Imagine a time when men were actually gentlemen, and balls were an average event where women dressed in beautiful gowns, trying their best to snatch a suitor. Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility pulled me into a lost era of romance and sisterhood.
Characters are one of the main aspects of Austen's books. One character named Marianne really stole my attention. Her passion for life and her innocence make up a huge part of this book. She is always trying to nudge her way into Elinor, her sister's, life. For instance, when a man named Edward Ferris came to visit their house, Marianne did her best to get Elinor to confess her true feelings for Edward, but all Elinor said was that she "thought very highly of him....that I greatly esteem him....that I like him." This of course horrified Marianne who had so much more passion in her heart than Elinor. Marianne has her own romance(s) throughout the book and had her heart broken in the process. She was changed after that, but she somewhat remained the beautiful flower that she was.
One detail that I love about Austen's writing is her use of setting. I was born in the wrong era and country, because I would give anything to have my own Barton Cottage, the main characters' home, in England. London is also described in this book when Elinor, Marianne, and Lucy Steele accompany Mrs. Jennings' to her home there. A ball is thrown and Marianne discovers that her suitor has been engaged to another who has more wealth than she. The ball sounds wonderful with lots of dancing and handsome English men. The houses there are so different and bigger than what we are accustomed to. Why, oh why, was I born here and now?
Gender roles play a huge part in Sense and Sensibility. The women do what women were supposed to do back then such as sewing, playing the piano, and drawing. They dressed in fine gowns for the balls and had their hair extravagantly done. As for the men, in this book they are what me should be: gentlemanly (for the most part), polite, courteous, and some devilishly handsome.(; However, at the same time, I would not have wanted to have lived back then because women had no freedom. Hypothetically, if I were a daughter of a gentleman, and he died, I would have no part of the inheritance. My brother or closest male relative would decide how much money he would give me or (even worse) how much he would give my husband for a dowry!
I highly recommend this book for any girl who dreams of another time. If you like romance, heartbreak, and loss in a book, then this book is all for you! I would not, however, suggest that guys read this book, unless they are really REALLY into romance and such. Austen never fails to give me an escape from reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment