Sense and Sensibility

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-17

Reading Check

1. Who talks John out of adequately providing for his sisters?

2. What is Sir John Middleton’s home called?

3. Whose failure to quickly visit Barton Cottage upsets Marianne?

4. Who rescues Marianne when she is out walking and hurts her ankle?

5. What extravagant present does Willoughby try to give Marianne?

6. How long is Edward in Devonshire before he visits the Dashwoods?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do the women in the Dashwood family end up losing their home?

2. What is so insulting about Fanny’s remarks about her mother presenting a danger to any woman without wealth who tries to get close to Edward?

3. What difference between Elinor and Marianne is evident in their differing reactions to Mrs. Jennings’s vulgar curiosity about their love lives?

4. What are Elinor’s reasons for being skeptical of Marianne’s romantic entanglement with Willoughby?

5. What scandalous rumor does Mrs. Jennings share with Elinor when the excursion to Whitwall must be postponed?

6. What happens on the day that Mrs. Dashwood believes Willoughby will propose to Marianne? 

Paired Resources

“Womanhood in the Long Nineteenth Century”

• This online exhibit from the University of South Florida discusses the evolution of British and American women’s roles during the 19th century.
• This resource relates to the theme of Women’s Power in a Patriarchal Society and Sensibility Versus Real Feeling.
• According to this exhibit, what changes in British culture happened in the decades just prior to the publication of Sense and Sensibility? How might educated, intelligent women find these changes confining? How does Elinor react to the limitations on her freedom? How does Marianne react? Do either Austen or her narrator seem to have sympathy for Marianne’s perspective? In what sense is Fanny exercising power over her life in the only way available to her? Does the novel seem to have any sympathy for Fanny?

“How to Be the Ideal Regency Era Girl: Fordyce's Sermons”

• This 16-minute video discusses Fordyce’s Sermons, its incorporation into Austen’s books, and Austen’s implied attitudes toward this conduct guide for women.
• This resource relates to the themes of Women’s Power in a Patriarchal Society and The Lifelong Mission of Character Improvement.
• When Austen published Sense and Sensibility, critics of the time treated it as another conduct manual for young women and argued that its purpose was to promote Elinor as a role model. Given what you have learned about Austen’s attitude toward Fordyce’s Sermons, how seriously do you take the claim that this was Austen’s purpose? If Austen does not intend this novel as a kind of conduct manual, what other purposes might she have in mind?

Chapters 18-34

Reading Check

1. What does Marianne notice in the center of Edward’s ring?

2. What does Lucy ask Elinor to manipulate John into doing?

3. After their arrival in London, what does Elinor deduce from Marianne’s constant letter writing and anticipation that Willoughby will visit them soon?

4. After Willoughby writes to break off their relationship, what does Marianne dramatically attempt to stop doing?

5. To whom does Willoughby publicly announce his engagement?

6. Whom do Elinor and Marianne run into when they are exchanging some of their mother’s jewels?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Edward having a hard time settling into a professional life?

2. What claims does Lucy Steele make about Edward?

3. Why do Marianne and Elinor have such different reactions to Mrs. Jennings’s invitation to spend the winter with her in London?

4. What motivates Elinor to tell Colonel Brandon that she believes her sister is engaged to Willoughby?

5. What happens when Willoughby finally appears at Lady Middleton’s reception?

6. What scandalous story about Willoughby does Colonel Brandon finally reveal to Elinor?

Paired Resources

“Sentimental Novel”

• This entry from the Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia defines and offers examples of the sentimental novel and the novel of sensibility.
• This resource relates to the theme of Sensibility Versus Real Feeling.
• What were “sentimental novels”? What were “novels of sensibility”? How does knowing these definitions help you interpret the title of Austen’s novel? What light does this information shed on Austen’s purpose in writing the book? How does Marianne’s behavior in London exemplify “sensibility”? How does Elinor’s behavior during this same period exemplify “sense”?

“The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen”

• In this 5-minute TED-Ed video, Iseult Gillespie explores the social satire and sly wit of Jane Austen’s works.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Lifelong Mission of Character Improvement.
• How does Gillespie describe Austen’s use of wit? Which characters’ behavior does Austen seem to be using humor to critique? How does this relate to the novel’s concern with character improvement?

Chapters 35-50

Reading Check

1. On what street do John and Fanny have their London home?

2. Who lives at Combe Magna, in Somersetshire, near the Palmers?

3. After it is clear that Mrs. Ferrars’s plan to marry Edward to Miss Morton will not succeed, to whom does she plan to marry Miss Morton?

4. Who becomes very ill with a fever while the Dashwood sisters are at Cleveland?

5. When Mrs. Dashwood arrives at Cleveland, whom does she tell Elinor she believes Marianne should marry?

6. Whom does Lucy end up marrying?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Lucy’s remark to Marianne about Marianne not believing that any man keeps his engagements so particularly cruel?

2. What causes the Steele sisters to suddenly leave John and Fanny’s London home?

3. What causes Edward’s strange reaction to the good news that Brandon will offer him a living at the Delaford parsonage?

4. Willoughby tells Elinor that what caused him to give up on his plan to marry Marianne?

5. What advice does Elinor give Edward about apologizing to his mother?

6. Why does Marianne agree to marry Brandon, and how do her feelings for him change after their marriage?

Recommended Next Reads 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Austen’s second novel follows the development of Elizabeth Bennet’s character as she learns to look past first appearances and see the deeper characters of the men vying for her and her sisters’ hands in marriage.
• Shared themes include The Lifelong Mission of Character Improvement and Women’s Power in a Patriarchal Society.
• Shared topics include Regency England, financial stress, romantic relationships, sisterhood and family relationships, honor, and determination.
• Pride and Prejudice on SuperSummary

Sense & Sensibility: A Novel by Joanna Trollope

• This contemporary novel retells the story of Sense and Sensibility in a modern context.
• Shared themes include Sensibility Versus Real Feeling, The Lifelong Mission of Character Improvement, and Women’s Power in a Patriarchal Society.
• Shared topics include financial stress, romantic relationships, sisterhood and family relationships, honor, and determination.