A Woman's Strength

In many of Jane Austen’s novels, women are often portrayed as very passionate and strong characters, much more so than the men. The novel Sense and Sensibility, in particular, contains multiple female leads that display different aspects of a woman and her approach on life’s many decisions. Elinor Dashwood, for example, made her decisions and acted on her sense, making her a strong character especially when her emotions are tested. Marianne Dashwood, on the other hand, made all of her choices solely based on her emotions rather than sense, which is what made her seem weak as her emotions were tested win the book. Even with these two very different mindsets between the two sisters, Austen also placed a lot of cunning women into the story such as Lucy Steele and Fanny Dashwood that display how strong and zealous women can be compared to men.

One of the multiple reasons women are described throughout the ages as weak is because they are known to be incredibly emotional. Though this trait is evident in all women, it does not necessarily indicate that all women are easily disabled by their emotions. This seems to be a huge point made in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. She not only included a character who was practically controlled by her emotions, but also a few other female characters that were very smart and didn’t allow their feelings to dramatically affect their demeanor. Marianne Dashwood was one of the weaker women because of her reaction to Willoughby’s mysterious departure, and finding out later he left her for a richer woman. Rather than using the company of others as a distraction, Marianne made Willoughby her focus as she wrote letter after letter to him when she hadn’t heard from him. She also had difficulty composing her...

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...at her lover, Edward, had been engaged to the ruthless Lucy Steele for four years. Her heart ached when she heard this news, but Elinor did not let her emotions overwhelm her and cause a dramatic affect on her behavior when she was in public. In fact, Elinor continued to bear Lucy’s continuous talks about Edward, and even kept this painful secret to herself. Elinor knew that there were other people involved other than herself, so she knew that pining over Edward’s engagement like Marianne did with Willoughby would hardly do her any good. This mindset not only proved how strong Elinor was as a woman, but also sets a beautiful example for young women even today. Her character is an excellent role model to women today because she displayed a fantastic amount of self-control when it came to her emotions, and dealt with the situation regarding Edward and Lucy very wisely.