ABSTRACT
Sense and Sensibility has usually been written off as an inferior work. It has seemed too doctrinaire or didactic in following 'the format of the contrast-novel', with the result that its major figures have appeared (as they long ago did to Reginald Farrer) 'rather incarnate qualities than qualitied incarnations'. 1 Adverse views of Elinor Dashwood have ranged from 'good and nice' but 'only intermittently interesting', 'an aggregation of good qualities' but 'not a living person', to, on the less pleasant side, a character of 'boring causticity' . .2 By contrast her sister Marianne, though not seen as faultless, has seemed to possess a depth of feeling which Elinor knows nothing of. 3 Such criticism cannot be answered by quoting the initial description of Elinor, though what is said of her should not go unnoticed: 'She had an excellent heart; - her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong' (6). One must also probe Elinor's presentation as a character, and this may well prove her to be more interesting than has generally been thought. Contrary to the usual view of either her stiffness or her fleeting presence in the novel, she is, I believe, not only flexible in responding to much more than merely conventional forms, but represents a moral centre of feeling and action that gives a constant focus to the events that surround her.
