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Historical Deconstruction Of The Submissive Women In Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

Decent Essays

This literary analysis of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen will examine the historical deconstruction of the submissive female in the existential philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex. In Beauvoir’s historical analysis of the submissive behaviors of women‘s gender roles, the problem of historical education in patriarchal society often controls women through the “history of inheritance.” Austen’s primary theme in Sense and Sensibility is the ‘sensible’ nature of Elinor, yet she is often subservient to ignorant wealthy males in her ascension into the British upper classes. However, Beauvoir identifies the superficial historical construction of patriarchal gender values have taught women to be submissive, which reveals the heroic determination of Elinor’s sensible behaviors in the family. Austen’s literary heroines, such as Elinor, define the historical context in which women are sublimated due to the patriarchal gender values imposed on them in British society. In essence, of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen will define the historical deconstruction of the submissive female in the existential philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir. In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Elinor Dashwood is a young woman that has been wrongfully disinherited by Fanny Dashwood, the greedy wife of John Dashwood. Elinor is the daughter of Henry Dashwood’s second wife, Mrs. Dashwood, which makes her and her family the losers in the estate inheritance that is traditionally passed

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