Love

Like all of Jane Austen novels, love is a major theme. Within this novel characters fall in and out of love, are crossed  in love and even surprised in love. The first display of love is between Edward Ferrars and Elinor Dashwood. Elinor and Edwards love is pure and innocent but it is thrown off because of Edwards prior commitment to Lucy Steele. This causes their love to halt. In the end though love triumphs and they are reunited in the end. The next display of love is between Marianne and Mr. Willoughby. Their love is a much more open and visual love. They display their love to everyone, but their love does not last, it is not everlasting. Willoughby deserts Marianne for a rich heiress when he is denied his aunts money for a disgraceful act he committed. The last display of love is between Marianne and Col. Brandon, it is an unexpected love. This love blossomed through friendship. Col. Brandon loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her. Marianne on the other hand gradually come to love him. She realized that this love was much more strong than the love she had with Willoughby. Jane Austen shows us all different types of love and that love is totally unexpected.

Home

Within the novel Sense and Sensibility there is a very big theme of family. This is shown within the Dashwood family. The Dashwoods (at least the women) care a lot about their family. Elinor thinks only of her family.  Elinor puts aside her feelings when she is separated from Edward, her love, to take charge of her family. She helps find the family home, makes sure they have enough money, and makes sure everything goes orderly. She is there for her sisters and her mother. When Marianne gets crossed in love, who helps her get back on her feet but Elinor. Elinor is the perfect picture of the family women and she cares so much for her family. She is also the voice of reason for her family. We also see the sense of family through Col. Brandon. He cares for his ward extensively. She is the daughter of a women he loved long ago. He goes out of his way to make sure she is happy and cared for. He even leaves his picnic with his friends to go see her and be there for her. Throughout this book we see the characters who value family the most stick themselves out there for their family. 

Sense and Sensibility: The contrast between Elinor and Marianne

The two sisters in Sense and Sensibility couldn't be more different. Elinor is a shy and quiet woman. She puts her family before everything in her life. She even puts her family before her love life. When Edward does not propose to her instead of displaying distraught and being completely heart broken, she picks up the family duties. She helps to make the new home of theirs better. She tries to lift up the spirits of her family after they had to leave their home. She does not dwell on herself but on her family and their immediate needs. Also later on in the book Marianne is suffering from heart break. She takes it to a whole new level and throws a tantrum, she has no real care about the people around her and how she is making them feel. Instead of Elinor saying that she can grow up  and get through it because she did, she lets her sob and comforts her. Elinor also takes some verbal abuse from Marianne while this is happening but never once gets overly angry. Another time Elinor shows her compassion and way to control her emotions is when she finds out that Edward was engaged to someone else. She does not hate him and she even helps him get a job. she never once says a bad word toward him.

                 Marianne is a completely different character. She is self centres and cares about nothing but those who are in her interest at the time. She never once asks how Elinor feels after they move away from Edward, she just likes to tease her about him. When Mr.  Willoughby comes along  she casts aside Col. Brandon very quickly. She focuses on Mr.Willoughby and nothing else. When she suffers heart break she only cares about how she feels. She never focuses on her family but only on her immediate needs leaving all of this on Elinor's shoulders. In the end, I believe that the two sisters rub off on each other, helping this to grow in the good qualities each has.

Pride and Prejudice: Jane's Meaning of the Story

Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice conveys many meanings to the reader. It shows us that true love can go though anything. In this book Jane and Mr. Bingley's love stands the ultimate test when they are separated by their family and friends. Even though they do not pursue each other and Bingley does not fight for her, when they are reunited their love is still as strong as ever. 
The love of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth also stands through much. It stands through both of their pride and their prejudices. Their love is a strong everlasting love showing us that love can blossom form even the most unlikely circumstances.  Elizabeth has a very strong dislike for Mr. Darcy and Mr. Darcy has treated Elizabeth with the utmost disrespect. Yet through all of this Mr. Darcy is drawn to Elizabeth and Elizabeth is eventually overcome by her love for Darcy. This pair may be seen as opposites attract but really they are very similar. They are full of pride and are both stubborn.  Through all of their conflicts they have a love and a passion that every reader envies and longs for. The love of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is a love that is over looked. Their love may not be as clear as Elizabeth's or Jane's but their love is just as pure. Through out the book you see how they are meant for each other but if put apart you would never put them together. Mr. Bennet is ale to stand Mrs. Bennet rants and even joke about them. He may tease her so but what ever she says he take to heart. Overall Jane Austen communicates not only the idea of strong everlasting love but also the idea of unexpected love.

Themes: Pride

One of the major themes within the novel Pride and Prejudice is placed right in the title: pride. Many of the different character's portray this theme. Pride is one of Elizabeth Bennet's character flaws. Upon meeting Mr. Darcy she sees him as a rude, arrogant man and dislikes him immediately. Elizabeth then becomes cold and unfeeling towards him and treats him in a rude manner. her pride clouds her judgment as she believes that Wickham is telling the truth and Mr. Darcy is not. Mr. Darcy later sets Elizabeth's judgments straight by writing a letter to her about all of the wrongs she accused him of. He corrects her judgment that he ruined Mr. Wickham's life and also fixes the romance between Jane and Mr. Bingley. Later on he even pays for Elizabeth's sister, Lydia's, wedding to Mr. Wickham. This sets Elizabeth straight and she realizes that her pride was in the way of her judgment. Another character who demonstrates the theme of pride is Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy's pride of his social status makes him scorn the people around him. At the balls he is unfriendly and withdrawn. This causes people to dislike him and he does not care about this. Even when he is asking Elizabeth to marry him he is frowning at her inferior birth. In the book it says his objection and delay to the proposal were "His sense of her inferiority - of its being a degradation -  of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination..." (Pride and Prejudice, Page 210) Mr. Darcy ends up realizing his faults because of the light Elizabeth cast on them and he changes him prideful nature.

Pride and Predjudice: Elizabeth ( Lizzy) Bennet

Elizabeth Bennet is one of the characters who changes though out the novel. Elizabeth Bennet starts out as a head strong prejudice girl out to judge people. Elizabeth judges her family, her friends and the people around her. Elizabeth judges the decision of one of her closes friends in the book, Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte marries Mr. Collins (the dreaded cousin) after he just proposed to Elizabeth. What Elizabeth does not under stand is the fact that not everyone is secure enough to let fate guide them when they want to fall in love. The times revolved around getting married, and for women this was often the only choice. I believe that Elizabeth judged her friend severely and realizes this later in the story. She then tries to make up for this by visiting her friend. This shows a change in her because while she is at Charlotte's new home she does not make her usual comments towards her friend's husband. Elizabeth judges her family as well. Elizabeth judges the way her mother handles things. If you have read the book Mrs. Bennet is not the most in depth character, but if you look deeply you can tell she has her daughter's best interests at heart. Elizabeth often treats her mother with sarcasm and laughs at her. Elizabeth acts as if she is better than her mother. It is trues that her mother is quite frivolousness but as we know she is trying to get her daughters a life far superior to her own. Her mother really and truly cares about her daughters. I believe that Elizabeth truly starts to change towards her mother because when Lydia leaves Elizabeth sees how much her mother will miss her daughter. She sees this and starts to comfort and show more love towards her mother. Elizabeth also judges Mr.Darcy. She sees him as proud and unkind. He has done things that she does not like but instead of really discovering the truth she lets her hatred fester. Elizabeth does not like Mr. Darcy because of the fact that he separated Elizabeth's sister Jane and Mr. Bingley. She also dislikes Mr. Darcy because of the way he treats her officer friend Mr. Wickham. She later finds out that Mr. Darcy was only looking out for his fiend in the case of her sister and Mr. Wickham is truly a nasty man. She sees that he does have good in him after this , as he patches up things between Jane and Mr. Bingley. Also he finds Lydia and pays for her wedding and Wickham's commission. She judged Mr. Darcy most of all. This causes her to change because she realizes how wrong she was and treats him with respect. Overall, Elizabeth Bennet changed from a prejudice and proud girl to a more caring and open woman.