Sense and Sensibility is a novel of love and deception, of kind and greed

Assignment Topic: Sense and Sensibility is a novel of love and deception, of kind and greed

Name: Bhaliya Ravi

Roll no.: 24

M.A. Semester: 2

Enrolment No.: 14101004

Year: 2015-16

Paper no.:5 (Romantic literature)

Submitted to: Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Email: ravibhaliya5@gmail.com

Sense and Sensibility is a novel of love and deception, of kind and greed

Ø Introduction:

Sense and Sensibility is a novel which is written by Jane Austen who was one of the most shining stars of the 18^th 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 not Sense 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.

Elinor falls in love with Edward. Edward has true with Elinor because of  that he marries with Elinor though he disheritages from will. That’s why we can call marriage for love.

Ø Sense and Sensibility as a novel of Deception and Greed:

There are many elements which can be cauterized as deception as well as story of greed and temptation which also causes so many problems to the characters.

Though this novel can be called Love story but it can also be called as a story of deception so first let’s take a glance on what is deception and how it is found in the novel. Deception involves acting in such a way which leads another person to believe something, which you, yourself, do not believe to be true.

Here we may find deception in the novel when Lucy spreads rumor about her and Edward’s relation that they are engaged so it is a kind of deception that throws more light on the society of these time because Jane Austen has written all her novels which are based on the satire on the society or it can be interpreted that she would have seen all these kinds of things in the society and she would have written and depicted the reality in her novel to express her ideas through major characters of her novels. The high society Austen depicts is a complex, dangerous landscape through which characters have to navigate strategically. Indeed, the novel is at times like a complicated game, with all the characters like players competing with each other in an attempt to maximize their happiness and end up with the best husband, the largest fortune, or the nicest mansion. Lucy certainly approaches her social life like a game she is determined to win.

The deception of the novel’s characters is reflected in their witty conversations, artfully written letters, skillful persuasion, and meddling in others’ affairs. Elinor and Marianne are to some degree exceptions to this pattern. While they also participate in the same societal circles as other characters, they are less ruthless than someone like Lucy. They look out for each other and their own interests, but are less concerned with rising in society and besting others in competition for “Beaux” than they are with finding their own happiness. In the end, this strategy of mostly minding their own business and staying (to some degree) out of the games everyone else plays works out well for the Dashwood sisters, as they are at last successful in finding happy, comfortable marriages.

As we are concerned with the topic of greed as this novel has also same elements can be found in the novel so first it is necessary to know about the definition of Greed. It is also known as avarice, cupidity, or covetousness, is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.

Austen’s novel is a thorough portrait of English society, but only of a narrow slice of it—the privileged, wealthy upper class. All of the main characters in Sense and Sensibility are very well-off, but having plenty of money doesn’t seem to stop them from worrying about finances. They are generally very concerned with money, to the point of greed. The novel opens with the issue of the inheritance of Norland and questions of money, as Fanny persuades her husband John not to give any money to the Dashwood sisters, even though he can easily afford to. John wants to think of himself as generous to his family, but is easily persuaded by Fanny to keep his fortune to himself.

The novel’s wealthy characters have warped standards for what qualifies as a comfortable life. They worry over how many maids or servants one needs to live comfortably, for example, not considering whether their maids or servants themselves can live “comfortably”. For most of the novel’s characters, concerns of wealth, money, and socio economic class trump love when it comes to the institution of marriage. Mrs. Ferrars does not care whether Edward (or, for that matter, Robert) loves Lucy. She only cares about her sons entering into marriages that will advance their family’s position in society. And Willoughby, despite his affections for Marianne, marries Miss Grey solely for money. Marianne and Elinor resist this greed and materialism to some extent, but not entirely. They are still concerned with the financial prospects of their respective husbands.

At the end of the novel, when Elinor ends up with Edward, the man she loves, their story is not completely concluded until they secure financial security through Mrs. Ferrars’ forgiveness of Edward. Even for this couple, money seems to be in some respects their ultimate, final concern. Perhaps the only character who really steps outside of the novel’s society of greed is Colonel Brandon. In the novel’s biggest gesture of generosity, he gives Edward the property of Delaford to live at. However, even this grand gesture is an act of generosity directed simply to an already privileged, wealthy individual. While Austen negatively depicts the extremes of greed that can be found in upper class society, her characters never really get outside of their own limited social class and she does not go so far as to critique the wealthy society as a whole that almost exclusively populates her novel.

This was not only due to greed, although greed is a frequent target of Austen’s satire in this novel. It was partly a matter of practicality. Austen’s was an age in which social security did not exist, gentlemen were restricted to a few respectable professions like the church or law, and respectable women did not work at all. This explains Austen’s insistence on the necessity of a couple’s having enough money to support themselves and any children before they could marry. As is often the case, Austen’s views on money are expressed through the practical Elinor.

Ø To Wind Up:

          A few words more an individual can say that Sense and Sensibility is a novel which contains themes of marriage, wealth, moneyad it also has sub-themes of greed, deception and of course Love which is major or core idea of the novel Furthermore, Austen’s use of “sense” in this regard is just as important and ties into thelives of Elinor and Marianne just as much as do the previous and intended meanings of theirnames and the title of the novel. Therefore we may say that Sense and Sensibility is a novel of Love Deception and greed.