Sense and Sensibility
Uploaded by Admin on Mar 01, 1999
In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility the title is a metaphor for the two main characters. Marianne who represents Sensibility, and Elinor who represents Sense.
We find out early on that Elinor does not share her feelings. When Edward comes into the story there is an immediate attraction. Elinor tells no one of her feelings. It is just assumed that they are meant for each other. When Edward has to leave Elinor does not say anything. Edward does promise he will come down to there cottage and deliver an atlas for Margaret. When the atlas comes and not Edward, the only one who ends up crying is Margaret and not Elinor. We do learn however that Elinor can get emotional. While Marianne was playing the piano after they had moved to the cottage, Elinor starts to cry as she listens. She said the song was her late fathers favorite. Later on in the story when Elinor and Marianne are in London, Marianne continually gets on to Elinor for not sharing her feelings. Elinor finally shows her emotions when she tells Marianne she did have a broken heart, after she found out Edward had a fiancé. When Elinor did find out about Lucy Steele she did not even tell lucy of her feelings to try to break them up. That is what I would have done. Elinor would definitely represent sense. She keeps things to herself. I think because she thinks if she does she will not end up getting hurt to bad, like Marianne ends up doing.
Marianne on the other hand is Sensibility. She follows her heart. She does not let anything come in her way of showing her emotions. When she first meet Colonel Brandon, you could tell the Colonel was in love at first sight. Marianne showed very easily that she was not interested. However, when Marianne meets Willoughby it was like a hero rescuing his princess. They fall in love with each other. Marianne does not hide her emotions to anyone about Willoughby. However in the society that they were in Willoughby did not think he could marry Marianne because of the society class. In the end this almost kills Marianne. As Marianne realizes that the Colonel has always been there she falls in love with him.
The story ends with Elinor marring Edward, and Marianne marring The Colonel. I do not think there is anything wrong with...