Sense$Sensibility Elinore Essay, Research Paper

In her novel Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen portrays a story of two sisters who have completely opposite ways of dealing with life. One views the world romantically, and takes an extremely dramatic approach in all endeavors. The other handles every situation with the utmost care, choosing the most reasonable fashion to proceed with any situation. This rational woman, Elinor Dashwood, has a strong heart, but she keeps almost all of her emotions agonizingly suppressed. Her actions demonstrate these traits almost unfalteringly throughout the novel.

Elinor is the embodiment of good judgment and proper sentiment. She has an extremely well developed sense of propriety. She is the only member of her surviving family who possess such common sense, and although the difficulties of such a position are evident, she learns to graciously accept this standing as her duty as she observes the reckless escapades that her impulsive and mother and sister encounter. She does have strong affections, but like captive princesses, they cannot escape the tower in which her judgment has confined them. Her principles are more inflexible than her disposition. Elinor is the advisor and counselor to which all doubts and problems are consequentially directed for immediate and absolute arbitration. Yet no matter how rigid her judgment, her conduct abounds in acquiescence.

Elinor is a formal character. She is ceaselessly tactful in her behavior towards her snobbish sister-in-law and her associated society, to the gregarious Sir Middleton and Mrs. Palmer, to the deceitful Willoughby, and to Lucy Steele, who has an engagement with Elinor’s true love. She controls every circumstance in exactly the way society would deem appropriate. She is completely devoted to her family, and will support them to the end.

Austen presents an exceptionally amiable protagonist in Elinor, yet she still has her faults. Such adroit decorum has its disadvantages when it comes to matters of the heart. Sacrificing one’s own feelings for the sake of not disturbing others can prove to be quite exasperating. Elinor is the epitome of Austen’s rational woman, who is conditionally sensible and supremely female.