Sensibility (2)

When Dr. Samuel Johnson writes about Hamlet the character who interests him most is Ophelia. This comes as quite a surprise to some people nowadays as we have had it driven into us from an early age that Hamlet is not only the most fascinating character in the play that bears his name, he is the most fascinating character anywhere.

I think Dr. Johnson gets it right. Hamlet may deserve our pity but he does not deserve our admiration. Ophelia, on the other hand, is a character to pity and admire.

Like Johnson, Austen will focus on the Ophelia character in the story and she is Marianne Dashwood. Marianne has sensibility.

Let me take a step back, though and discuss the sisters in the same order Jane Austen does. Here is Elinor with some emphasis added by me:

Elinor, this eldest daughter whose advice was so effectual, possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counselor of her mother, and enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence. She 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.

And here is Marianne:

Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's. She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent. The resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great.

Notice that nowhere does Jane Austen say that Elinor is lacking in sensibility nor does she say she has too much sense. This is something we have to get into our heads to read this novel. Do whatever it takes to get this idea out of your brain forever—write 100 times on a blackboard, write it on the palm of your hand, put an elastic band around your wrist and snap it to hurt yourself every time you make the mistake of thinking of it that way.

Elinor is not perfect, as we shall see, but her character is the superior one in the novel and the story we are about to read is all about how Marianne learns from her sister.