Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen

Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, promotes a philosophical outlook. Against a background of squabbling families and a rogues gallery of nakedly self-interested individuals, the novel advocates rational thinking and orderly conduct as a way to achieve happiness. The novel’s heroines, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, learn that by keeping their passions in check, long term contentment and peace can be achieved.

It was Virginia Woolf who noted that Jane Austen was hardest to catch in the act of greatness. That is to say, there are no really outstandingly memorable quotes or characters in Austen’s novels, not like you would find, for example, in Dickens or Shakespeare. Yet great works of genius her novels are, and the further the reader becomes immersed in Austen’s finely etched prose, the more her extraordinary power becomes evident.

One of Jane Austen’s most outstanding qualities is her deeply penetrating character analysis. Jane Austen has an incredible ability to articulate every aspect of human character – our motivations, weaknesses, desires, and fluctuations in state of mind. This superb multi-layered analysis of character is then set against a backdrop of the intricate financial and social workings of society, adding further nuance and complexity. Austen often makes larger points about society through the descriptions of her characters. Here is a quote describing the crassly self-interested Lucy Steele:

“The whole of Lucy’s behaviour in the affair, and the prosperity which crowned it, therefore, may be held forth as a most encouraging instance of what an earnest, an unceasing attention to self-interest, however its progress may be apparently obstructed, will do in securing every advantage of fortune, with no other sacrifice than that of time and conscience.”

This is almost like something out of the Marquis de Sade. Those without moral scruples are sure to get ahead in society, Jane Austen suggests, although it should be noted that Lucy does not come to an entirely happy end.

Plot Synopsis of Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility was the first of Jane Austen’s major novels, and was published in 1811. The novel was originally written as a story entitled Elinor and Marianne, and read to her family in 1795. It was then rewritten, as Jane Austen did with so much of her work, as Sense and Sensibility. The novel contrasts two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and their different , almost opposing, temperaments. Elinor is the more rational one who strives to suppress her emotions, thus allowing her to more coolly appraise the world around her. Whereas Marianne is more emotional and passionate, which leads her to make serious errors of judgement. Elinor is sense, and Marianne is sensibility, that is, someone who is overly sensitive.

One sharp observation that the novel makes early on is that Marianne and her mother, Mrs Dashwood, are the types of people who frequently let their wild and hopeful imaginations take over, thus mistaking fantasy for reality. In chapter four we learn, “Marianne was astonished to find how much the imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth.” Austen here makes the point about how we are prone to let the emotional sides of our nature take over, and create realities in our mind that simply don’t exist.

Marianne soon finds herself hopelessly in love with the morally weak Willoughby, while the patient Elinor waits for the sensitive and ineffectual Edward Ferrars to propose to her. After having put Marianne through emotional hell, Willoughby is soon enough exposed as an irresponsible libertine.

Meanwhile Elinor is thrown off track when Lucy Steele confides that she has been engaged to Edward Ferrars for the past four years. Despite this, Elinor still thinks Edward is pretty much above reproach, although it’s hard not to draw the conclusion that he is an indecisive wimp, unable to stand up to his horribly controlling mother, Mrs Ferrars. But all comes out good in the end, the novel ending with both Marianne and Elinor successfully married.

More than love is achieved for Elinor and Marianne, however. Both had financially insecure futures, as most of the family money had passed to their half brother, John. (The parsimonious Mrs John Dashwood talks her husband out of a more generous income for his half-sisters, after John had promised on his father’s death-bed that he would look after Elinor and Marianne.) With marriage secured, the two women can take a step up in financial and social status.

Overall, Sense and Sensibility argues for a philosophic outlook on life. The novel is really more seen from Elinor’s point of view, and it shrewdly analyses in the minutest detail this small early nineteenth century English society. Even though Jane Austen writes that a certain amount of life’s happiness must necessarily come by chance, the novel on the whole argues that by living rationally, one may live happily. In fact, you could imagine the Dalai Lama endorsing the implicit moral precepts of the book.

The funny thing is, while Elinor and Marianne settle down into the well earned calm of married stability, giving up all the world’s trifling vanities, the novel doesn’t really paint family life in any cheery way. If anything, it shows families to be mean and full of petty politicking. Family, in Sense and Sensibility, provides no guarantee of loyalty or happiness. A lot of the time family works against the individual’s interests. Many of the mothers in Sense and Sensibility are quite mean, ridiculously so. Think of Edward’s mother, Mrs Ferrars, disinheriting her son, and John Dashwood’s wife arguing against making any provisions that are too generous for Elinor and Marianne.

The fathers are either happy-go-lucky in a rather disengaged way or altogether useless. Excepting Colonel Brandon, the men are generally nothing to sing home about. John Dashwood is pushed around by his bossy wife, Thomas Palmer is simply rude to his silly wife Charlotte, while Edward lives in fear of his controlling mother.

One wonders what Jane Austen’s immediate family circle made of these unflattering portraits that were surely drawn from reality.

Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen. Published by Penguin Classics. ISBN: 0-14-043047-4