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)
Appearance vs. Reality, Despotism, Compassion, Gratitude, Duty
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What “plan was suggested” which would begin the process of getting the Dashwood girls back home to Barton Cottage?
What was Mrs. Jennings “too honourable to listen” to?
Despite what Mrs. Jennings thought Colonel Brandon was offering to Elinor, what was he really offering?
Who came in to see Elinor just as she was sitting down to write Edward a letter?
How did Edward react upon receiving the offer made to him by Colonel Brandon?
How was the confusion between Mrs. Jennings and Elinor finally resolved?
What opinion did Mrs. Jennings state about Edward and Lucy which was contrary to that of Colonel Brandon’s?
To whom did Elinor feel it was “necessary to pay” a visit though the idea was opposed by Marianne and Mrs. Jennings?
What did John Dashwood wish to speak with Elinor about alone?
Whom did the Ferrars intend for Robert to marry now that Edward had been disowned and disinherited?
What did Robert Ferrars think about the idea of Edward being a minister?
What was Robert Ferrars’ evaluation of Lucy Steele?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
What might be inferred about Mr. Palmer by his change of demeanor towards the Dashwood girls?
What best explains why Mrs. Jennings assumed Colonel Brandon was offering his hand in marriage to Elinor rather than what was actually happening?
Why do you think Colonel Brandon was so inclined to offer what help he could to Edward Ferrars?
When considering how to write such a letter to Edward as was needed, we are told that Elinor “equally feared to say too much or too little.” In what way might she have erred by saying too much? How might she have erred in saying too little?
Why did Mrs. Ferrars say Colonel Brandon was “a ninny” and then boldly disagree with him about Edward and Lucy’s future marriage?
Why did Elinor insist on visiting Fanny Dashwood even though it “opposed to her own inclination” and was urged against by others?
Why was John Dashwood so shocked by Colonel Brandon’s simply giving
Edward “the living of Delaford?”Compare and contrast John Dashwood and Elinor Dashwood in their conversation in this present reading. By what standard do each of them tend to judge the actions and decisions of other people?
What was it about Robert Ferrars which confirmed Elinor’s “most unfavourable opinion of his head and heart?”
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Virtue is bestirred in the human heart most often by seeing examples of virtue in others, along with its beneficial effects, which in turn causes a desire to adopt those same excellent habits. We may say the opposite is true of vice. In our current reading, whose virtuous behavior do you find most appealing and worthy of imitation? Whose vicious behavior do you find most off-putting and worthy of scorn? Try to put names to the virtues and vices you see and explain why they entice you towards them or repulse you from them.
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Matthew 7:12. What does Jesus mean when he says, “this is the law and the prophets?” What are two excellent examples from this reading of someone doing for someone else what they would wish done for them?