Blog Post 5

There are many other characters in Sense and Sensibility besides Elinor and Marianne that not only shape the plot of the story, but the girl's lives as well. The relationships between these characters are often the cause of conflict throughout the book. John Dashwood is the half brother of Elinor and Marianne. He is married to Fanny Dashwood and both are very similar in nature. Both are conceited snobs who though sporadically reach out to others, are most of the time only concerned with themselves and their well being. Fanny can be very disagreeable and difficult to live with and John is often stubborn and inconsiderate. This is proven right at the beginning of the book when John must make the decision of what to give his half sisters after the death of his father. Fanny insists they give very little and her selfishness her proven through her logic which Austen explains by saying, "And what possible claim could the Dashwoods, who were related to him only by half blood, which she considered no relationship at all, have on his generosity to so large an amount? It was very well known, that no affection was ever supposed to exist between the children of any man by different marriages; and why was he to ruin himself, and their poor little Harry, by giving away all his money to his half sisters?" (7). Right from the beginning of the book, these two characters set off the conflict and tension in the relationships in the novel.

The two love interests throughout most of the book also add conflict by leaving Marianne and Elinor behind without remorse. Marianne falls quickly in love with a man named Willoughby who I find extremely inconsiderate. He abruptly leaves Marianne and the next time she sees him it is at a party where he completely ignores her. He only later writes to her to tell her that he is engaged to another woman! I believe that Willoughby is inconsiderate and afraid to take responsibility for his actions. He basically runs away from Marianne only to go marry another woman. Edward Ferrars is also similarly cowardly. He does not tell Elinor that he is engaged to Lucy. While their relationship was not quite as outward, it still leaves Elinor very upset. Much of the conflict involving Elinor and Edward revolves around his fiancé Lucy who Jane Austen describes as "Lucy was naturally clever; her remarks were often just and amusing; and as a companion for half an hour Elinor frequently found her agreeable; but her powers had received no aid from education: she was ignorant and illiterate; and her deficiency of all mental improvement, her want of information in the most common particulars, could not be concealed from Miss Dashwood, in spite of her constant Endeavour to appear to advantage"(113). Lucy from the start does not have a compatible personality with Elinor and is one of the catalysts for the conflict.