The title "Sense and Sensibility" sets up a juxtaposition between two ways of thinking, behaving and knowing that are embodied in the novel's two protagonists, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. In these characters Austen ostensibly contrasts practicality with sensitivity, restraint with impulsiveness and strait-laced sense with exorbitant sensibility. Each opposing trait to be found in the Dashwood sisters, Elinor personifying sense and Marianne, sensibility. The Oxford English Dictionary defines sense as "a sane and practical attitude …
showed first 75 words of 1112 total

showed last 75 words of 1112 total
…first would never cease" (353) this almost inane sensibility is not typical of Elinor's previous behaviour and demonstrates her newfound sensibility. Jane Austen like all good novelists has allowed her characters to develop and learn throughout the course of the drama. Although I agree that Elinor represents sense and Marianne represents sensibility, I also believe that at the conclusion of the novel, our protagonists have acquired a new found understanding of each other's Sense and Sensibility.