WebQuest:

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility

by Amy Trask

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Introduction

Many of you may have seen the movie version of Sense and Sensibility. Now you will have the opportunity to read and study the book, written by Jane Austen and set in late 18th-century England. Austen is traditionally associated with the Victorian period, but actually lived prior to it. Most of Austen's books were published during the Regency or Georgian period, but since she influenced the thinking of so many Victorians, some believe that her work should be taught with that of later novelists. Austen was particularly concerned with domestic life, specifically where it concerned the situations of women. Sense and Sensibility primary concerns are the lives of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (played by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, above, in the most recent movie version).

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Task

Read Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Take careful note of all characters and their relationships (both familial and social) to each other. Your task will be to write a 5-page paper on one of the topics listed below.

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Process

1. Choose one of the following topics (or pick your own and confirm it with me):

a) Do you think that Austen is simply "for" sense and "against" sensibility? Does Elinor ever seem to be limited or constrained by having too much sense? Does Marianne ever seem more sympathetic than her sister? If so, do you think Austen intended us to have these responses, or do we respond to her characters differently now than her contemporaries might have?

b) "The agony of grief which overpowered them at first," says the narrator of Mrs. Dashwood's and Marianne's response to the death of Mr. Dashwood, "was voluntarily renewed, was sought for, was created again and again." Reading Sense and Sensibility late in the twentieth century, when it is considered psychologically healthy to "get in touch with your feelings," does the narrator's higher opinion of Elinor's more restrained response to her father's death seem "old-fashioned"? Do you think Austen's narrator is unsympathetic to her characters' sorrow? To powerful feeling generally?

c) The Dashwood women discuss Edward Ferrars for many pages before the reader actually meets him in a dramatic scene. Why do you think Austen chose to create the whole Elinor/Edward love affair "off stage"? What do Marianne's and Elinor's descriptions of and reactions to Edward tell us about each of them? About their ideas of love?

d) Austen herself never married, but she depicts marriage as the ultimate goal and "happy ending" for Elinor and Marianne. What do you think the novel reveals about her views of marriage generally? How do the marriages of Charlotte and Mr. Palmer, Fanny and John Dashwood, Lucy Steele and Robert Ferrars, reflect on the marriages of the sisters? Would Austen have considered it a happy ending for Marianne if, as is posited in the end, Willougby had married her and also had been restored his fortune? Or if she had ended up living with her mother indefinitely, "finding her only pleasures in retirement and study," as she planned before falling in love with Colonel Brandon?

e) "Wealth has much to do with . . . happiness," Elinor states at one point. "Elinor, for shame!" says Marianne. "Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it." What is the relationship between love and money in Sense and Sensibility? Is it different for different characters? Has the relationship between love and money changed in today's world?

NOTE: Questions are taken from the Penguin Reader's Guide to Sense and Sensibility.

2. Please use Web resources for all or part of your additional research. You are also welcome to use any traditional print sources that you wish. A list of books and essays on Sense and Sensibility can be found here, and there are also a couple in the Resources list below.

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Resources

Sense and Sensibility--on-line text

Jane Austen biographies: modern and 1910 (both from Britannica) Jane Austen Information page--Sense and Sensibility Character geneology in Sense and Sensibility Women of the Regency period Regency Life--Education, Marriage, Status of Women, etc. Critical essay--Colonel Brandon, Elinor, Marianne Critical essay--Jane Austen's life in relation to characterizations of Elinor and Marianne

Penguin reader's guide (includes additional criticism and questions)

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Evaluation

You will be evaluated as follows:

Your topic must be well-developed and well-written, and must include at least three examples from the text to back up your argument. It must contain at least one image or graphic, which can either be from the Web or a print source. Also, please include an APA style bibliography with at least one Internet resource. Please visit this site for information on citing Internet resources.

Sense and Sensibility book covers: Amazon.com

Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet: Sense and Sensibility Clothing

Jane Austen image: The Republic of Pemberley