Sens and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility is a novel which is written by Jane Austen who was one of the most shining stars of the 18th century in the Romantic age which has its own place in the history of English literature and Jane Austen was also a second as a novelist because earlier only Mary Shelley was there to be a novelist and then Jane Austen was the lady who thought that she should write novel and mostly she has written a novel which are based on the domestic life that can be found in the every person’s life.
First it is necessary to know about the title that is selected by Jane Austen in her novel Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen was particularly concerned with the answer to these questions, especially within the confines of her eighteenth century British society. Never more does she examine the possible answers to these questionsthan in her first published novel.Sense and Sensibility. Most critics understand thatAusten’s original title for this novel was notSense and Sensibility but was ratherElinor and Marianne. Knowing this makes it more understandable as to why she used the word “sense” and the word “sensibility”; to see them in congruence with one another allows us to appreciate the opposites of her intentional juxtaposition, which is in essence that Elinor’s second name is “Sense,” and Marianne’s is“Sensibility.”
This becomes interesting because the definition of “sense” is that of having a“practical soundness of judgment,” and the eighteenth century definition of the word“sensibility” means an “emotional consciousness: quickness and acuteness of feeling” (“Sensibility”). To name the novel after both protagonists by using their propensities foreither sense or sensibility is clever and draws her readers to begin the novel by examiningElinor and Marianne as keepers o f either pathway to knowing what they think they know.It is a fair assumption that Austen, through her two protagonists, means to deliberatelypaint the portrait o f separation and difference between them, hence establishing thejuxtaposition.
This is an obvious conclusion regarding the two sisters and their embodiment of either inclination. Because of its obviousness, many critics desire to leave it there. Explaining that Elinor is "'Sense,” Marianne is "Sensibility,” and therefore the simple dichotomy is analyzed, but it is satisfactorily defined.
However, it is my assertion that there is far more Austen means to establish through her title of this novel. The word “sense,” standing alone in one word of the title and the root of the other word in the title, has multiple meanings. It is my estimation then that Austen is playing on the word “sense,” showing that it actually refers to the five senses, those of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch that all human heings possess. Austen means to convey through Elinor and Marianne that not only do “good judgment” and “emotional consciousness” affect them, their lives and their situations, hut their senses, particularly that of sight and hearing do as well.
Now as we are concerned with the topic of Sense and Sensibility is a novel of Love and deception, of kind and greed so let’s have a look on this topic in detail.
Ø Sense and Sensibility:
The novel has so many elements which makes this novel readable because in this novel there are so many ingredients such as Love, greed deception etc. So Jane Austen here has very well knitted all these elements in her novel.
Ø Sense and Sensibility as a novel of Love:
The plot of Sense and Sensibility revolves around marriage. The novel begins with Elinor and Marianne asunmarried but eligible young women and only concludes when both of them settle into marriages.Engagements, possible matches, and marriages are the main concern of most the novel’s characters and thesubject of much of their conversation. Thus, love is also of central importance to the novel, as Marianne andElinor fall in love and seek to marry the men they love.
However, marriage isn’t all about love in the world of Sense and Sensibility. In fact, it’s often more aboutwealth, uniting families, and gaining social standing. Moreover, it’s often families and parents who attempt todecide engagements as much as any individual husband or wife. Mrs. Ferrars, for example, cares only abouther sons marrying wealthy, upperclasswomen. She does not care whether Edward loves Lucy and cuts all tieswith him when she learns of their engagement. For her, the decision of whom her sons will marry is as muchhers as theirs, because their marriages are more about their whole family than about their own individualdesires.
Marriage is an important part of the functioning of the high society in which Austen’s characters live. Itdetermines who will inherit family fortunes and properties, and is of particular importance to women, whosefutures depend almost entirely on the prospects of the men they marry. Nonetheless, while people in the noveloften marry for reasons other than love (Willoughby, for example, marries Miss Grey just for money),Elinorand Marianne ultimately do marry for love. For Marianne, though, this means redefining her notion of loveand allowing herself to develop affections for Colonel Brandon, even though she did not love him at first sight.
The novel is full of many love stories and marriage. They make the plot aswell as bring romantic atmosphere.
The novel also shows the importance of love through a consideration of family. The bonds between Elinor,Marianne, Margaret, and their mother stand strong through all the difficulties they endure and at the end of thenovel they maintain a happily close relationship. Thus, while marriage may often be more a matter ofeconomics than of love, the examples of Marianne and Elinor show that it doesn’t necessarily have to be thisway. And, insofar as marriage brings families together and creates new family units, it can create strong andlasting bonds of familial love.
These are the lovers as they make this novel as a story of love as given below.
Elinor falls in love with Edward. Edward has true with Elinor because of that he marries with Elinor though hedisheritages from will. That’s why we can call marriage for love.
Therefore here we can also say that Love story between Marianne and Willoughby. All think that Marianne and Willoughby will marry but after some time Willoughby runs away to London and never comes back, later the news comes that he married with Sophia who has plenty of money.
So at last we can say that this novel possesses many stories and sub-plot about Love as it is the central theme of the novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment