In this literary work, the author exposes, through the different characters, how people of her same social class behaved. From my point of view, it makes the novel an interesting and entertaining document, as we learn about that subject, but at the same time we enjoy the narration thanks to the use of irony. It makes the work amusing, at least for those readers who are able to understand the ironic humour.
I am going to start analyzing the character of Marianne. She is seventeen years old, and has a strong personality. She is the encarnation of sensibility. “She was sensible and clever; but eager in every thing; her nervous, her joys, could have no moderation” (4). Marianne is an example of ironic exaggeration. At her young age, she has got a clear vision of what she wants: “I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not every point coincide with my own” (14). There we can see the egocentrism of youth in a high level.
Marianne represents the passion of feelings that leads, in some occasions, to trouble. She undergoes a huge pain because of her broken heart, since her love for Mr. Willoughby is felt too intensely, something that was not advisable at that time, as the consideration of love was colder than the one from nowadays.
Even though Marianne represents that excessive sensibility with which the author does not agree, she is at the same time the instrument used by Austen to expose her disagreement with some aspects of her class. “Jane Austen’s ironic implication is, of course, Marianne’s constant serious judgement” (Mudrick, 73). The girl is not afraid of showing her thoughts, for example, when she defends her sister Elinor in front of Mrs. Ferrars, as this one has a poor view of her drawings. It is expected from a young girl to keep her composure in front of an older lady, but ironically, she does not follow that “law”. “She talks rather too decidedly and authoritatively for such a young lady” (Doody, 17).
In the case of her sister Elinor, she is the image of sense. “Elinor … had an excellent heart; – her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them … ” (4). She uses her rationality to protect her sister and herself from the troubles that strong feelings cause. Elinor “is her author’s conscience, … and she … is totally shielded from her author’s irony or social disapproval” (Mudrick, 85). She is the clear mind among the lack of sense that reigns in the work.
Nevertheless, Elinor also is affected by the power of sensibility. She decides to suffer in silence her pain when she discovers that Edward Ferrars is going to marry Lucy Steele. Her sense makes her act prudently, as she has never spoken clearly about her feelings to Edward or even her sister, so she thinks that she has no right to claim anything against the engagement.
Another ironic character is Mrs. Jennings. She reflects the stereotype of the gossip woman who is constantly trying to arrange marriages among her acquaintances. This is one of the aspects in her class that Austen was in disagreement with, and that is why she presents the lady with that excessive attitude. “She does not approve or reward matchmaking or husband-hunting. Mrs. Jennings, the great matchmaker in “Sense and Sensibilty,” is … a paragon of vulgarity” (Smith, 155). The woman is always trying to guess who are interested the Dashwood sisters in, and vice versa. Marianne feels very bothered by that behaviour, but in time her opinion on Mrs. Jennings changes, as she realizes that, after all, she really cares about them in an affective way. In fact, “Marianne’s problem, and the mature ironic problem of Sense&Sensibility, is the interpretation of personality”(Mudrick, 63).
Mrs. Lucy Steele is the portrayal of a mean, selfish girl that only cares about her feelings. She does not lose the opportunity of showing off in front of Elinor her secret engagement to Edward Ferrars. She tells her about it, and asks her for her opinion, conducting Elinor to such an uncomfortable situation:
“I know nobody of whose judgement I think so highly as I do of yours; and I do really believe, that if you was to say to me, “I advise you by all means to put an end to your engagement with Edward Ferrars, it will be more for the happiness of both of you,” I should resolve upon doing it immediately.”
Elinor blushed for the insincerety of Edward’s future wife, and replied, “this compliment would effectually frighten me from giving any opinion on the subject had I formed one. It raises my influence much too high; the power of dividing two people so tenderly attached is too much for an indifferent person.”
“ ‘Tis because you are an indifferent person,” said Lucy, with some pique, and laying a particular stress on those words, “that your judgment might justify have such weight with me. If you could be supposed to be biassed in any respect by your own feelings, your opinion would not be worth having” (129-130).
Her mean pose towards Elinor is dissimulated by the politeness of her speech. She acts like a kind girl in front of Mrs. Jennings, Lady Middleton, etc., and specially in front of Mrs. Ferrars, Edward’s mother, and Fanny Dashwood, Edward’s sister, as she wants to get their approval about herself as Edward’s future wife, even though they don’t know anything about the engagement. Of course, Lucy does not feel any affection for them, she behaves like that for profit.
When Fanny and Mrs. Ferrars get to know about the engagement and become so horrified and angry, Lucy sees how her plan goes to waste. She continues showing her “love” to Edward, maybe waiting for an improve of the situation (the forgiveness of his mother) but that does not occur, and that is why she finally gets married to his brother Robert, the one that is meant to receive the income that was destined to Edward when he got married.
In Lucy Steele we see how her plans ironically does not occur as she was expecting, but she does not stop in her way to get a good economic position through marriage. She just has in mind her own benefit.
The men loved by the Dashwood sisters, Edward Ferrars and Mr. Willoughby, are also touched by Austen’s ironic vision.
Edward started his relation with Lucy out of a situtation in his life in which he felt blocked, and needed an escape. “I had not even the nominal employment, which belonging to the university would have given me, for I was not entered at Oxford till I was nineteen. I had therefore nothing in the world to do, but to fancy myself in love …” (318). Although he enjoyed his time with Elinor, he realized he was in love with her after anouncing his engagement with Lucy to his mother and losing her favour.
Willoughby enjoyed receiving Marianne’s attention, but he had not any further intention, as he wanted to marry a woman of fortune. He needed to establish himself with a marriage, and he gave more importance to that aim rather than his own feelings, as in some way, he felt attached to Marianne.
Both of them did not confront their feelings towards the sisters until the end, and it made them suffer. Thus here we see a defense of sensibility, not the excess of it, of course, but the importance of its position in our happiness, as Austen considers. They looked for happiness in other fields, and that was their mistake.
There are other characters that have a really defined personality, which makes us easy to identify the kind of person they represent. For instance, we see Lady Middleton, an elegant but distant woman that just expresses warmth when she is contact with her children: “her visit was long enough to detract something from their first admiration, by shewing that though perfectly well-bred, she was reserved, cold, and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most common-place inquiry or remark” (26); Mr. John Dashwood (Elinor and Marianne’s brother) and his wife Fanny, a couple in which the wife influences so much his husband’s decisions; Mrs. Ferrars, an excessively strict and overweening woman; Mr. And Mrs. Palmer, an indifferent husband and his loving, joyful and smiling wife, etc.