Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is an amazing all-time classic, which talks about the romantic lives of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. These two sisters are different in every way, representing the sense and sensibility. While Elinor is very calm and composed, Marianne is romantic and sometimes immature, just like her mother. They both have very different perspectives when it comes to love and marriage. Elinor ended up marrying Edward Ferrars, brother of Fanny Dashwood (née Ferrars), and Marianne, who used to be in love with Willoughby, ended up marrying Colonel Brandon. For Elinor, she just believes there needs to be mutual understandings and equal efforts in a relationship in order to achieve a good marriage. However, Marianne believes that in order for a relationship to work, the two people need to have similar interests, similar goals, and to basically be the same; to think the same. This novel actually ends up proving her wrong, as we will see that sometimes life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The real question is; does Marianne’s theory really outdo Elinor's, and will it really serve as a better way to see relationships?
Marianne’s theory of people requiring similar interests in order to be in a relationship is somehow accurate and seems to be what people nowadays mainly focus on. What this means is that in order for a relationship to work, the main aspect of somehow being alike must be respected. In the 21st century, people tend to believe that people need to be able to like similar things in order to be compatible, which ultimately leads to a more successful relationship. This is also what Marianne thinks, and it is what she gets when she finds Willoughby. He is similar to her, and he is near her age, just as she wanted. Marianne seemed to be happy, and it looked like she had found the one for her. However, he left her shortly after. This led to the whole question of; is this why Marianne ended up being with Colonel Brandon? The thing is that maybe she only decided to marry Colonel Brandon since he is so different from her. She might’ve just wanted to do the opposite of whatever her theory had originally suggested, since it didn’t end up working. This is a possibility, and although this could be true, this doesn’t mean her theory is that bad or false.
Elinor’s theory of mutual understandings happen multiple times in the book, and we can see it is pretty accurate. Mutual understandings could be communication, arranged marriages, anything really. The overall goal of this is to have both sides agreeing on what the relationship means to them. Her theory ends up applying to Colonel Brandon and Marianne, as well as Edward Ferrars and herself. Even though neither of the couples are the same, they seem to love each other as though it doesn’t matter. Marianne was able to develop her character in the process, since she realized that slowly falling in love is not wrong, and can be encouraged. Of course, Elinor is happier than ever, which is amazing, since it proves that her theory works great. This contradicts what Marianne thinks on the subject, which shows how different they are, and how differently they think of the world.
I think the true answer to the question posed at the beginning is that both theories work in different instances. For Marianne’s, it would seem great when we’re talking about marrying someone for their personality. This kind of shows how arranged marriages don’t really work out if the two people don’t love each other since they have nothing in common. Obviously, in this case, Marianne is right. However, she is not exactly right in every single situation, since she probably doesn’t realize that people can love each other, even if they’re different. This is because having the feeling of love does not really require being alike, or being the same. This feeling of compassion can happen when someone thinks someone else is funny or kind, etc…Elinor’s theory works in general relationships, but can be misunderstood. She basically thinks that two people just have to love each other, and that is completely true. In most relationships, people who are either alike or different, but who still love each other, will be happy together. However, some people could misunderstand, by thinking that this theory is for arranged marriages, or marriages out of convenience, which will lead them to think this theory can be harmful.
In the book, we can see that there are two main theories on love. However, this does not mean that love depends on theories. Relationships all work for themselves, so there’s no right or wrong theory. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen talks about two relationships of sisters, different as can be. I believe this story shows balance and new understandings. The part about balance is because we need to have both sense and sensibility in life. Also, being different is great, since these differences balance each other out. If a couple were to always agree on everything, life would just get really boring, and being together would end up as more of an awkward thing. They would have nothing to talk about, and it just shows that Marianne is kind of wrong on her theory about love and marriage. I believe that the new understandings part mainly focuses on Marianne. This is because she came to realize that her theory was kind of wrong, and decided to take a risk. She did this when she decided to be with Colonel Brandon, even though they are not the same at all.
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