The Metaphor Title of Sense and Sensibility Essay -- Jane Austen

In this novel Jane Austen uses the title of the book itself as a metaphor to illustrate the differences between the two main characters, with Elinor to represent the moxie and Marianne to represent the sensibility. Sense and sensibility also indicates a split division, glacial opposites, and how these opposites compliment each other, as can be seen throughout the novel.The dominant theme in this novel is brain prevailing over sensibility. It is a theme which can be seen in most of the characters however the parsimony is on Elinor and Marianne, who are two sisters and are frequently perceived as polar opposites. Marianne tends to be viewed as the sensibility and Elinor as the sense. Jane Austen opens the novel with the girls father, (Mr John Dashwood) who is dying, and stressing to his tidings that although Mrs Dashwood and the girls are stepfamily he wants to be assured that they will be looked after. In this era it was not expected that a women should be left each inheritanc e, this was generally left to the man in the family. Women obtained there social program and money through marriage. It is once the fathers dies that we begin to get an understanding of the sense and sensibility.Marianne is a young girl of seventeen, and as is expected of this age she is nave, spontaneous, and full of romantic idealism. However Marianne tends to take everything to the extreme and dramatises the slightest thing. She personifies sensibility and becomes emotionally disturbed by the events that take place in her life. It can be seen in the novel that she takes this from her mother, Mrs Dashwood, who is represented in the novel in frequently the same way as Marianne. She is sensitive, emotional, melodramatic, and imaginative and as Marianne she is... ...is something that develops with age and experience. thither is no getting away from the fact that Marianne is sensibility and Elinor sense, and it is fairly unsubdivided to see this through Mariannes melodramatic an d childish nature and Elinors constant caution to others thoughts and feelings before her own.However on the other hand Marianne is still just a child who is under the heavy influence of a melodramatic mother. Elinor however is slightly older and one would think had an influence homunculus someone of a more sensible disposition, (her father maybe) and therefore exerts a great deal of sense and etiquette throughout. Marianne tends to favour most of her mothers sensibility side and is often encouraged by her mother.Therefore in conclusion yes in umpteen ways it is simple to say that Marianne possesses sensibility and Elinor sense, throughout the novel.