Irony appears in various ways in Sense and Sensibility, but there is a question I want to explore: With which purpose does the author use it?
From my point of view, and as I have said before, irony is, in this literary work, the perfect tool for Austen to express her view of the world she lives in. I think it is a smart way of analyzing and criticizing how her social class worked, and, of course, due to her position we can see how it affected her life.
For instance, by observing Mr. and Mrs. Palmer’s attitude, or Mr. and Mrs. Dashwood’s, we are able to perceive how she did not see marriage as a desirable institution, as it did not promise happiness, just material comfort.
Nonetheless, the author does not regard the behaviours she disagrees with from an angry view, but from a humorous one. “Jane Austen regards the characters, good or bad alike, with ironical amusement” (Bradley, 19).
The gossip Mrs. Jennings, the cold Lady Middleton, Marianne’s overreactions, Lucy’s calculating mind… They are all a picture of some of the human nature’s defects, and the author teaches us to regard them with amusement, as we are not perfect, but we don’t have to be scandalized by it. In the words of Marvin Mudrick, “the fact is that parody has always been, for Jane Austen, the simplest reaction to feeling, the easiest irony (62).
“Irony and social convention turn out to be Jane Austen’s defenses, not only against the world, but against herself, against the heart of passion” (91), says Mudrick, which I think is such an interesting idea. The author dislikes the excessive power that sensibility has over us sometimes, even though it is something that we cannot control.