In such a harsh, demanding and often hostile world, how does the heroine get personal happiness through marriage? Austin's warning is that emotions should be controlled by reason. In the process of making a boyfriend, be careful, don't be emotional and willful. She believes that emotion is often a dangerous guide to women's behavior. If you meet a man with superior conditions, but not an expert in love, the consequences are often unimaginable. The man either likes the new and hates the old, or chooses another object with better conditions because of his parents' opposition. In this case, if the woman is emotional, she will be deeply traumatized and unable to extricate herself.
These views of Austin are most vividly reflected in this first novel. Leonard Woolf, a British liberal economist, put it well in the article Economic Determinism in Jane Austen's Works: "It is obvious to what extent the plot and characters depend on money. The whole beginning of Sense and Sensibility revolves around the property problem in dashwood's will and the greed of Mrs. John dashwood, who earns 10 thousand pounds a year. " In the process of dividing the inheritance, Austin explained the diametrically opposite personality characteristics of the two sisters in the dashwood family: the elder sister Eleanor was "very knowledgeable and calm". Although she is only nineteen years old, she can be a good mother's adviser ... She has a kind heart ... full of emotions, but she knows how to control emotions; This is a subject that her mother needs to study and one of her sisters insists on refusing to study. " Sister Marian's "gift" is not worse than her sister's in many ways. ..... She is freely sad or happy. ..... Everything is fine, except for carelessness. "That is to say, Marianne let her emotions dominate her behavior, and Eleanor didn't want to be influenced by this impulse.
Austin's creative intention is very clear. She just changed the original title of Eleanor and Marianne to Sense and Sensibility to emphasize her theme.
In this book, Austin shows the character contrast between the two sisters, and tells most stories from her sister's outlook on life, ethics and social concepts, thus creating a "reasonable mortal". This is her ideal woman. When they learned that Willoughby made full use of his superior social position, played with Marianne's sincere love, abandoned Eliza, a girl from a bad career, and finally married Miss Gray, Marianne fully realized her stupidity. Her mother also admitted that she had always admired Willoughby and acted rashly. This reflects how wise Eleanor has always been towards things and people. Marianne woke up and thought that she should follow her sister's example and handle love and marriage issues carefully. Then she thought of Colonel Brandon, who had already fallen in love with her. When the colonel and their sisters first met, they were over 35 years old. In the eyes of 17-year-old Marianne at that time, she was "an old bachelor to the core", "old enough to be my father" and "thirty-five years old can never get married". The colonel fell in love with her from the beginning. Knowing the whole story of Willoughby seducing and abandoning Eliza, a little girl who acted only with enthusiasm, he was afraid that Marianne with the same personality would suffer the same fate. He is always concerned about Marianne's happiness. After long-term contact, Eleanor and her mother deeply realized that the colonel had a kind heart and noble character. After Marianne fell ill, he finally showed his love for Marianne when he went to see Mrs. dashwood. Marianne grew spiritually and learned her lesson. After only two years, she overcame her naive love concept at the age of seventeen, and was willing to marry a colonel and began to take on the responsibility of being a housewife.
In this way, reason prevailed in the hearts of the two sisters. Austin arranged a happy home for them. The book begins with a comedy, with a storm in the middle. Marianne almost led to tragedy and ended in comedy. In the unfinished novella Catherine written by Austin at the age of 16, it is the first time to try to put the heroine in a completely realistic social environment and explore her various responses to the complex and often conflicting demands of traditional morality and social customs. Here, the author shows a mature understanding of women's position in the male world. She strongly criticized the social customs that made the heroine suffer misfortune, and deplored the double standards of young men and women in courtship: the man can use various tricks to capture the woman, but the woman has to compromise for perfection and exchange natural beauty for economic security.
The author has an insight into the crux of the problem, but this does not make her a rebel of the times like most serious writers such as Shelley. In her works, she reveals the disadvantages of this social system, but basically thinks that this system is healthy and self-improving, so at most, she gently satirizes personal behavior with sharp brushstrokes, without revealing her deep hatred. This is a major feature of her creation: the faces of greedy and selfish ladies and gentlemen with property and privileges are objectively outlined by the lines and movements of characters. In the first chapter, the author explains the characters of the brothers and sisters of the two sisters: "He is not a bad young man. If he is a little cold and selfish, it is not bad." ..... if he marries a kind woman ... he may become kind himself. It's a pity that he was very young when he got married and loved his wife very much. And Mrs John dashwood is an amazing portrayal of himself, with a narrower and more selfish heart. "Then, in the second chapter, we let the couple appear and seriously discuss how to fulfill Zhuangzi's dying master's instructions to take care of his stepmother and her daughters. As a result, under the attack of women's "more selfish" suggestions, men retreated one after another, and finally decided not to give them money, but only to help them find a house and move, and they could feel at ease. This wonderful satire is common in Austin's other works.
Austin also let the idle ladies and gentlemen who are keen to dominate the fate of young men and women in the book appear in front of readers one by one. For example, Mrs. Jennings, a rich widow who "only wants the whole world to marry men and women", is convinced that the colonel loves Marianne deeply and thinks that "this is a happy marriage because he is rich and she is handsome". John, the elder brother of the two sisters, once mistakenly thought that the colonel was in love with Eleanor, and advised her, "Maybe it's because you have less property that he balked ... but with a little courtship and encouragement, you can catch him ... which is easy for girls." Seeing that Marianne was ill and looked terrible, he said, "I'm not sure if Marianne can marry a man with an annual income of more than five or six hundred pounds." These people's selfish values and deep-rooted vulgar views that men are superior to women are exposed.
However, the author did not demonize the immoral playboy Willoughby. When he first appeared, Marianne accidentally slipped and sprained her foot while climbing a mountain near the villa. He went hunting and picked her up and sent her back to the villa. His appearance and manner immediately conquered their mother and daughter. After that, every time he appeared, the author always praised him through the eyes of others. Austin didn't describe the crime he committed positively, but told it through the colonel first, and finally made him confess that he regretted it and never changed his mind about Marianne. This sentence actually won Eleanor's sympathy, saying that "this man is outstanding in appearance and talent ... but because of his early independent life, he developed the habit of laziness, debauchery and luxury, and his mind, personality and happiness were irretrievably hurt." In this way, the author obviously regards Willoughby as a victim of that system and compares Edward with him. Both of them depend on rich widows to lead an idle life and have to obey them in order to inherit property. But Edward was always honest and principled, and finally violated his mother's orders about personal happiness, while Willoughby succumbed to the almost devastating influence of the environment, sacrificed his love for Marianne for money and married Miss Gray. Later, it was too late to regret it. In this book, Austin emphasized this point: for men and women at that time, the system was a bigger enemy than themselves and others, and everyone was a victim or potential victim of this system.
Irony can be seen everywhere in Sense and Sensibility. This technique is not only seen in the comic treatment of the plot, but also integrated into the overall structure of the story. Marianne first concluded that the old and frail Colonel Brandon was "not qualified to consider marriage", but later it turned out that he was Mrs. Brandon himself. Look at Lucy. She used to hate Robert very much, but she finally married him willingly. In Jane Austen's works, reality is such a practical joke. She likes to ridicule the judgments, wishes and actions of the world.
Jane Austen writes novels, and perhaps her greatest pleasure is to create characters. Her characters are not based on abstract external descriptions, but on detailed internal descriptions. Only through vivid dialogues and interesting plots can she write the characters vividly. Therefore, E·M· Forster, a famous British writer, said that the characters in Jane Austen's novels are "round" solids, not "flat" planes. In Sense and Sensibility, there are nearly twenty gentlemen and ladies, ladies and ladies of the leisure class, not to mention the main characters mentioned above, all of whom are meticulously crafted and lifelike, and even the minor characters with little pen and ink are written in flesh and blood. Lucy's sister Steele didn't find her husband's family until she was twenty-nine, so she had to seek some spiritual comfort from other people's jokes. Once, people made fun of Dr. David, and for a while she got a will. "Pretend to be serious and ask Mrs. Tannings to dispel rumors for her. Mrs. Tannings fully understands her intention. At that time, I assured her that of course she would not refute the rumor. Miss Steele was almost ecstatic. A few words, showing the image of a secret lover. Jane Eyre Austin-Leigh, the author's nephew, wrote in his Memoirs of Jane Austen: "The charm of the most lovable characters in Jane Austen's works is hardly a true reflection of her lovely temperament and warm heart." Eleanor dashwood is such a figure, which fully embodies the author's ideal. So this book is naturally described mainly from Eleanor's point of view. However, with the rise of feminist movement in the west in recent years, not only some writers use feminist viewpoint to guide their creation, but also critics try to find the expression of this idea in past literary works. In English literature, they are especially keen on studying the works of famous female writers such as Bronte sisters and Austin. In this book, they especially praise Marianne, because she is a bold woman who does not abide by traditional norms and dares to oppose hypocritical social customs. For example, when her cousin Sir John Middleton said that she was flirting with Willoughby, Marianne said mercilessly, "I hate it when you say that. Any vulgar words are considered as one-liners. I really hate people. What is teasing men and conquering men, especially unbearable. " When her snobbish sister-in-law, Fanny, said that Eleanor's painting on the small screen was "a bit like Miss Morton's painting style", Marianne flatly ignored Miss Morton's aristocratic status and said excitedly, "What a fresh compliment! What does Miss Morton have to do with us? ..... Who cares if her paintings are good or bad? We are thinking and talking about Eleanor. " So in contrast, from a long-term perspective, Eleanor's choice seems to tend to better maintain the established social order, with how to survive in it as the goal, and Marianne's words and deeds sometimes pose a threat to this order, so it is more desirable.
In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Sister Eleanor is a rational female representative. She is calm and rational in dealing with people, and has no regrets or impulses on emotional issues, and she is very helpful in restraining her emotions. Eleanor is a young girl with strong feelings and a cool head. When she chose the object, she didn't talk about appearance, only about character, and fell in love with Edward, who was frank and enthusiastic.
On the contrary, my sister Marian is a passionate and emotional woman. She is extremely clever, has too many romantic fantasies about love, and is bent on having a rich, excellent and attractive Mr. Right. Her criteria for choosing a spouse are more appearance and wealth than personality. The starting point of her mate selection was also a common phenomenon in society at that time.