Romanticism in Austen's Sense and Sensibility

Hello everyone. I am finally back after a long absence and ready to resume the topic of Austen's world. I have missed writing, and really apologize for being gone so long.

Today I would like to discuss Romanticism and it's role in Austen's Sense and Sensibility. First of all, I would like to discuss briefly what qualities make a novel or poem Romantic. The Romantic Period is generally dated between 1780-1830, although these dates are negotiable.

Romantic writers are concerned with certain elements wich include nature, imagination and emotion. Romanticism occurred as a reaction to the Enlightenment with tended to value rational and empiral thought, and Romanticists found thinkers such as John Locke's ideas to be too mechanical.

Thus begins a literary genre which attempted to explore more psychological issues of feeling, and emotion which many found to be extreme in its obession of the "self" in which individuality is placed in the forefront.

And so begins Austen's first novel to be published. As always, Austen is concerned with balancing the needs of society with the needs of the individual and she casts a critical eye on the extremism of a movement known as the Sentimentalist, which had much in common with the Romantics. She does not mention any of the Romantic poets who were popular in that day with the exception of Walter Scott.

The story is centered on two heroines, two sisters, who are opposite in nature. Elinor, the eldest sister, is a practical woman who feels deeply, but is vigilant in keeping her emotions in check. She understands that the needs of the individual cannot run roughshod over the needs of society. Yet, she is emotionally healthy and is able to care for her own needs.

Marianne, on the other hand, fully embodies the Romantic soul. She feels that to repress any emotion is damaging to the self. In the end we will come to see that just as Anne Elliot, in Persuasion, was a slave to societal mores, that Marianne, at the opposite end of the social spectrum becomes just self annilating in a different way. Next week we will delve deeper into the novel and into the character of these two very different sisters who represent 18th century sociey.

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