Category Archives: Elinor

March 2, 2012 · 7:56 am

Strange unsuitableness

Elinor . . . had hardly done wondering . . . at the strange unsuitableness which often existed between husband and wife . . .

Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 21

Of Elinor trying to understand Mr. and Mrs. Palmer

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Filed under Elinor, Marriage, Sense and Sensibility

March 1, 2012 · 7:52 am

Constant and painful exertion

"The composure of mind with which I have brought myself at present to consider the matter, the consolation that I have been willing to admit, have been the effect of constant and painful exertion; they did not spring up of themselves; they did not occur to relieve my spirits at first. No, Marianne. Then, if I had not been bound to silence, perhaps nothing could have kept me entirely—not even what I owed to my dearest friends—from openly showing that I was very unhappy."

Sense and Sensibility, volume 3, chapter 1

Elinor to Marianne

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Filed under Elinor, Heartbreak, Self-command, Sense and Sensibility, Sense vs. Sensibility

February 29, 2012 · 8:49 am

Capable of feeling

"If you can think me capable of ever feeling, surely you may suppose that I have suffered now."

Sense and Sensibility, volume 3, chapter 1

Elinor to Marianne

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Filed under Elinor, Heartbreak, Sense and Sensibility, Sense vs. Sensibility

February 28, 2012 · 8:47 am

A sister’s feelings

"You do not suppose that I have ever felt much."

Sense and Sensibility, volume 3, chapter 1

Elinor to Marianne

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February 26, 2012 · 9:40 am

The first smart of the heavy blow

Supported by the conviction of having done nothing to merit her present unhappiness, and consoled by the belief that Edward had done nothing to forfeit her esteem, she thought she could even now, under the first smart of the heavy blow, command herself enough to guard every suspicion of the truth from her mother and sisters. And so well was she able to answer her own expectations, that when she joined them at dinner only two hours after she had first suffered the extinction of all her dearest hopes, no one would have supposed from the appearance of the sisters, that Elinor was mourning in secret over obstacles which must divide her for ever from the object of her love, and that Marianne was internally dwelling on the perfections of a man, of whose whole heart she felt thoroughly possessed, and whom she expected to see in every carriage which drove near their house.

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Filed under Edward Ferrars, Elinor, Heartbreak, Marianne, Self-command, Sense and Sensibility

February 25, 2012 · 9:37 am

Rapture of delightful expectation

Elinor, in spite of every occasional doubt of Willoughby's constancy, could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of Marianne, without feeling how blank was her own prospect, how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison, and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of Marianne's situation to have the same animating object in view, the same possibility of hope.

Sense and Sensibility, volume 2, chapter 4

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Filed under Elinor, Heartbreak, Love, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility

February 24, 2012 · 9:32 am

Elinor weeps

. . . she wept for him, more than for herself.

Sense and Sensibility, volume 2, chapter 1

Of Elinor, on learning of Edward's engagement

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Filed under Edward Ferrars, Elinor, Heartbreak, Sense and Sensibility

February 19, 2012 · 9:44 am

How incomprehensible

“Oh, Elinor, how incomprehensible are your feelings! You had rather take evil upon credit than good.”

Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 15

Spoken by Mrs. Dashwood

After Willoughby leaves and Marianne’s heart is broken, Mrs. Dashwood would rather hope the best for them, but Elinor is more realistic.

Mothers and daughters often fail to understand each other, no?

 

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Filed under Elinor, Mrs. Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility, Sense vs. Sensibility

February 18, 2012 · 9:37 am

Violent sorrow

. . . she thought with the tenderest compassion of that violent sorrow which Marianne was in all probability not merely giving way to as a relief, but feeding and encouraging as a duty.

Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 15

Elinor considers Marianne’s broken heart

Marianne is devoted to feeling everything to the extreme.

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February 17, 2012 · 9:37 am

If it feels good…

"I am afraid," replied Elinor, "that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety."

"On the contrary, nothing can be a stronger proof of it, Elinor; for if there had been any real impropriety in what I did, I should have been sensible of it at the time, for we always know when we are acting wrong, and with such a conviction I could have had no pleasure."

Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 13

Austen, no doubt, came down on Elinor's side on this one.  What do you think?

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Filed under Elinor, Marianne, Morality, Sense and Sensibility, Sense vs. Sensibility