Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility: Austen's Use of the Arts to Support Characterization

Sense and Sensibility: Austen's Use of the Arts to Support Characterization The society in which the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, were raised required a certain proper code of conduct in order to be recognized as a civilized, well bred young girl worthy of marriage. Marriage was mostly looked upon as an aid for future financial success; men married women of equal or greater social status, very rarely marrying below themselves. Because of this sometimes …

…point where each counterbalances the other, "it was impossible for her [Marianne] to say what she did not feel, however trivial the occasion; and upon Elinor therefore the whole task of telling lies where politeness required it, always fell" (Austen 118). Elinor the sensible sister and Marianne the one ruled by sensibility were opposites of each other that who allowed their sentiments and emotions to be expressed in different manners, very often through their cherished arts.