Inkspire

“Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.”

― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is first and foremost a story of two sisters with completely different personalities: Elinor and Marianne. Although like the sun and moon, day and night, joy and sadness, they complement each other, and one cannot live without the other. These two sisters – so deeply connected and fond of each other yet so contrasting at the same time – end up in the strange mess that is English society.

Sense

The first sister Elinor is the epitome of logic and reason. She keeps her feelings and problems to herself as she faces all struggles alone. Due to this nature, the people around her assume that she is free from all issues and burden her with their own problems. Elinor attains a high state of wisdom at such a young age to the point where she acts as her own mother’s counsel and advisor in all matters. At times, it’s clear that even the author of this book – Jane Austen – prefers logic akin to Elinor’s, and her character is praised often. Even when she meets a man that she would like to marry, she treads with the utmost caution. Elinor is not quick to judge anyone, and often she takes as much time as possible to know someone before making any assumptions. And when that man breaks her heart, she keeps it to herself to protect the happiness of the people she cares about. She is neither blunt nor rude, and her manner of dealing with difficult people in social scenes is incredibly admirable. Elinor maintains her manners throughout and wins the heart of almost everyone in the book. It’s clear that Elinor is Austen’s idea of a perfect person – kind, intelligent, and logical.

“Always resignation and acceptance. Always prudence and honour and duty. Elinor, where is your heart?”

― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Sensibility

Marianne is almost the exact opposite of Elinor. While she shares her intelligence, Marianne is known for being a lot more candid with her words. She can only ever love something or loathe it; she is incapable of feeling any emotion with moderation for most of the course of the book. Marianne finds beauty in any form of nature and sometimes overly romanticizes the world around her. She also expects other people to share her intense passion for everything. This exact disposition is what led her to falling head over heels for a man she barely knew. As they began to learn more about each other, she grew intensely attached to this man. Unlike Elinor, when her heart was broken, she was completely open with feelings of regret and sadness. In fact, everyone around her felt her misery because of how she projected her emotions. Although at the beginning of the book, Marianne’s passion for everything is glorified by the author, it’s later portrayed as foolish.

“It is not everyone,’ said Elinor, ‘who has your passion for dead leaves.”

― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Morals

Other than showing the way both sense and sensibility contradict each other in the form of two loving sisters, the book also explores numerous other themes prevalent in English society. For instance, many people in the plot are obsessed with money. This greed and selfishness leads them to make very poor decisions and even lose the people that truly care about them. A perfect example of this is Willoughby. Marianne was willing to give everything up for his happiness while he cruelly abandoned her for a richer bride. Willoughby later represents karma in the story as he ends up remorseful and unhappy with his personal life and choices. Jane Austen’s book comments on the greed of Englishmen and truthfully uncovers the foolishness of social expectations.

Overall

I’d rate this book 8/10 because of Austen’s beautiful writing, the suspense maintained throughout, Elinor’s character, and the themes. Moral of the story is as follows: oftentimes, you don’t need to do what society tells you to do to be content.

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”

― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility