For Elinor Dashwood, sensible and sensitive, and her romantic, impetuous
younger sister Marianne, the prospect of marrying the men they love
appears remote. In a world ruled by money and self-interest, the
Dashwood sisters have neither fortune nor connections. Concerned for
others and for social proprieties, Elinor is ill-equipped to compete
with self-centred fortune-hunters like Lucy Steele, while Marianne's
unswerving belief in the truth of her own feelings makes her more
dangerously susceptible to the designs of unscrupulous men.
Through her heroines' parallel experiences of love, loss, and hope, Jane
Austen offers a powerful analysis of the ways in which women's lives
were shaped by the claustrophobic society in which they had to
survive.