Sense and Sensibility

The title Sense and Sensibility describes the two separate personalities of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, respectfully. Elinor is always described as maybe having too much sense; she doesn't embrace her emotions or let them show in any way. Even when she faces the threat of losing the man she loves to an undeserving girl, it appears that she is perfectly fine. Marianne, on the other hand, is too sensible. She reacts violently to her emotional situations and does not know how to appear calm or to hide her feelings in any way. If she disagrees with a statement or opinion of someone else, her own opinions burst forth without any control. This often creates embarassment for Elinor, but Marianne doesn't notice her impropriety. Luckily, towards the end of the novel the two girls' personalities calm down. Marianne learns to control her emotions a bit more, and Elinor finally has a reason to show her true happiness. While the girls still remain somewhat the same by the end of the novel, the story is about their struggles with these attributes and how Elinor's sense and Marianne's sensibility end up getting them a happy ending after all.

Themes

Northanger Abbey has vastly different themes than the other novels we have read. I definitely do not think all Austen novels deal with the same issues, but Northanger Abbey is certainly the most different. First of all, this novel deals with aspects of the Gothic--Catherine reads gothic novels, wants to explore castles and dark passages, and is sure that there is some kind of plot going on beneath the surface. This creates a different kind of suspense from any other Austen novel, that of terror and mystery beyond the plotline of romance. The romance is still there, however, and one of the things I love about this novel is the way Austen explores what exactly people actually do on their vacations to resort towns. None of the other novels, except maybe Persuasion slightly, actually detail what happens in these towns and how the vacationers amuse themselves. This vacation is exciting for Catherine as she has never been out of town on her own (or rather, with friends) before. Austen takes us into "the rooms" where Catherine searches for eligible bachelors and gets caught up in flirtation and the suspense of the "chase." I thought this aspect of the novel was great because it really illustrated how a young girl at the time would feel when finally given the chance to act like a young woman and search for love. This is unique to this particular Austen novel. Catherine's naivete is not necessarily unique, but I think that she is much more naive than any other Austen girl and this leads to the suspenseful gothic happenings at Northanger Abbey. The gothic suspense is of course only experienced in this Austen novel, none others, so that makes this novel a really fun escape from the "norm."

The Argument of Harriet Smith

I think that Mr. Knightley's opinion of Harriet is most correct in Chapter 8 of Emma. I believe that Emma thinks highly of Harriet only because she has been working to improve her and believes that anyone whom she could deem such a friend could never be a suitable match for Mr. Martin. However, Mr. Knightley is correct that Harriet has no genteel background and really no great attributes to reccommend her to someone of a higher class. Emma may have improved her social graces but Harriet is not very clever and it doesn't seem that she can do many of the "accomplishments" always discussed in Austen novels. I never read anything about her being accomplished; she doesn't paint or play an instrument and I never even read about her doing needleworl. In this light, she is not only from an anonymous background but she is not very cultivated. I think that, considering these things along with how much she truly loves Mr. Martin, Mr. Knightley was definetely right is assuming she should have accepted him. To answer the question about liking/disliking Mr. Martin's proposal, I would have to say a romantic proposal should never be written in a letter. It should be intimate and face to face. I don't really know what the "perfect" proposal would involve for me except that I hate the showy ones (like people proposing at sports games on the big screen...yuk!) I guess I would want him to have asked my parents because they would probably be more accepting of it that way. Most of all if it's the one I love, he can do whatever he wants. It's what happens after that matters most.