Civilized, Sense And Sensibility, By Jane Austen - 1455 Words

Enjoyable, civilized Sense and Sensibility was the first and one of Jane Austen s novels; she wrote it in 1795, but it was not published for 16 years. It was written by a young woman who ostensibly had little experience of the world - although her fiction proves she missed the little that occurred on her domestic stage - and the story reflects that orientation, as a mother and her three daughters wait passively while all the interesting men in the vicinity disappear on unexplained missions to London. In a modern story, the women would have demanded explanations. What gives Sense and Sensibility its tension and mystery are that the characters rarely say what they mean. There is great gossip within the women s sphere, but with men. The†¦show more content†¦Edward leaves suddenly for London. The next man to appear is Col. Brandon, played by that indispensable Alan Rickman. He is attracted to Marianne, but before he can act, she is smitten by the dashing Willoughby (Greg Wise), who rescues her from a mishap and charms her off her feet. No sooner have these men appeared when they, too, are called away to London - although not before Col. Brandon has suggested, almost by osmosis, that he knows something unspeakable about his rival Willoughby. His secret is the sort of thing that would not be a secret long in the modern age, but in Austen s time, such things were not spoken of, and Brandon might even allow Marianne to make a disastrous marriage rather than tell her what her maidenly ears should never hear. This maddening, intriguing inability to simply blurt out the truth is indispensable to 19th-century fiction, and I find it enormously satisfying. Better the character who leaves us to guess at unspeakable depths than one who bores us with confessional psychobabble. The men s departure to London leaves the three daughters and their mother facing an indefinite future in their sewing circle. So, when a kindly relative proposes a visit to London, they seize upon it with desperation, and it is there that secrets are revealed and alliances are smashed or formed. The screenplay, adapted from Austen by Emma Thompson, takes wicked delightShow MoreRelatedEssay on Hierarchy of Language in Jane Austens Emma6386 Words   |  26 Pages Jane Austen writes social novels. Her societies are microcosms of relative stability in a rapidly changing world. Within these restricted realms, class structure is rigid; however, members of this society participate in one common activity: discourse. Due to the vagaries and incompetencies among the characters, not all conversations in Emma conform to the ideals of communication, and in fact, contribute to the promulgation of the central conflict. Henry Fielding proposed in his Miscellanies, thatRead MoreThe Genre of Stokers Dracula Essay6296 Words   |  26 PagesMonk, 1797), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein, 1817), William Beckford (Vathek, 1786). Almost everyone was writing Gothic stories at the time; the Bronte sisters, who produced an `examinationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² of the dark side of human mind and passion, Jane Austen and her parody of the Northanger Abbey (1818), Edgar Alan Poe and his tales about perversity, catalepsy and necrophilia. By the middle of the 19th century the Gothic novel seemed to come to its end; the term Gothic was used only