Sense and Sensibility

Character Guide

Spoiler-free — fuller detail (with spoilers, if you want them) lives in the reader's Guide tab.

Elinor Dashwood (Miss Dashwood)

The eldest Dashwood daughter, nineteen, noted for her strength of understanding and self-command; she feels deeply but governs her emotions.

Marianne Dashwood

The second Dashwood daughter, sensible and clever but eager and unrestrained in all her feelings, devoted to poetry, music, and romantic ideals.

Margaret Dashwood

The youngest Dashwood sister, thirteen, good-humored and already imitating Marianne's romantic sensibility without her sense.

Mrs. Dashwood

The girls' warm-hearted, emotional mother, whose temperament closely resembles Marianne's eager and unguarded nature.

John Dashwood

The Dashwood sisters' half-brother, who inherits the Norland estate and is easily swayed by his wife regarding provision for his stepmother and sisters.

Fanny Dashwood (Mrs. John Dashwood)

John Dashwood's proud, cold-hearted, uncordial wife, who persuades him against generously providing for his sisters.

Edward Ferrars

Fanny Dashwood's amiable but unambitious brother, plain and shy but good-hearted, who forms a growing attachment to Elinor.

Sir John Middleton

A hearty, sociable relation of Mrs. Dashwood who invites the family to live at Barton Cottage on his estate.

Lady Middleton

Sir John's reserved, elegant, but rather insipid wife, whose calm manner has little to do with genuine sense.

Mrs. Jennings

Lady Middleton's mother, a good-natured, talkative, and incessantly matchmaking widow who takes the Dashwood sisters under her wing.

Colonel Brandon

A grave, reserved gentleman of about thirty-five who quickly develops a quiet partiality for Marianne, though she considers him too old for romance.

John Willoughby (Marianne's preserver)

A charming, lively young man who rescues Marianne after a fall and quickly wins her admiration through shared tastes in music and literature.

Lucy Steele

A sly, flattering young woman staying with the Middletons who ingratiates herself with the Dashwood family circle.

Glossary

Living (ecclesiastical)

A clergyman's position and income from a parish, often controlled by a wealthy patron who could grant it to whomever he chose.

Barouche

A fashionable, expensive open four-wheeled carriage, mentioned as a status symbol John Dashwood's mother wished for him.

Entail

A legal restriction determining that an estate must pass to a specific heir (often the eldest male), preventing the current owner from leaving it freely to others.

Moiety

A half-share, used here regarding the division of a first wife's fortune between her husband and child.

Sensibility

The 18th-century ideal of intense, openly expressed emotional and aesthetic responsiveness, embodied by Marianne.

Second attachment

A period term for falling in love again after a first heartbreak, which Marianne initially insists is impossible for a mature woman.

Rheumatism

A period term for joint/muscle pain and stiffness, cited by Marianne as evidence of Colonel Brandon's 'infirmity.'

Establishment

A period term for a household or the financial and social position gained through marriage or independent means.

Cant

Used to mean conventional or insincere phrasing, as in 'the common cant of praise.'

Delicacy

A period virtue denoting refined sensitivity to propriety and others' feelings, frequently invoked to judge characters' conduct.

Open the full interactive Guide in the reader →