Sense and Sensibility
Comprehend with Sense,
Feel it with Sensibility!
Yeilin Ham
20040604
Tran An Khang 20070927
Mijeong Oh
20060361
Table of Contents

Jane Austen
◦ The Biography and Works

Sense and Sensibility
◦ Brief Information
◦ Character Analysis

Discussions
◦ Main Themes of Sense and Sensibility
◦ The Society Reflected by the Novel
Sense and sensibility (film 1995)
Won Oscar.
Another 27 wins
& 28 nominations
Jane Austen: Biography

Jane Austen
(16 December 1775 - 18 July 1817)
a English novelist.
• Born at Steventon near Basingstoke
, the seventh child in the eight-child f
amily of the rector of the parish.
• Jane Austen was primarily educated
at home by her father and older bro
thers and through her own reading.
• Not married
Works


Novels:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Sense and sensibility (1811)
Pride and prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1815)
Northanger Abbey(1817)
Persuasion(1817)
Incomplete Novels
◦ Lady Susan
◦ Sanditon
◦ The Watsons
 Juvenilia:
◦ Love and Friendship
◦ The Beautiful Cassandra
◦ Catharine, or the Bower
◦ The History of England
Historical context
The French Revolution.
 The War of American Independence.
 The start of the Industrial Revolution.
 The first generation of the Romantic poets
 Napoleonic wars

Social context
Status of women:
o No chance for high education.
o Not directly involved in politics.
o No professions.
o Supposed to marriage and work domestically.
Characteristics in Jane Austen’s works
Social assimilation and upward mobility is a
major theme in many of Austen's works.
 Most of Austen’s works were published
posthumously (after death).
 Limited in middle-class family, relationship,
marriage.
 highlight the dependence of women on
marriage to secure social standing and
economic security

Jane Austen’s limitation
No political problem, no violence.
 No one dies “on stage” of the novels.
 Sparing of describing internal thoughts and
emotions of male characters.
 Sparing with physical descriptions of people
and places.
 Not describing closely lovers' embraces and
endearments.
 The places for her novels are very restricted.
 Ect…

Character Relationship
Elinor & Marianne
Sense & Sensibility
Practical, rational, sensible
Sensitive, emotional,
compassionate
Their
Familypriority
and friends than
Emotion of herself than
herself
what others think
Behavior
toward the people they
don’t like
Polite to everybody
Expresses
her dislike
Whensad
they
their
old house,
Norland.
Feels
butleave
keeps
it to
Exclaims
her sadness with
herself
words
Surprises,
does
Suffers
to die they love
When theybut
hear
thenot
engagement
of someone
express it
Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage or true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with its brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no men ever loved.
Discussion Topic 1
Main Themes of Sense and Sensibility

“Sense” vs. “Sensibility”
◦ Which one is more important?
◦ Balancing between these two
Discussion Topic 1
Main Themes of Sense and Sensibility
‘I know how badly I have behaved! My illness has
given me time to think. I should never have been
so in cautious in my behavior with Willoughby, and
so impolite to other people. I know now that my
own uncontrolled feelings caused my suffering……’
(p.82)
Then at nineteen, with feelings of only warm
friendship and respect, she agreed to marry a man
she had once considered dull, and far too old for
marriage! ……
…… Marianne, who could never love by halves, came in
time to love her husband as much as she had loved
Willoughby. (p.87)
Discussion Topic 1
Main Themes of Sense and Sensibility

Two Ways of Loving
◦ Moderate and Thoughtful
◦ Emotional and Passionate
◦ Is love really one of the two?
Discussion Topic 1
Main Themes of Sense and Sensibility
‘Like him! Respect him!’ she cried. ‘Oh, coldhearted Elinor! Why should you be ashamed of
expressing love?’ (p.9)
‘Your sister, I understand, dose not approve
of second attachments’, ……
‘Her opinions are all romantic. She believes
that we fall in love once only in our lives. But I
hope that in a few years she will become more
sensible.’ (P.24)
Discussion Topic 2
The 19th century Society
Reflected by Sense and Sensibility

The Satire Used in This Novel
◦ The sentimentality and the “dating game”
 Marianne, Willoughby, and Lucy
◦ The roles of women and the marriage
 Palmers, John and Fanny Dashwood, and Willoughby
Discussion Topic 2
The 19th century Society
Reflected by Sense and Sensibility
Mrs Jennings was a widow, with a comfortable fortune. …… now
had nothing to do but to marry off the rest of the world. She
spent most of time planning weddings for all the young people she
knew, and was remarkably quick at discovering attachments. (p.16)
Their [Miss Steeles] appearance was by no means unfashionable,
They were full of praise for the beauty and intelligence of her
children, …… Lady Middleton watched proudly as her spoilt
children pulled the Miss Steeles’ hair, stole their sewing scissors,
and tore their books. (p. 38-39)
This one meeting with the Miss Steeles would have been quite
enough for Elinor, who disliked the vulgar freedom and
foolishness of the elder, and the clever pretence of the younger.
(p.41)
Discussion Topic 2
The 19th century Society
Reflected by Sense and Sensibility

The Status of Women in 1800s
◦ Women could not own property and were
expected to stay in the home
◦ Marriage is necessary to secure their social
positions and financial stability for the future
References







Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Oxford University Press.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_and_sensibility
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8563/essays/essay7.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets/section8.rhtml
http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/sense/about.html
http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/sensesensibility/introduction
http://www.enotes.com/sense-sensibility/q-and-a/what-some-examplesausten-s-use-satire-5229
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