Sense and Sensibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sense and Sensibility - Essay Example Taking up the theme of hypocrisy we can see how women in that century were generally side-lined even by their own flesh and blood as demonstrated by Henry Dashwood when he turns over his entire estate to his son knowing fully well that his wife and daughters would be left destitute and commiserating with them on their fate. John Dashwood, too turns out to be a bigger hypocrite for after having shamefully neglected his sisters, he comes to seek Elinor’s sympathy and says, â€Å"†¦..for otherwise we both wished very much to have invited you and Marianne to be with us, while your kind friend there was attending her daughter. And now to be so rewarded! I wish, with all my heart, says poor Fanny, in her affectionate way, that we had asked your sisters instead of them." (Austen, 228) And has the gall to wait to be thanked, which the cordial Elinor does. Lucy acts disgracefully and lays open her hypocritical nature when she claims that she had asked Edward to end their engageme nt as it would not be a very happy one (after Edward had been disinherited) and that Edward had refused when in fact, it was Lucy who had refused to end the engagement earlier. Both John and Lucy are epitomes of hypocrisy because they profess to be concerned about others’ welfare or are effusive in their praise for someone while all the time they are plotting how to take advantage of them. Lucy is a person who cannot restrain herself from her selfishnessâ€Å"†¦.. and secretly resolved to avail herself, at Delaford, as for as she possibly could, of his servants, his carriage, his cows, and his poultry." (Austen, 253) even towards someone who had been of such help to her. The characters in Austen’s novel are generally very aware of the importance of money and though people like Elinor take it in the right spirit (not underestimating or