The Metaphor Title of Sense and Sensibility Essay -- Jane Austen

In this novel Jane Austen uses the title of the book itself as a metaphor to illustrate the differences between the two main characters, with Elinor to represent the sense and Marianne to represent the sensibility. Sense and sensibility also indicates a split division, polar opposites, and how these opposites compliment each other, as can be seen throughout the novel. The dominant theme in this novel is sense prevailing over sensibility. It is a theme which can be seen in most of the characters; however the concentration is on Elinor and Marianne, who are two sisters and are often perceived as polar opposites. Marianne tends to be viewed as the `sensibility' and Elinor as the `sense'. Jane Austen opens the novel with the girls' father, (Mr John Dashwood) who is dying, and stressing to his son that although Mrs Dashwood and the girls are stepfamily he wants to be assured that they will be looked after. In this era it was not expected that a women should be left any inheritance, this was generally left to the man in the family. Women obtained there social class and money through marriage. It is once the fathers dies that we begin to get an understanding of the sense and sensibility. Marianne is a young girl of seventeen, and as is expected of this age she is naà ¯ve, spontaneous, and full of romantic idealism. However Marianne tends to take everything to the extreme and dramatises the slightest thing. She personifies sensibility and becomes emotionally disturbed by the events that take place in her life. It can be seen in the novel that she takes this from her mother, Mrs Dashwood, who is represented in the novel in much the same way as Marianne. She is sensitive, emotional, melodramatic, and imaginative and as Marianne she is... ...is something that develops with age and experience. There is no getting away from the fact that Marianne is sensibility and Elinor sense, and it is fairly simple to see this through Marianne's melodramatic and childish nature and Elinor's constant attention to others thoughts and feelings before her own. However on the other hand Marianne is still only a child who is under the heavy influence of a melodramatic mother. Elinor however is slightly older and one would think had an influence form someone of a more sensible disposition, (her father maybe) and therefore exerts a great deal of sense and etiquette throughout. Marianne tends to favour most of her mothers `sensibility' side and is often encouraged by her mother. Therefore in conclusion yes in many ways it is simple to say that Marianne possesses sensibility and Elinor sense, throughout the novel.