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Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen


Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the cover page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, both of age to marry.


One sister represents sense that is rationality while other represents sensibility that is emotion.
Marianne represents Romantic ideas while Elinor represents Classical ideas. The nature of the sisters is quite different.
The novel deals with the themes like:-
1.     Classicism and Romanticism
2.     Money/Inheritance
3.     Marriage
4.     Expectations
5.     Family
6.     Motherhood

This book was in my syllabus at UG and PG level. There is a lot difference in my understanding about the novel at both the level. During my graduation, I read this book just as a love story of two Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Of course at that time the reading was only exam oriented. So the focus was only on remembering the Character Sketch and Plot of the novel. My understanding increased when I studied this text again in Semester 2. Knowledge of different #literary #theories widened my thinking and I could find that it is more than a love story. I could identify the problems women faced at that time. The text can be seen from different perspectives. Issues of #Marriage #Money #Family #Expectations #Motherhood #Inheritance and many more are connected with this text. The suppression of women is very well reflected in #Austen’s writing. Women had no right of land ownership and so all of them focused on marriage.


Reading this book again makes me walk through the memory lane and also surprised to see my understanding was quite limited in the past.

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