Margaret, the youngest sister, is young and good-natured, and not as extreme in either sense or sensibility as the other two. The themes of money and inheritance are of immediate importance in the novel; the Dashwood women are immediately cast into a dire situation, since none of them have money themselves, cannot inherit because they are women, and cannot earn a living either. Gender is also a deciding issue in this, since the reason they cannot keep Mr. Dashwood's property or money is because women are not legally entitled to receive or own property at this point in history. Austen contrasts the poor situation of the Dashwood women with that of his older son, who is already very wealthy, and so provides social commentary on the practices of the time; that the son become even richer, while his step-mother and half-sisters are left with nothing, is very unfair, yet is upheld by outdated laws which require this to be so Already, Austen finds an object of ridicule in John Dashwood; her tone is cynical and mocking when she notes that John is "not ill-disposedunless to be cold-hearted, and rather selfish, is to be
Margaret, the youngest sister, is young and good-natured, and not as extreme in either sense or sensibility as the other two. The themes of money and inheritance are of immediate importance in the novel; the Dashwood women are immediately cast into a dire situation, since none of them have money themselves, cannot inherit because they are women, and cannot earn a living either. Gender is also a deciding issue in this, since the reason they cannot keep Mr. Dashwood's property or money is because women are not legally entitled to receive or own property at this point in history. Austen contrasts the poor situation of the Dashwood women with that of his older son, who is already very wealthy, and so provides social commentary on the practices of the time; that the son become even richer, while his step-mother and half-sisters are left with nothing, is very unfair, yet is upheld by outdated laws which require this to be so Already, Austen finds an object of ridicule in John Dashwood; her tone is cynical and mocking when she notes that John is "not ill-disposedunless to be cold-hearted, and rather selfish, is to be