Literature In Review

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY PRESENTS A CONFLICT between two opposite ways of approaching the world. Both sense and sensibility are necessary for a complete life, but in this novel Jane Austen demonstrates that the pain and vagaries of living require a greater use of sense than of sensibility. Although the definitions of these two abstract nouns repeatedly shift meaning, the reader quickly comes to understand that Elinor and Edward Ferrars represent “sense” and Marianne and John Willoughby are the book’s representatives of “sensibility.”1 Much of the dramatic tension in Sense and Sensibility comes from the fact that both main suitors in the novel—Edward Ferrars and John Willoughby—conceal prior romantic engagements from the women they’ve chosen to court. These concealed engagements, though initially unknown to the heroines, are eventually uncovered, and apologies from both men ensue. Austen uses the difference between the two men’s apologies to draw fundamental distinctions between their characters. Willoughby’s apology, though long and apparently sincere, will not alter his reputation as a libertine; Edward’s, closer in tone to an excuse because it will essentially deny his responsibility for any harm, will serve as confirmation of his moral virtues as a potential husband.

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