Sense and Sensibility
Introduction and Study Guide
“Elinor….had an excellent heart;— her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn, and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught.”
There may never have been written a better book for discussing the virtue of Temperance than Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Elinor Dashwood is an almost perfect character while yet being perfectly believable. She has no super powers, nor is she in any way inhuman, but she has done what seems impossible to so many people. What amazing thing has she done? She has simply controlled herself.
Many people mistake the virtues for something they are not. Too many have mistaken recklessness for courage, too many have mistaken shrewd selfishness for prudence, too many people have mistaken savage revenge for justice, still others have mistaken temperance for emptying oneself of all strong desires or feelings. Each of these, in their turn, deserve to be set right, but for now let us only consider the truth about temperance more closely.
The Study The Great Books Virtue Catechism tells us what the virtue of temperance actually is:
“The virtue of Temperance is exhibited in the mastery of one’s own passions and desires so as only to yield to a natural appetite when it is prudent to do so and to deny those same appetites when needful.”
Far from being cold or unfeeling, it is required of the temperate person to feel just as deeply, to long just as passionately, and to desire with equal intensity what every human person desires. The difference between the temperate person and the indulgent one is not the lack of feeling but the ability to rein oneself in, to force all that one feels and desires to submit to what is true, prudent, just, honorable, and decent. A person who does not burn cannot be temperate. Such an unfeeling soul would have no need for temperance. Temperance is only for those who are alive and who feel as any natural person would feel under the same circumstances.
In Sense and Sensibility Marianne Dashwood cannot understand her sister, Elinor. Why is she not more expressive? Why is she not more open with her feelings? Does she even have them? Marianne cannot conceive of feeling without also sharing, nor of longing without expressing, nor of love without sonnets being written or recited. How can Elinor ever expect to acquire happiness if she is so reserved and unwilling to go after what she desires with both hands? To whom does the prize go? To the one who waits or to the one who seizes?
Jane Austen is a master of character study. It’s not just that she is able to give us believable characters, it’s that she is able to give us characters which we could swear we’ve already met somewhere. She writes characters we can love and characters we can hate. She writes characters we can laugh at and with. She writes characters that arouse our compassion and our disgust. Every time you meet someone new, you meet someone just like someone else you already know. The real shock in reading Jane Austen, however, is when you meet yourself in her books. Yes, you too are a type of person and she writes about you as well. If you are like me, you will also meet the kind of characters whom you’ll wish you were like.
There is no female character in all of literature whom I personally admire more than Elinor Dashwood. Interestingly enough, there is no male character in all of literature whom I personally admire more than Mr. George Knightly (from Jane Austen’s Emma). Both of these characters are examples of temperate, reserved natures (admittedly Elinor more so), who do not give in to fancy, who are sincere and deep feeling, good hearted, who see through the ruses of fools, and who keep steady on the right course even when they might long to take another. Austen has given me admirable models of Chrsitain virtue which stir in me a longing to be a better person than I am and I know she will do the same for you.
Desiring to acquire virtue is the first step to doing so. In my opinion this is Jane Austen’s greatest good as an author, she tutors us in virtue by teaching us, through her characters, what we ought to love and what we ought to hate. Virtues and vices are soapparent in characters like the Miss Dashwoods, Willoughby, the Ferrars, the Middletons, Mrs. Jennings, the Miss Steeles, and Colonel Brandon that the characters of her story train our minds to see virtue and vice for what they are, namely, laudable or despicable. Her characters attune our hearts to feel as they ought about such people and such actions. When we encounter the counterparts of her characters in the real world we will know what to do and how to feel because we have already walked these paths with Miss Austen. The good men and women of Austen’s stories teach us how to live well, how to endure suffering and disappointment, how to love others, how to wait and do good even when it seems hopeless, how to behave better than others without pridefully thinking ourselves to be better than them.
Somehow, despite some truly obnoxious and reprehensible characters in her story, Austen leaves us with a real love for our fellow human beings. We are all in this confusing and often difficult world together and we ought to do our best to make it better for one another. Often, even with the worst characters in her stories, Austen leads you not so much to despise them, but to deplore the choices that led them down the wrong road. We are left with the sense that everyone we meet could be a better person if they had made (or even if they will now begin to make) better choices. It is our actions that define us and it is what we do today that matters more than what we did yesterday. Who will we be this day? Today is all that is really ours to command.
I’ve never read a single Jane Austen book (even if reading it for the fifth time) without deepening my desire to be a better man and to do honor to good people and to encourage goodness in those around me. I am thankful for these portraits of Christian virtue wrapped into humorous and engaging stories. I am thankful for Jane Austen and her command of storytelling and her wit. I am thankful for this book which has much to teach us. I am thankful for Elinor. Dear sweet, stalwart in the stormy seas of passion, Elinor.
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Thanks for your commentary on Jane Austen, as I have read and heard so may Christian men denigrate Jane Austen books as silly romance novels (which shows they have probably never actually read a Jane Austen novel). The character studies and real life observations in her novels are wonderful and timeless and I am so grateful for this study guide and thoughtful analysis of her work.
Jane Austen is one of the greatest of all time. Thank you for writing about her second greatest novel (Pride and Prejudice being her masterpiece).