If you are looking for the beginning of the study on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Goodness, Fortune, Prudence, Temperance, Indulgence, Indifference
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What was the financial situation of Mr. Henry Dashwood’s son, John Dashwood, whom he had got by a former marriage?
What had “the old Gentleman” done which disappointed Mr. Henry Dashwood?
What had “the old Gentleman” done “as a mark of his affection” for the three Dashwood girls?
What was the total fortune belonging to Mrs. Henry Dashwood and her three daughters after her husband’s decease?
What had Mr. Henry Dashwood urgently made his son, John, promise he would do?
How does the text describe Mrs. John Dashwood?
What had Mr. John Dashwood initially resolved to do for his step-mother and three half sisters?
What did Mrs. John Dashwood do the moment Mr. Henry Dashwood’s funeral was over?
Under what basis did Mrs. John Dashwood object to Mr. John Dashwood’s original plan of action to help his step-mother and half sisters?
By the end of the reading what had become of Mr. John Dashwood’s original resolve (and promise) to provide aid to his step-mother and three half sisters?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Why might Jane Austen have taken pains to make clear what Mr. John Dashwood’s financial situation was like prior to inheriting Norland estate?
Why was “the old Gentleman’s” decision to settle the Norland estate upon Mr. Henry Dashwood, in the way that he did, so disappointing to Henry?
What is Austen trying to say about John when she wrote, “Had he married a more amiable woman, he might have been made still more respectable than he was”?
What does it mean to say that Mrs. John Dashwood was a “strong caricature of himself”?
What does it say about Mrs. John Dashwood that she took possession of Norland immediately after Mr. Henry Dashwood’s funeral was over?
Compare and contrast Elinor with her mother and Marianne, what stands out about their differences?
Why would Mrs. Henry Dashwood and Marianne encourage “each other…in the violence of their affliction”?
By what means did Mrs. John Dashwood move her husband’s settled conviction to help his step-mother and half sisters? How did she go about it and why was it effective?
Mrs. John Dashwood said, “Altogether, they will have five hundred a year amongst them, and what on earth can four women want for more than that?” Why is this a great example of hypocrisy?
What do we ultimately learn about Mr. John Dashwood’s character? What kind of man is he?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Mr. John Dashwood promised his father “to do everything in his power to make” Mrs. Henry Dashwood and her daughters “comfortable.” Define the concept of a “promise.” What is a promise? Are we always morally bound to keep a promise we have made? Is there ever sufficient reason to justly break a promise we have made? Since we make promises to people, or perhaps to institutions (in some cases), do we still have to keep those promises when that person dies or that institution dissolves? Explain your reasoning carefully.
In Dante’s Inferno he wrote “There is no greater sorrow in misery than to remember a time when we were happy.” How does this idea relate to the Dashwood girl’s situation at Norland after the death of their husband/father? Do you think this is universally true or can happy memories sometimes be a source of joy even when things are presently not going well? How does one go about making war on present misery? What kind of things might one do to try to improve their morale and reestablish meaningful happiness even in difficult times?
Mr. John Dashwood was manipulated by his wife into not giving much of anything at all to his step-mother and half sisters. What do you think made him so vulnerable to being manipulated? How might we become people who are not easily manipulated or persuaded away from that which we have firmly resolved to do? Since it is both possible to be too easily moved from good resolutions as well as to be too firmly fixed upon bad resolutions, what is our surest guide to knowing whether that which we have resolved to do (or believe) is just? Explain your answer thoughtfully.
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Proverbs 18:22 and 21:9 and relate them to what we have read so far? Explain how both of these proverbs can be true.
Read Proverbs 31:10-31. Contrast Mrs. John Dashwood with the wife described here. How might such a woman as described in this passage of Scripture have affected John differently?
Read Proverbs 25:28 and Galatians 5:22-23 and apply them to the Dashwood women. Whom do you see as most representative of the passage from Proverbs and who is most representative of the passage from Galatians? Justify your answer with reference to the text of Sense and Sensibility.