Sense and Sensibility (2)
Jane Austen
*What are the themes of your novel? Explain.
*What literary devices are used in this novel and for what purpose?
*What did you learn from your novel?
The dominant themes of Sense and Sensibility are…Sense and Sensibility.
Sense is represented by the elder sister Elinor, a careful, mature, responsible and smart girl. She decided to conceal her love for Edward Ferrars because she did not feel comfortable expressing her feelings openly in front of Mrs. Ferrars and Fanny Ferrars/Dashwood – the people she dislike. Towards the middle of the book, Lucy Steele joined the Dashwoods’ connections and caused a lot of trouble for Elinor. Lucy kept bragging about her secret relationship with Edward Ferrars which made Elinor feel very depressed at times because she also likes Edward. However, Elinior chose to bury her feelings for Edward to protect her family’s safety and reputation.
Sensibility is portrayed through Marianne, the younger sister. She is spontaneous, impulsive, emotional and not afraid to speak her mind. In contrary to her older sister, Marianne openly express her love for John Willoughby. When Willoughby left her, she became gloomy and couldn’t eat or sleep properly. She did not have the strength like her sister to combat the distressing feelings.
Another theme of this book is Money/ Social Status!
Back in the nineteenth century, money is a unit of measurement for power. The Middletons are perfect examples of this. For women and men in that time, money and social status served as criteria in the choice of their spouses. In the book, Mrs. Jennings always urged Elinor and Marianne to marry whoever she finds rich, handsome and powerful, because she thought that only such men would match the beauty and elegance of the Dashwood sisters. This expectation many times held women back from choosing the men they truly love.
Sense and Sensibility can be considered an allegory.
First of all, an allegory is “ where every aspect of a story is representative, usually symbolic, of something else, usually a larger abstract concept or important historical/geopolitical event.” For example, Lord of the Flies. In Sense and Sensibility, Elinor is symbolic of Sense and Marianna symbolic of Sensibility. Pretty simple. Jane Austen incorporated Sense and Sensibility into Elinor and Marianne respectively in order to personify the the characteristics associated with those words. She “put the words on stage” – if that makes any sense – and create a coherent story out of them.
Another lesson I learned from this novel is related to love.
“Choose someone who loves you over someone you love.”
Marianne was only chasing after the Willoughby of the past and completely forgot Colonel Brandon, who was being overly nice to her. She could have paid more attention to the poor Colonel instead of rejecting his nice acts. After all that happened, he was still the only guy who truly cares for her. From now on I will drop my high standards and start appreciating guys who treat me nicely, guys who were always there for me. *laugh*
Bibliography:
Jane Austen. Digital image. Mobylives. Web. 7 Feb. 2010. <http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/jane-austen.jpg>.
Leave a Reply