Answer TWO of the
following…
1. Clarie Tomalin, in her
biography of Jane Austen, quotes a letter from Austen’s mother to her new
daughter-in-law: “I look forward to you
as a real comfort to me in my old age, when Cassandra is gone into Shropshire
& Jane—the Lord knows where!” This
suggests, perhaps, that her mother didn’t know what to make of her or what to
do with her wayward daughter. In
general, Jane Austen had a rocky relationship with her mother and mothers don’t
come off very well in her novels, much less in Sense and Sensibility.
Discuss the role of mothers in these final chapters, and how Austen
defines the difference between a good and bad, or perhaps effective or
ineffective, mother. Note—think of all
the mothers in the novel, not just Elinor and Marianne’s.
2. One of the most
interesting scenes in the novel is the reappearance of Willoughby and his
conversation with Elinor on a “dark and stormy night.” Though this may have turned into a Gothic
event, Austen brings it somewhere else entirely. What is the purpose of this scene to your reading of the
novel? Is it simply a way to “rescue”
him from his Gothic devilry? How does
Elinor react to his speech, and how does it affect her feelings toward
Marianne’s future relationship with Colonel Brandon?
3. Elinor’s mother,
reflecting on the match between Marianne and Colonel Brandon, notes that “the
Colonel’s manners…their gentleness, their genuine attention to other people,
and their manly, unstudied simplicity is much more accordant with her real
disposition, than the liveliness—often artificial, and often ill-timed, of the
other [Willoughby]” (240). Do you agree
with this assessment of the match between Marianne an Brandon? Does Elinor? Why do you think Brandon decided to marry her instead of
Elinor? How might Austen comment on
this match in the novel’s closing pages?
4. Related to the above,
how is Elinor and Edward’s ultimate match a satisfying or convenient one? Is she settling for a man who, though he
loved her, was unable to sacrifice his sense for his sensibility? Or is he the man more “accordant” with
Elinor’s beliefs and character? Should
she have married Brandon? Does Austen
want to frustrate our desires as readers, or is she seeking to satisfy the
demands of her age?
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