themes of sense and sensibility, sense vs sensibility, marriage, self sacrifice and self selfishness, moderation, judgement jealousy,

1. Name: Keraliya Kajal
Roll no: 18
Paper-5 : Romantic Literature
M.A: Sem-2
Enrolment no: 2069108420180030
Year: 2017-19
E-mail id: Www.kajalk1@gmail.com
Submitted to:
S.B. Gardi Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University
Themes of Sense and Sensibility

2. • What is Sensibility
 The ability to feel or to employ emotions in perceiving the
world; aligned with sympathy, subjectivity and wider human
experiences.
 In the 18th century, it is perceive as feminine, although late 18th
century novel rebrand masculinity to in corporate sensibility.
 Considered a bourgeois novelistic form ( as opposed to one
associated with landed economic forms, which focus on
objectivity and rationality).

3. Sense v/s Sensibility
Sense: Deals with common understanding
Sensibility: Deals with emotions and attitude
 The theme of the novel is very simple. In Those
novel Austen drawn to on the cusp between two
cultural movement: Classicism and Romanticism
 The distinction is most clearly symbolised by the
psychological contrast between the novel’s two chief
characters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.

4. Main Theme of Sense and Sensibility
1) Marriage/Matrimony
2) Money and inheritance
3) Gender
4) Hypocrisy
5) Appearance v/s Reality
6) Moderation
7) Self sacrifice and Selfishness
8) Theme of Love
9) Expectation v/s Reality

5. • Sir Walter Scott writes about Jane Austen
that,
“ That young Lady had a talent for describing the
involvements, feelings and characters of
ordinary life”.

6. Marriage
• The principal theme of novel is her matrimony. Generally the
heroine after few falls starts, meets the right man, and a serious
of misunderstanding and frustration occurs to delay but never to
prevent their union.
• For Marianne and Elinor, Marriage is not a choice, but a
necessity; and their need to marry expediently and well is a
pressing concern in the novel, as they look for suitors.
• Young men are more free to choose a life partner for marriage,
for example Mr. Colonel Brandon reach at the age of 35 and still
unmarried.
• For women who have money, Marriage is necessary to secure
their social positions and ensure financial stability for the future.

8. Self sacrifice and Selfishness
• Elinor especially is a model of self- sacrifice, at first she left Edward for the
sake of her mother and sisters and started living at Barton Park.
“ I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.”
• “ But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by
everybody at times, Whatever be their education or state. Know your own
Happiness. You want nothing but patience ; or give it a more fascinating
name: Call it hope”
• Then she deciding to go to london for her sister’s happiness, and trying her
best to be civil to everyone to make up for marinne’s uncivil behavior.
• Marianne is the opposite, caring only for herself and her feelings; she
needs Elinor’s help and goodwill to get by, but needs to learn how to be
giving toward others in order to become her own, independent person.

9. Moderation
• Marianne must learn moderation of her emotions if
she is to become independent of Elinor and become
an adult; her trials serve to teach her about her
excesses, and luckily, she does come to improve her
self and become a much better, more caring person
toward others.
• “ That is what like; that is what a young man ought to
be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them
should know no moderation, and leave him no sense
of fatigue.”

10. Judgement
In interactions with other people,
judgement is always at work; a person must
determine who a person really is and what
they want, in order to avoid those who could
potentially be hurtful. These judgements can
be flighty and unjust, as marianne appraisals
of most of her acquaintance are, or blinded by
kindness, as Mrs. Jennings’ judgement of Lucy
steele is.”

11. Jealousy
• Relates mostly to Lucy Steele, and is the prime
determinant her behaviour toward Elinor.
Willoughby also becomes jealous of colonel
brandon marrying Marianne, and others, petty
jealousies become evident in characters.
Indicates insecurity, or poor character.

12. Appearance v/s Reality
• Pertains to character especially, as many characters in
the novel present themselves as one thing, and end up
being another. John Willoughby is the best example of
this, as he seems romantic, open and genuine, but
ends up exposing himself as vain, idle, and cruel.
“ Tell me, Willoughby – for heaven’s sake, tell me, what is
truth?” marianne to Willoughby.
• Also pertains to Lucy Steele, who ends up conniving ,
despite her innocent appearance. At first she engaged
with Edward and then she come to know that Robert is
the inherent of property, she engaged with him and
left Edward.

13. Expectation v/s Reality
• This is an especially theme with regard to
marianne and her mother, whose romatic
characters lead them to expect greater drama or
trauma than actually appears.
• “ to wish was to hope, and to hope was to
expect.
• But reality always tends to subvert expectation,
whether in life or in art, as accidents and
unexpected twist and turns happen to everyone.

14. Secrecy
Usually an indication of wrong doing on
someone’s part, as it especially evident in
willoughby; his sudden unwillingness to share
information with marianne and the
dashwoods indicates mistake made on his
part. On the other hand, as with Edward,
secrecy can be a sign of decretion, thogh
when his secret is revealed it is damaging as
willoughby’s is.

15. Hypocrisy
• a vast number of characters in the novel embody this trait
to varying degrees; John and Fenny( to him his father asked
to look after his three sisters)
“Indeed, to say the truth, i am convinced within myself, that
your father had no idea of your giving them any money at
all.” Fanny Dash wood to her husband
• Lady Middleton( Sir Middleton is good fellow who gave
resort to Mrs. Dash wood)
• The Steele girls( who tries to keep secret of their love from
each other, and tried to be more rich than their reality)
• Mrs. Ferrars ( as disinheritate Edward from her property
only because he engaged secretly)

16. • Robert, among others( as he got engaged with
same lady with whom once his elder brother
engaged).
• Tend toward hypocritical displays of self-serving
flattery, vanity and professing opinions they do
not believe in for self gain or to get ahead with
others.
• Unfortunately, none of these characters is taught
any better in the course of the novel as hypocrisy
is an unavoidable part of human nature, and
almost a part of polite society as well.

17. Money and Inheritance
• laws surrounding inheritance are what put the
Dash wood women in critical situation at the
beginning of the novel.
• Their lack of money, compounded with their
inability to work, means that they cannot come
out from their situation, except through marrying
well, and marrying with rich guy is the only way.
• Money also dictates the eligibility of Elinor and
Marianne as women with larger dowries are of
course seen as better prospects for marriage.