Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen

`Pray, pray be composed,` cried Elinor, `and do not betray what you feel to every body present. Perhaps he has not observed you yet.` For Elinor Dashwood, sensible and sensitive, and her romantic, impetuous younger sister Marianne, the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. In a world ruled by money and self-interest, the Dashwood sisters have neither fortune nor connections. Concerned for others and for social proprieties, Elinor is ill-equipped to compete with self-centred fortune-hunters like Lucy Steele, whilst Marianne`s unswerving belief in the truth of her own feelings makes her more dangerously susceptible to the designs of unscrupulous men. Through her heroines` parallel experiences of love, loss, and hope, Jane Austen offers a powerful analysis of the ways in which women`s lives were shaped by the claustrophobic society in which they had to survive.