Close Reading Sense and Sensibility

The passage I want to discuss is when we meet Mrs. John Dashwood for the first time. The section is in Chapter 1 on page 5 starting “No sooner was his father’s funeral over . . .” through “. . . she could act when occasion required it.” She arrives unannounced at Norland Park with her child and her entourage to move in and assume ownership of the estate. Her husband, Mr. John Dashwood, has inherited it upon his father’s death. The current residents are the father’s second family.

The picture painted of Mrs. John Dashwood in this passage is important to show her character and how she could have such an influence on her husband that he would renege on the promise he made to his dying father to take care of his stepmother and half-sisters.

Austen could have introduced her as Fanny Dashwood. But she did not. She chose to introduce the reader to Mrs. John Dashwood. This is a title not a name. By choosing to use the title, Austen is letting us know that Mrs. John Dashwood is going to cloak herself in her husband’s position as heir to Norland Park and will avail herself of the privileges that come with it.

Mrs. John Dashwood shows up at Norland unexpectedly. She did not wait to be invited. Why should she? It is her husband’s estate and therefore her estate as well. Austen says “no one could dispute her right” in taking over the house, meaning legal right. By law, she is owner, through her husband, of Norland. That is followed by “indelicacy of her conduct was so much the greater”. This is saying that it was morally wrong of her to barge in and take over the Dashwood women’s home. The word delicate makes you think of something fragile or dainty. Austen tells us that Mrs. John Dashwood’s personality is the opposite of this, that her manners are unrefined. She is clearly not the sensibility in the book’s title.

Austen says that Mrs. John Dashwood had “never been a favourite with any of her husband’s family”. The word “any” could have omitted

...