Sense And Sensibility Essay, Research Paper
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
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 there personalities. Some people hide there feelings, and so make
it easy to know how they feel. I do not fault either character for there
personality, both are unique.