My second novel written by Jane Austen, and I still find her a snooze. It follows three Dashwood sisters and their mother. They find themselves impoverished after the death of the Mr. Dashwood. The step brother, who inherited all the property, was manipulated by his wife into not giving the Dashwoods what is rightfully theirs. The eldest sisters— Marianne and Elinor are of age and the rest of the book focuses on their boy troubles. At the end of it, I was left wondering what the point of the entire story was.
The ‘Sense’ in the title points to the eldest sister, Elinor. However, I do not think it is apt. She is certainly the most mature, but I would still characterise her low on a scale of maturity. She bottles up all of her emotions and maintains a very cold and distant appearance. That prevents the readers from feeling any form of affability towards her. Whereas, her sister, Marianne does not believe in hiding her emotions. She is naïve, thrives on drama and theatrics and I found her excessive youthful joviality off putting. This is one of the reasons I find Jane Austen’s books vexing. Her characters’ personalities are so extreme. They’re either emotionally inaccessible or overtly emotional and sensitive. There’s no balance, there are no decent characters.
I do not detect a whiff of feminism in Jane Austen’s stories. All that anyone ever thinks of is marriage and settling down. From nosy neighbours to match-making aunts, everyone is hungry for the new couple. The most deterrent thought that a lead in a Jane Austen novel can have is if she should write a letter to her lover before he does. The intermittent use of Shakespeare’s sonnets comes off as cheesy and try hard, to me. There is neither independence of thought nor independence of existence. I think it is safe to say, that I belong to the group of readers who simply do not “get” Jane Austen.
The ‘Sense’ in the title points to the eldest sister, Elinor. However, I do not think it is apt. She is certainly the most mature, but I would still characterise her low on a scale of maturity. She bottles up all of her emotions and maintains a very cold and distant appearance. That prevents the readers from feeling any form of affability towards her. Whereas, her sister, Marianne does not believe in hiding her emotions. She is naïve, thrives on drama and theatrics and I found her excessive youthful joviality off putting. This is one of the reasons I find Jane Austen’s books vexing. Her characters’ personalities are so extreme. They’re either emotionally inaccessible or overtly emotional and sensitive. There’s no balance, there are no decent characters.
I do not detect a whiff of feminism in Jane Austen’s stories. All that anyone ever thinks of is marriage and settling down. From nosy neighbours to match-making aunts, everyone is hungry for the new couple. The most deterrent thought that a lead in a Jane Austen novel can have is if she should write a letter to her lover before he does. The intermittent use of Shakespeare’s sonnets comes off as cheesy and try hard, to me. There is neither independence of thought nor independence of existence. I think it is safe to say, that I belong to the group of readers who simply do not “get” Jane Austen.