First Journal Response: Sense and Sensibility

Novel Response: Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, revolves around the lives of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, along with their mother and younger sister. They are left financially destitute after the passing of their father and, consequentially, after their removal from Norland Park. This forces the family to move into a small cottage that their cousin, Sir John Middleton, generously offers to them.

Within the novel, there are no particular characters that I strongly identify with. However, certain traits of a couple of the characters do parallel my own characteristics. Like Marianne, I am the second eldest daughter and at times we are both very melodramatic. When Willoughby leaves for London, “she [is] unable to talk, and unwilling to take any nourishment” (84), illustrating her overly theatrical and exaggerated conduct. Her “sorrows [and] joys [that] have no moderation” (24) are unlike my own feelings, however. Of course I am impractical and juvenile at times, but never to the