Jocelyn Cooksey
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Jane Austen was born December 16th, 1775 to
Reverend George Austen and Cassandra Leigh
Austen. She was the seventh of eight children.
When Austen was eight years old, she and her
sister Cassandra were sent to Oxford and then
Southampton to be educated. From 1785 to
1786, Austen and her sister attended the Reading
Ladies Boarding School, where they studied
French, spelling, needlework, music, and
dancing. Forced to return home for economic
reasons, Austen continued to develop her literary
mind under the guidance of her father, who had
a hug library.
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Austen made up tales and began writing them
down at a young age. At first she wrote satires,
mysteries, fantasies and romances; gradually she
took to recording the detailed observations of
English life that made her famous.
In 1816, Austen suffered an illness that ended in
her death the next year. Most biographers believe
that she suffered from Addison’s disease.
Despite her illness, Austen continued to work on
her writing, starting work on “Sandition.” She
died on July 8, 1817, leaving “Sandition”
unfinished, and was buried in the Winchester
Cathedral.
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Pride and Prejudice begins with Mrs. Bennet telling her husband about
Mr. Bingley, a man that will be moving into the neighborhood. She tell
Mr. Bennet that he is “a single man of large fortune”, hoping that like she
does her husband will see the man as a potential husband for one of
their five daughters Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, and Lydia. When
Mr. Bingley moves into the estate of Netherfield Park, Mr. Bennet pays
him a secret visit, but finally tells his family by casually slipping it into
the conversation. The girls and Mrs. Bennet get excited and start asking
questions about Mr. Bingley but Mr. Bennet disregards them. Within the
next couple weeks a party is held in town, and Mr. Bingley, his sisters
and Mr. Darcy, a close friend of Mr. Bingley. This is where Mr. Bingley
and Jane meet, and start to take interest in each other. That same night
Elizabeth meets and is disgusted by Mr. Darcy and wants nothing to do
with him. One day Jane is invited to the Netherfield estate to have dinner
with the Bingley’s and instead of sending her in a carriage Jane’s mother
send her on horseback hoping that because of the rain she will have to
stay at the Bingley residence. Mrs. Bennet’s plan does work but Jane has
to stay only because the rain has made her ill. Elizabeth walks three
miles to the Netherfield estate to take care of her sister, and while she is
there she starts to take to Mr. Darcy.
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Jane and Mr. Bingley's love for each other is tested
when he has to move back to London for the winter.
Mr. Darcy and the sisters follow him. Over the winter
months Elizabeth visits a friend, and unexpectedly
meets Mr. Darcy. After a couple of weeks Mr. Darcy
confesses his love for her, and asks he hand in
marriage. Elizabeth refuses saying that she could
never love a man with as much pride as he has. In the
spring Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy move back, and Mr.
Bingley reunites himself with Jane. They are soon
engaged. Mr. Darcy still in love with Elizabeth makes
another attempt at her. Elizabeth by that time had a
change of mind, and learns that Mr. Darcy isn’t a
pride man as he may seem, but is very caring. They
soon too are engaged.
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Pride and Prejudice for me was harder to get into
at first. As the book progressed I decided to
embrace it instead of hate it so much. I fell in
love with Elizabeth Bennet and her morals. The
fact that even though she might have been
disappointing her mother by not marrying Mr.
Collins, she stood her ground and decided she
would marry for love rather than marrying for
financial security. In the end she gets both and I
am a sucker for fairytale endings. This book is a
slow read at first but I would recommend it to the
love sappy indignant girls. 
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Sense and Sensibility is a story about two sisters – Elinor and Marianne
Dashwood. When their father dies and their half brother inherit the
estate and won’t help them out. Their half brother’s wife Fanny decides
that helping them will take away from their son. When Edward Fanny’s
brother moves in he starts to become attracted to Elinor. Fanny
disapproves of Edward's fondness for Elinor and is so rude that Mrs.
Dashwood rents a cottage fortuitously offered to her by her cousin, Sir
John Middleton.
When they move to Barton cottage with their mother, Marianne is swept
off her feet by a dashing stranger, John Willoughby. John Willoughby and
Marianne are soon inseparable and fall in love, but John Willoughby
leaves unexpectedly. Meanwhile, Elinor must mask the love she feels for
Edward Ferrars because it is impossible for them to marry. Edward
eventually proposes to Elinor after a confusion in which she thinks he
was supposed to marry Lucy Steele, but in reality it was his younger
brother that will marry her. In the end, everything works out; Elinor gets
the man she loves and Marianne finds her own happiness, too. She
marries Colonel Brandon an older suitor who loves her dearly.
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I liked Sense and Sensibility a lot more the
Pride and Prejudice. I think I liked it so much
because I think I’m emotional like Marianne. I
also liked that Elinor didn’t have to silently
deal with heartbreak for the rest of her life,
because Edward came back. I would
recommend this book.
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Symbolism is defined as “a literary movement that began
in France during the late nineteenth century and advocated
the use of highly personal symbols to suggest ideas,
emotions, and moods” (Elements of Literature, 1202). In
Sense and Sensibility Elinor Dashwood and Marianne
Dashwood are symbols of the title.
Theme is defined as “the central idea or insight of a work
of literature” (Elements of Literature, 1202). The themes of
these books varied, but one overall theme was marriage.
Life was not complete until the character was engaged to
be married to the right person.
Irony is defined as “a contrast or discrepancy between
expectation and reality, it is the difference between what is
said and what is really meant, between what is expected
and what really happens, or between what appears to be
true and what is really true” (Elements of Literature, 1196).
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Elinor represents the practical, reasonable nature or “sense” and Marianne represents the
romantic, passionate nature or “sensibility”. Elinor is much more liable to look at a situation
realistically and use's her head rather than her heart when it comes to love. She carefully thinks
about every decision she's going to make before she makes it. “The excellence of his
understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps
him silent. You know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth. But of his minute
propensities, as you call them, you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant
than myself. He and I have been at times thrown a good deal together, while you have been
wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother. I have seen a great deal of
him, have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste; and,
upon the whole, I venture to pronounce that his mind is well-informed, his enjoyment of books
exceedingly great, his imagination lively, his observation just and correct, and his taste delicate
and pure. His abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and
person.” (Sense and Sensibility, Ch. 4). Even when she falls in love with Edward she falls in love
with him because he has the correct qualities and not just because she is in love, there is no
real infatuation. While Elinor is thinking before she acts on anything, Marianne is wildly
listening to her heart and acting on her feelings. Marianne is often impulsive and discloses her
emotions to everyone and is often seen laughing or crying. “Marianne Dashwood was born to
an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to
counteract, by her conduct, her most favorite maxims. She was born to overcome an affection
formed so late in life as at seventeen, and with no sentiment superior to strong esteem and
lively friendship, voluntarily to give her hand to another!” (Sense and Sensibility, Ch. 50)
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Mrs. Bennet had a lot to do with this theme; all she wanted to do was marry her
daughters off to wealthy men. When Mr. Bingley moved in all that was on Mrs.
Bennet’s mind was the possibility of one of her daughters marrying him. Within
just marriage there was the divergence of whether to marry for love or money.
Jane through the book is in love with Mr. Bingley and marries him because she
loves him. Charlotte, Elizabeth’s best friend marries for financial security. Lydia
the youngest of the sisters is the first to get married, she eloped with a man that
she barely knew, and was too young to see the difference between marrying for
love and wealth. Elizabeth has the on the other hand had a chance to marry for
financial reason and chose not to because she wanted to be in love with someone
before she chose to spend the rest of her life with them. “It was a long time before
she became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match. The strangeness
of Mr. Collins's making two offers of marriage within three days was nothing in
comparison of his being now accepted. She had always felt that Charlotte's
opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she had not supposed it to
be possible that, when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better
feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte the wife of Mr. Collins was a most
humiliating picture! And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her
esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend
to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen” (Pride and Prejudice, Ch. 22). This
shows that Elizabeth and Charlotte thought different of marriage.
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Mrs. Bennet’s main goal is to marry her daughters off and when
Elizabeth is proposed to by Mr. Collins she says no, disobeying
her mother’s wishes. It is ironic because most girls want to
please their mothers and would do just about anything to please
them. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is an ironic couple. Mr. Darcy
initially snubs Elizabeth when she asks him to dance at the ball,
but then without realizing it falls for her. Then when he proposes
to her Elizabeth is expected to subdue her hatred for him. The
ironic part is that through all the bad that happened between
them and all the hatred they at one point had for each other was
overcome by the feelings they had for each other. One quote that
shows irony in Pride and Prejudice is "He then went away, and
Miss Bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him
to say what gave no one any pain but herself."(Pride and
Prejudice, Ch. 3 Vol. III) Miss Bingley, Mr. Bingley’s sister had a
thing for Mr. Darcy and was bad mouthing Elizabeth to Mr.
Darcy, Mr. Darcy then says what he needs to say about the
situation revealing his true feelings for Elizabeth. The irony is
that she forced him to say what hurt no one but herself.
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Anderson, Robert. Elements of Literature:
Sixth Course. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 2000.
Print.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Austin:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1998. Print.
Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. New York:
Knopf, 1992. Print.