Essay On Feminism In Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

In Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility she discusses feminism through the challenges women may face in marriage. Austen’s portrayal of her characters Elinor and Marianne demonstrate the struggles and pressures women face. These challenges can be seen through primogeniture, Elinor and Marianne’s approach to love and marriage, and a man’s ability to ruin or help women. The familial succession of assets typically went to the first-born son or the next male heir. In the case of John Dashwood, he inherited Norland estate after the death of his father leaving his half-sisters and stepmother “to quit the neighborhood Norland” and move to a small cottage in Devonshire. The succession of “Norland estate was not so really important as to his sisters; for their fortune, independent of what might arise to them from their father’s inheriting that property, could be but small” (Austen 6). The succession of assets and its effect on the Dashwood women shows the unfair

The potential marriage of Miss Morton to Robert or Edward is based on her financial endowment; “of Robert’s marrying Miss Morton’… ‘The lady, I suppose, has no choice in the affair.’ ‘Choice? —how do you mean?’ ‘I only mean, that I suppose from your manner of speaking it must be the same to Miss Morton whether she marry Edward or Robert” (Austen 278). Austen discusses a valid point where women are married because of financial endowment than for love with little choice in the matter. In the case of Willoughby, he married Miss Gray for “Fifty thousand pounds, my dear. Did you ever see her? A smart, stilish girl they say, but not handsome. I remember her aunt very well…she married a very wealthy man” (Austen 184). Willoughby despite loving Marianne marries Miss Gray for her money because of his financial state. Instead of love, money becomes a determiner for the choice of marriage, making it a commodity rather than a