone returns home. Elizabeth collapses and cries from weakness as a result of what has passed.
"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. It was enough for her that he appeared to be amiable, that he loved her daughter, and that Elinor returned the partiality" (13).
In a man, Marianne seeks a lover and a connoisseur, whose tastes coincide with her tastes. He must be open with feelings, read the same books, and be charmed by the same music (15). Marianne seeks a man with all of Edward’s virtues, and his person and manner must ornament his goodness with every possible charm (16). Marianne’s mother relates Marianne’s maturity beyond her years by reminding Marianne “Remember, my love, that you are not seventeen. It is yet too early in life to despair of such an happiness (16).”
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.