Social Confinement in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility

Throughout history, relationships between people have been questioned based off what people have heard or seen. Jane Austen writes the love story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, that have conflicts when it comes to their relationships caused by miscommunication. In Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen reveals the danger of making judgements on insufficient information through relationships between the characters. Miscommunication creates confusion and a mix of emotions from the characters.

Love comes in many shapes and forms, whether it’s an inanimate object or a person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Jane Austen’s novel, “Sense and Sensibility”, revolves around two sisters who try to find true love, while requiring a balance of reason and emotion. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are viewed as two completely different people. Elinor is known to represent “sense” while Marianne represents “sensibility.” In the novel, Jane Austen emphasizes two common women’s characteristics, and shows us how Elinor and Marianne both find love and happiness only by overcoming their struggles and learning from one another’s actions and mistakes.

This gender role construct is what often makes women feel powerless/paralyzed to change their role in the domestic sphere due to overriding authority of the “masculine world.” In a literary point of view, the role of the mediocre woman in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility can describe how women, such as Lady Middleton and Lucy Steel conform to these submissive gender roles in the 19th century patriarchal institution of marriage.

Jane Austen's 1811 novel "Sense and Sensibility" puts across an account involving two English sisters who come across a series of hardships in their endeavor to find their personal identities in a relatively hostile environment. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are forced to leave their home, the estate at Norland Park, consequent to their father's death. The two experience economic problems and come to see the world with different eyes as they move in a small house and as they interact with people who are primarily motivated by finances. Even though the two sisters have diverging personalities, they go through similar experiences and they come to have similar perceptions of society.

The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice examines and critiques a society built upon gender roles. Austen does this by examining the obstacles women experienced in the Regency Period. Austen expresses how women were controlled, and objectified by men through their need to get married to a man. Additionally, the novel ridicules how women who could not afford to live without men were shadowed by their partner. This commentary is seen through the portrayal of the Bennet sisters. The females of the family are forced to marry because they do not inherit any wealth. The family is forced to comply with the same boundaries Austen was governed by. Therefore, Austen focuses on how the Bennet sisters overcome a society that suppresses them. This allows the reader to comprehend the strength, perseverance, determination, and assertiveness of the women in this time. Overall, Jane Austen addresses gender issues throughout the story. This is seen in the progressive image of Elizabeth, as she combats the inequality women experience. Although it was not common for women to criticize the patriarchy, the overall depiction of females is progressive. Elizabeth represents Austen’s feminist views, and the depiction of women in the novel is seen through her feminist image as she deals with Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy.

Pride and Prejudice tells a story of a young girl in the midst of a very materialistic society. Jane Austen uses the setting to dramatize the restraints women had to endure in society. As the novel develops, we see how women have to act in a way according to their gender, social class, and family lineage. Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters represent the proper societal lady while Lizzy is the rebel. Through her characters Austen shows how a women’s happiness came second to the comfort of wealth. As the plot develops, events are laid out to illustrate how true love is unattainable when women marry for intentions of wealth. Women have very specific and limited roles in a society where men are the superior. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Often, two people who have endured similar life experiences and share an unmistakable parallel in lifestyles can be viewed as duplicates of one individual. In Sense and Sensibility, the two main characters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood can be seen as two extensions of the same character. The sisters are relatively close in age, grew up with the same social expectations of the same time period and household, and they evidently experienced similar childhood and family trauma and problems. Although it could be argued that they are the same character, these young women are very different from each other, in respects to their roles and practice of responsibility, their display of emotions, and openness to love. Jane Austen has cleverly titled

Jane Austen’s novel is commanded by women; Pride and Prejudice explores the expectations of women in a society that is set at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the plot, Austen’s female characters are all influenced by their peers, pressures from their family, and their own desires. The social struggle of men and women is seen throughout the novel. Characters, like Elizabeth, are examples of females not acting as proper as women were supposed to, while other women like Mrs. Bennett allow themselves to be controlled by men and society. Mr. Collins is a representation of the struggles males deal with in a novel dominated by women. The theme of marriage is prominent during Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Marriage can be examined in

Examine Austen’s presentation of what is called in the novel, ‘women’s usual occupations of eye, and hand, and mind’. In Jane Austen’s society, the role of women was controlled by what was expected of them. In most cases, marriage was not for love, and was considered as a business arrangement, in which both partners could gain status and financial reassurance. Though Austen opposed the idea of none affectionate marriage, many

We can find in this piece of literature work that Marianne Dashwood is guided by too much passion and acts inappropriately, while her sister, Elinor reacts with too much prudence. Eventually, both sisters are rewarded with marriage once they learn how to regulate the appropriate amount of emotional response and gain knowledge through experience. Moreover, we can observer that both concepts are necessary in order to act in a correct way. The author tries to show the readers how important sense is in our lives. Not only can we act through our reason but also we need to take into account our

This article analyzes the way Austen portrays women in her novels. Kruger mentions that Jane Austen’s work is often deprived by the

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin was a moralistic novel depicting the two main forms of attitudes at that time; the neo -classics and the romantics. The period in which it was written, nineteenth century England, was laden with social etiquette and customs imposed on people of that time; and thus the characters of Jane Austin's novels. The novels' two main protagonists; Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, exemplify the Neo classical era and the romantic era, respectfully. Jane Austin instils Neo-classic and romantic ideals in Elinor and Marianne as to present a view of each attitude and to further enhance the discrepancies of social nineteenths century England.

Jane Austen's groundbreaking novel Sense and Sensibility is a relationship-driven account of female protagonists. Sense and Sensibility shares much in common with other novels by and about women. Themes like autonomy versus independence and the role of women in a patriarchal society are explored in Sense and Sensibility. Using two sisters to symbolize the different directions the female spirit can be pulled, Austen shows the variable ways women respond to political, social, and economic oppression. The women of Sense and Sensibility are both trapped by, and breaking free from, the conventions of marriage and motherhood. Marriage and motherhood are portrayed ironically as the natural course of women's lives, but also as the chain that prevents their self-fulfillment. The social norm of patrilineal inheritance leaves Elinore and Marianne Dashwood, and their mother, penniless and dependent on distant male family members. Marriage and motherhood are restrictive roles for women, and yet Austen never provides a satisfactory alternative for Marianne. Marianne seems willing to break free from patriarchal social norms, but she ends up being a slave to heterosexual romance. The message in Sense and Sensibility ends up being rather bleak: women remain socially, economically, and politically oppressed because they cannot envision or enact suitable independent alternatives.

Jane Austen’s well-known novel, Pride and Prejudice, discussed multiple social themes in the 19th century. Austen mainly criticized marriage during her era, when she says that, “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 3). As she explains that it was valuable to women since it provided them with security and a social title. The author explored the diverse motives behind matrimony in her time period by using a humorous and romantic plot to discuss the social issues. For instance, Charlotte Lucas’s unreasonable marriage to Mr. Collins is a vital example of how women needed to secure a future and attain social status. To conclude, Lydia Bennet’s meaningless marriage to George Wickham shows that entering the marriage estate could have also been for mainly financial purposes. Contrastingly, Jane Bennet, the heroine’s older sister, marries Charles Bingley for love, security, and a social ranking. On the other hand, Elizabeth Bennet marries Fitzwilliam Darcy after months of misunderstandings and romantic drama for none other than true love. Thus, Austen uses her leading characters’ marriages in Pride and Prejudice to exhibit the various attitudes and reasons for marrying in the 19th century. (Lane 2015)