Sense and Sensibility , published in 1811, and Persuasion, published posthumously in 1818, are a study in similarities rather than differences.
The story in Persuasion is simpler than that in Sense and Sensibility, though the subtle interactions between the characters are more complex. Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last completed novel, shows her growth from a high-spirited girl into a witty, steadfast, loving woman. But it is in the similarities that readers find the most telling symbols of what Jane Austen valued, in both others and, perhaps, even in herself.
Personalities of the Heroines
The two heroines of Sense and Sensibility, sisters named Elinor (the eldest) and Marianne Dashwood, are really the components of Anne Elliot’s personality, the heroine in Persuasion.
- Marianne Dashwood represents Anne Elliot when she is younger and more carefree. Both characters fall in love, though Marianne overlooks her true love initially, whilst Anne loves the same man as years go by.
- Elinor Dashwood characterises Anne Elliot in her late 20s, when Persuasion takes place. Both heroines are full of care, responsible and called upon to exercise that responsibility for those around them, and even a bit world-worn. After Anne gave up her true love eight years before Persuasion opens at another's behest, she began to wilt, as Elinor wilts throughout Sense and Sensibility after learning the man she loves is engaged to another.
This dualism in personalities is one of the subtle facets that makes Jane Austen’s works ever fascinating to study and fresh to read. The characters are real and understadable, so modern readers can relate to them as well as could readers in Jane Austen’s era.
Near Tragedies for the Heroines
All three heroines face near tragedies in the two novels in a captivating parallel structure that Jane Austen effortlessly weave into both storylines.
- Marianne is faced with her own mortality and its needless cause when she worries herself sick, literally, and develops what could be a deadly fever.
- Elinor’s tragedy is on multiple levels, as is Anne’s. Elinor faces a long, cold night of tears and dread as she watches over her feverish sister, praying for her to recover. Elinor also faces a tragedy of the heart, as she thinks throughout the novel that she has lost the one man she has ever truly loved to an unwise alliance he made years before with a woman with no sensibility or sense whatsoever.
- Anne also faces near tragedies on multiple levels. Physically, her friend, Louisa Musgrove, receives a dire head injury. In this instance, Anne is like Elinor, reduced to watching over another’s physical suffering. Emotionally, Anne also suffers quietly as Elinor did, when she thinks her only love is lost forever. Anne’s words on this subject could be for both heroines: “All the privilege I claim for my own six (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
- Anne, though she does not fall physically ill during the novel, in her younger years grows passionate about a young man, as does Marianne. But unlike Marianne, Anne’s passion is rightly placed, and she is the one to break off the alliance, not the young man, Frederick Wentworth. Anne retains her passion through the years, whilst Marianne seems flighty until she recovers from her fever and looks at her previous immature behaviour in light of her sister’s maturity.
The heroines in both novels face what could be life-changing tragedies, both on physical and emotional levels. Indeed, for Anne Elliot of Persuasion, her undying love for the man she sent away caused her to wilt and fade after he left. She loved him throughout the eight years of their separation. At least Marianne and Elinor Dashwood of Sense and Sensiblity did not have to wait so long to be united with their true loves.
Loyal Men in Sense and Sensiblity and Persuasion
All three heroines had the gift of having won the hearts of loyal men. But this need not sound sexist or without merit, for the storylines of both novels also follow the character development of the women and the men throughout.
- Marianne, though she longs for the heart of another, retains the heart of Colonel Brandon from the first time he hears and sees her playing piano. Eventually, she grows into the maturity to accept his true love.
- Elinor falls in love with Edward, the brother of her sister-in-law, despite her being told by him that, years before, he made an unwise alliance with a woman whom he no longer loved. However, in that era, it was up to the woman to break off any alliance; the man could not back out. Such was the case of Edward’s plight, and yet through it all, he loves Elinor.
- Whilst Anne is pining for Frederick Wentworth, he also is pining for her. He remains loyal to her, though hurt by her actions. His words to her that prove he still loves her are forever memorable: “I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago.”
All three heroines in Jane Austen’s first and last novels, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion, share more similarities than they do differences.
They all share characteristics, experience near tragedies, and love loyal men.
Elinor and Marianne Dashwood and Anne Elliot manoeuvre through their worlds with grace and quiet wisdom based on experience. People of this day, as surely as people of Jane Austen’s era, can only try to do as much.
Sources:
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, Penguin Books, 1995.
Persuasion, by Jane Austen, Oxford University Press, 1971, 1990.
Pamela Mooman - Pamela Mooman I am an award-winning writer and editor. I have more than 19 years of experience working in a variety of subjects and ...
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