finished_summaries/cliffnotes/Sense and Sensibility/section_0_part_0.txt
Sense and Sensibility.chapter 1
chapter 1
{"name": "Chapter 1", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201101060302/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/sense-and-sensibility/summary-and-analysis/chapter-1", "summary": "For many years, Henry Dashwood and his family had lived at Norland Park and cared for its owner, Henry's aged uncle. On the old man's death, Henry inherited the estate. He had always expected that he would be free to leave it, in turn, to be shared among his wife and three daughters. John, his son by a previous marriage, was amply provided for. His mother had left him a large estate, and his wife further increased his wealth with a handsome dowry. However, when the old man's will was read, Henry found to his dismay that he would not be able to dispose of the estate. The uncle had been wooed by John's young son and wished to procure the estate for him by tying it up in favor of \"his son and his son's son.\" This meant that Henry's wife and daughters could inherit only such money as he could save for them, which turned out to be 10,000 pounds. Henry survived his uncle by only one year. When he was dying, he sent for John and begged him, \"with all the strength and urgency which illness could command,\" to look after his stepmother and stepsisters. Moved by this plea, John promised \"to do everything in his power to make them comfortable.\" One thousand pounds for each daughter would be fair, he decided, and would leave them quite comfortable. John was \"rather cold-hearted, and rather selfish.\" He had married young and his wife had great influence over him. She was \"a strong caricature of himself; more narrow-minded and selfish.\" Immediately after Henry's funeral, without notice, Mrs. John Dashwood moved into Norland Park with her small son and her servants. This insensitive behavior was bitterly resented by Mrs. Dashwood, who thought of leaving Norland Park at once. Elinor prudently restrained her. Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters were a devoted family. Elinor, nineteen, was sufficiently mature and well-balanced \"to be the counsellor of her mother,\" a good-hearted woman who tended to be imprudent. Marianne, though clever and sensible, was extreme in her emotions. She was \"generous, amiable, interesting: . . . everything but prudent\" and thus much resembled her mother. Margaret, thirteen, was an immature girl who took after Marianne rather than Elinor. Marianne and her mother \"gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow,\" encouraging each other \"in the violence of their affliction.\" Elinor suffered too, but she managed to \"receive her sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with proper attention.\" She prevailed on her mother and Marianne to do likewise.", "analysis": "In this opening chapter, Austen sets the scene with her usual clarity and precision. The reader meets most of the leading characters and is given insight into their personalities and temperaments. It is obvious that this is to be a story of opposing temperaments -- Marianne's excessive \"sensibility\" contrasted to Elinor's calm common sense. The reader is plunged into a world which is socially and linguistically very different from the world of today. Austen is writing a \"comedy of manners,\" or \"domestic comedy.\" As a novelist, she narrows her outlook to the people of her own class -- country gentlemen and their families whose main concern is their social status and the comforts it brings them. Owning property is essential to social status, which explains Henry Dashwood's deep disappointment when he finds that he cannot bequeath Norland Park to his wife and daughters. Also, the meager fortune with which the girls are provided makes their prospects for a good marriage rather dismal."}


The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex.  Their estate
was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of
their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so
respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their
surrounding acquaintance.  The late owner of this estate was a single
man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his
life, had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister.  But her
death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great
alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and received
into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal
inheritor of the Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to
bequeath it.  In the society of his nephew and niece, and their
children, the old Gentleman's days were comfortably spent.  His
attachment to them all increased.  The constant attention of Mr. and
Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from
interest, but from goodness of heart, gave him every degree of solid
comfort which his age could receive; and the cheerfulness of the
children added a relish to his existence.

By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son: by his present
lady, three daughters.  The son, a steady respectable young man, was
amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which had been large,
and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age.  By his own
marriage, likewise, which happened soon afterwards, he added to his
wealth.  To him therefore the succession to the Norland estate was not
so really important as to his sisters; for their fortune, independent
of what might arise to them from their father's inheriting that
property, could be but small.  Their mother had nothing, and their
father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal; for the
remaining moiety of his first wife's fortune was also secured to her
child, and he had only a life-interest in it.

The old gentleman died: his will was read, and like almost every other
will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure.  He was neither so
unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew;--but
he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the
bequest.  Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife
and daughters than for himself or his son;--but to his son, and his
son's son, a child of four years old, it was secured, in such a way, as
to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear
to him, and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate, or
by any sale of its valuable woods.  The whole was tied up for the
benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and
mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by
such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three
years old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his
own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to outweigh
all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received
from his niece and her daughters.  He meant not to be unkind, however,
and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left them a
thousand pounds a-piece.

Mr. Dashwood's disappointment was, at first, severe; but his temper was
cheerful and sanguine; and he might reasonably hope to live many years,
and by living economically, lay by a considerable sum from the produce
of an estate already large, and capable of almost immediate
improvement.  But the fortune, which had been so tardy in coming, was
his only one twelvemonth.  He survived his uncle no longer; and ten
thousand pounds, including the late legacies, was all that remained for
his widow and daughters.

His son was sent for as soon as his danger was known, and to him Mr.
Dashwood recommended, with all the strength and urgency which illness
could command, the interest of his mother-in-law and sisters.

Mr. John Dashwood had not the strong feelings of the rest of the
family; but he was affected by a recommendation of such a nature at
such a time, and he promised to do every thing in his power to make
them comfortable.  His father was rendered easy by such an assurance,
and Mr. John Dashwood had then leisure to consider how much there might
prudently be in his power to do for them.

He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted
and rather selfish is to be ill-disposed: but he was, in general, well
respected; for he conducted himself with propriety in the discharge of
his ordinary duties.  Had he married a more amiable woman, he might
have been made still more respectable than he was:--he might even have
been made amiable himself; for he was very young when he married, and
very fond of his wife.  But Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature
of himself;--more narrow-minded and selfish.

When he gave his promise to his father, he meditated within himself to
increase the fortunes of his sisters by the present of a thousand
pounds a-piece.  He then really thought himself equal to it.  The
prospect of four thousand a-year, in addition to his present income,
besides the remaining half of his own mother's fortune, warmed his
heart, and made him feel capable of generosity.-- "Yes, he would give
them three thousand pounds: it would be liberal and handsome! It would
be enough to make them completely easy.  Three thousand pounds! he
could spare so considerable a sum with little inconvenience."-- He
thought of it all day long, and for many days successively, and he did
not repent.

No sooner was his father's funeral over, than Mrs. John Dashwood,
without sending any notice of her intention to her mother-in-law,
arrived with her child and their attendants.  No one could dispute her
right to come; the house was her husband's from the moment of his
father's decease; but the indelicacy of her conduct was so much the
greater, and to a woman in Mrs. Dashwood's situation, with only common
feelings, must have been highly unpleasing;--but in HER mind there was
a sense of honor so keen, a generosity so romantic, that any offence of
the kind, by whomsoever given or received, was to her a source of
immovable disgust.  Mrs. John Dashwood had never been a favourite with
any of her husband's family; but she had had no opportunity, till the
present, of shewing them with how little attention to the comfort of
other people she could act when occasion required it.

So acutely did Mrs. Dashwood feel this ungracious behaviour, and so
earnestly did she despise her daughter-in-law for it, that, on the
arrival of the latter, she would have quitted the house for ever, had
not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced her first to reflect on the
propriety of going, and her own tender love for all her three children
determined her afterwards to stay, and for their sakes avoid a breach
with their brother.

Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice was so effectual, possessed
a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified
her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and
enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all,
that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led
to imprudence.  She had an excellent heart;--her disposition was
affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern
them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn; and which
one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught.

Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's.
She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her
joys, could have no moderation.  She was generous, amiable,
interesting: she was everything but prudent.  The resemblance between
her and her mother was strikingly great.

Elinor saw, with concern, the excess of her sister's sensibility; but
by Mrs. Dashwood it was valued and cherished.  They encouraged each
other now in the violence of their affliction.  The agony of grief
which overpowered them at first, was voluntarily renewed, was sought
for, was created again and again.  They gave themselves up wholly to
their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that
could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in
future.  Elinor, too, was deeply afflicted; but still she could
struggle, she could exert herself.  She could consult with her brother,
could receive her sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with
proper attention; and could strive to rouse her mother to similar
exertion, and encourage her to similar forbearance.

Margaret, the other sister, was a good-humored, well-disposed girl; but
as she had already imbibed a good deal of Marianne's romance, without
having much of her sense, she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal
her sisters at a more advanced period of life.



Chapter 1
For many years, Henry Dashwood and his family had lived at Norland Park and cared for its owner, Henry's aged uncle. On the old man's death, Henry inherited the estate. He had always expected that he would be free to leave it, in turn, to be shared among his wife and three daughters. John, his son by a previous marriage, was amply provided for. His mother had left him a large estate, and his wife further increased his wealth with a handsome dowry. However, when the old man's will was read, Henry found to his dismay that he would not be able to dispose of the estate. The uncle had been wooed by John's young son and wished to procure the estate for him by tying it up in favor of "his son and his son's son." This meant that Henry's wife and daughters could inherit only such money as he could save for them, which turned out to be 10,000 pounds. Henry survived his uncle by only one year. When he was dying, he sent for John and begged him, "with all the strength and urgency which illness could command," to look after his stepmother and stepsisters. Moved by this plea, John promised "to do everything in his power to make them comfortable." One thousand pounds for each daughter would be fair, he decided, and would leave them quite comfortable. John was "rather cold-hearted, and rather selfish." He had married young and his wife had great influence over him. She was "a strong caricature of himself; more narrow-minded and selfish." Immediately after Henry's funeral, without notice, Mrs. John Dashwood moved into Norland Park with her small son and her servants. This insensitive behavior was bitterly resented by Mrs. Dashwood, who thought of leaving Norland Park at once. Elinor prudently restrained her. Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters were a devoted family. Elinor, nineteen, was sufficiently mature and well-balanced "to be the counsellor of her mother," a good-hearted woman who tended to be imprudent. Marianne, though clever and sensible, was extreme in her emotions. She was "generous, amiable, interesting: . . . everything but prudent" and thus much resembled her mother. Margaret, thirteen, was an immature girl who took after Marianne rather than Elinor. Marianne and her mother "gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow," encouraging each other "in the violence of their affliction." Elinor suffered too, but she managed to "receive her sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with proper attention." She prevailed on her mother and Marianne to do likewise.
In this opening chapter, Austen sets the scene with her usual clarity and precision. The reader meets most of the leading characters and is given insight into their personalities and temperaments. It is obvious that this is to be a story of opposing temperaments -- Marianne's excessive "sensibility" contrasted to Elinor's calm common sense. The reader is plunged into a world which is socially and linguistically very different from the world of today. Austen is writing a "comedy of manners," or "domestic comedy." As a novelist, she narrows her outlook to the people of her own class -- country gentlemen and their families whose main concern is their social status and the comforts it brings them. Owning property is essential to social status, which explains Henry Dashwood's deep disappointment when he finds that he cannot bequeath Norland Park to his wife and daughters. Also, the meager fortune with which the girls are provided makes their prospects for a good marriage rather dismal.