Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility Is Often Seen as a Witty Satire of a Sentimental Novel. How Far Do You Agree?

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility is often seen as a witty satire of a sentimental novel. How far do you agree?

Sentimental novels rely on emotional response, both from their readers and characters and Jane Austen's use of witty satire to critique the blandness of overdone social decorum in the novel provokes these feelings. Her sharp satire is cleverly woven into the narrative voice of this novel through a mix of free indirect speech, direct speech and 3rd person omniscient narrative.

The on-going main theme of this novel is displayed through the characteristics of the characters in the novel. Two prime examples of the theme Sense Vs. Sensibility are sisters Marianne and Elinor Dashwood. By showing us how the two sisters, Elinor ("sense") and Marianne ("sensibility"), manage their love relationships, Austen attempts to show the dangers of excessive sensibility, or feeling.

One danger is that feeling is not always a reliable guide to truth. For example, Marianne feels that Willoughby loves her. While this may be so, it does not follow that he will act on his feelings and marry her. Her character seems to use a certain dialogue that consists of a sense of over-dramatization. For example "...are my ideas so scanty? But I see what you mean. I have been too much at my ease, too happy, too frank. I have erred against every common-place notion of decorum! I have been open and sincere where I ought to be and have been reserved, spiritless, dull and deceitful..."we see Marianne struggling with notions of what a proper lady does. Her sentences are not as structured as Elinor's and we can see why she struggles with the ideology of a proper woman during the Victorian age. A second danger in elevating sensibility above other considerations is that it leads to selfishness. For example, Marianne feels justified in being rude to Mrs. Jennings because that lady's gossipy curiosity offends her sensitive nature. Only when Marianne later realizes the error of her ways does she come to appreciate Mrs. Jennings' kindness, a quality that was always evident to the woman of "sense," Elinor. Austen shows that however deeply held someone's feelings are, they do not excuse that person from the decencies of social behaviour. A third danger in valuing sensibility over restraint is that it exposed a person's reputation to public scandal. Marianne's openness about her feelings for Willoughby leads everyone to speculate on their forthcoming marriage and endangers her reputation in an age when women were supposed to be either chaste or married. At the very least, it risks her dignity, as in the scene in which she rushes up to Willoughby at the party and is slighted by him.

It should be noted, however, that it is too simplistic to place Elinor entirely in the camp of "sense" and Marianne entirely in the camp of "sensibility" and to draw a strict dividing line between the two. Marianne is well supplied with good sense, and the modern reader is likely to sympathize with her judgments on tiresome people and her impatience at conventions that demanded, for instance, that a woman hide her feelings for a man until she was certain that they were returned. Elinor, for her part, feels as deeply as Marianne, experiencing deep sorrow when she is separated from Edward and when she learns of his secret engagement to Lucy Steele. But the two women manage their emotions very differently. Marianne indulges her emotions, feeding them with melancholy memories. This increases her own suffering and that of the people who love her. Elinor too has "an excellent heart" and her feelings are strong, but crucially, "she knew how to govern them." Elinor, after Edward leaves the