Question

Compare the way Marianne behaves when Willoughby leaves with the way Elinor behaves when Edward leaves. What does their behavior reveal about their personalities? Your answer should be at least 250 words.

Answer 1

After a week of walks, dances, and visits to Sir John's estate at Barton Park, Edward ruefully explains that he must leave them. Elinor tries to account for the brevity of his visit by assuring herself that he must have some task to fulfill for his demanding mother. After he leaves, she tries to occupy herself by working diligently at her drawing table, though she still finds herself thinking frequently of Edward. Marianne finds herself unable to eat or sleep following Willoughby's sudden departure, yet to her mother's surprise, she also does not appear to be expecting a letter from him. However, when Mrs. Jennings remarks that they have stopped their communal reading of Hamlet since Willoughby's departure, Marianne assures her that she expects Willoughby back within a few weeks. The entire contrast between the characters of Elinor and Marianne may be summed up by saying that, while Elinor embodies sense, Marianne embodies sensibility. Elinor can exercise restraint upon her feelings; she possesses the strength to command her feelings and emotions; she has the virtue of prudence; and she tends to be stoical in the face of disappointment or failure. Marianne is susceptible to feeling to an excessive degree. She is lacking in self-command, in self-restraint, and in the capacity to keep her emotions under control.  Elinor possesses a strength of understanding and a coolness of judgment by virtue of which she, though only nineteen years, is capable of being her mother's counselor. She is able, by means of these qualities, to keep in check her mother's eagerness of mind which would otherwise have led that lady to acts of imprudence. Elinor's disposition is certainly affectionate, and her feelings are certainly strong. But she knows how to govern her affections and her feelings. This capacity to govern the feelings and the emotions is something alien to her mother as well as to her sister Marianne. Marianne's abilities are, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's. She is sensible and clever, but she is too eager in everything, so that her sorrow and her joys know no moderation. She is everything but prudent, and in this respect she resembles her mother closely.

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