Category Archives: Elinor

April 10, 2008 · 1:45 pm

Constantia wine

This is for Karen, who was wondering if this scene was in the book:

“I have just recollected that I have some of the finest old Constantia wine in the house that was ever tasted; so I have brought a glass of it for your sister. My poor husband! How fond he was of it! Whenever he had a touch of old cholicky gout, he said it did him more good than anything else in the world. Do take it to your sister.”

“Dear ma’am,” replied Elinor, smiling at the difference of the complaints for which it was recommended, “how good you are! But I have just left Marianne in bed, and, I hope, almost asleep; and as I think nothing will be of much service to her as rest, if you will give me leave, I will drink the wine myself.” . . .

Elinor, as she swallowed the chief of it, reflected that, though its good effects on a cholicky gout were, at present, of little importance to her, its healing powers on a disappointed heart might be as reasonably tried on herself as on her sister.

Elinor and Mrs. Jennings, shortly after Marianne’s disappointment with Willoughby
Sense & Sensibility, volume 2, chapter 8 (read it in context at Mollands)

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Filed under Drink, Elinor, Heartbreak, Mrs. Jennings, Sense and Sensibility

March 27, 2008 · 1:00 pm

To wish was to hope

“She new that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they believed the next: that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect. She tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister.
’I do not attempt to deny,’ said she, ‘that I think very highly of him—that I greatly esteem, that I like him.’”

Elinor confronting the expectations of Mrs. Dashwood and Marianne
Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 4

But really, isn’t that the state of women in general? We hope and expect so much, as Darcy reminds us.

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Filed under Elinor, Expectations, Love, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility, Sense vs. Sensibility

March 20, 2007 · 8:00 am

Sense will always have attractions

“’My protégé, as you call him, is a sensible man; and sense will always have attractions for me. Yes, Marianne, even in a man between thirty and forty. He has seen a great deal of the world; has been abroad; has read, and has a thinking mind. . . . I can only pronounce him to be a sensible man, well-bred, well informed, of gentle address, and I believe possessing an amiable heart.’”

Elinor comes to Colonel Brandon’s defense with Marianne and Willoughby
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 10

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Filed under Col. Brandon, Elinor, Marianne, Men, On being a gentleman, Sense and Sensibility

March 6, 2007 · 8:00 am

Marriane on self-control

“The business of self-command she settled very easily: with strong affections it was impossible; with calm ones it could have no merit. That her sister’s affections were calm, she dared not deny, though she blushed to acknowledge it; and of the strength of her own, she gave a very striking proof by still loving and respecting that sister in spite of this mortifying conviction.”

Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 19

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