Why Is Jane Austens “Sense And Sensibility” So Called?
Like the more famous “Pride and Prejudice” the title of this novel refers ironically to key qualities in its main characters. Two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, embody these qualities: Elinor, the elder, has “sense” and her romantic, impulsive younger sister is full of a “sensibility” that nearly destroys her. Both sisters fall in love with men who either desert them or conceal an earlier commitment; much of the novel is about how they deal with the heartbreak and humiliation that follows. When Marianne’s dashing Willoughby abandons her to marry a rich woman, she pursues him openly, and when that fails has a breakdown, wallowing in misery and making life difficult for all around her. Elinor, in contrast, bears stoically the discovery that her beloved Edward is secretly engaged to someone else, telling nobody of her unhappiness. Eventually Elinor is rewarded by marrying Edward, while Marianne learns to love the much older, unexciting but loyal Colonel Brandon; she has now learne
