Essay On Themes In Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

The complexity of the English language reaches an all time high when one attempts to discover the varying meaning and historical uses of a word in the Oxford English Dictionary. In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, she often uses the same word to transcend one definition and create depth in her writing. The novel Sense and Sensibility focuses on the lives of the Dashwood women following the death of their father and husband; the novel follows them through their blossoming romances, friendships, and tribulations regarding money. Although just a simple word, the varying definitions of the word “interest” serves as a platform to highlight these different themes in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. For starters, one of the Oxford English …show more content…
Similar to the theme of money, relationships in Sense and Sensibility were often used to further cement ones social status. This is an important theme in the novel because to have interest in someone often signified that they had something of advantage to offer. For example, when Austen describes the blossoming relationship of Edward Ferrars and Elinor Dashwood she states: “Some mothers might have encouraged the intimacy from motives of interest, for Edward Ferrars was the eldest son of a man who had died very rich” (Austen 14). In this particular scene, Austen describes that this relationship is advantageous for Elinor as she has more to gain; further highlighting this definition of interest. The theme of a relationship of interest is further exemplified towards the end of the novel with the relationship of Lucy Steele and Robert Ferrars: “in which she soon betrayed an interest even equal to his own” (Austen 266). The sole reason for this relationship having blossomed is that the couple gain something from the other. The theme of interest as advantageous relationship is intertwined throughout the novel as what can permit a relationship to continue following the societal