Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Spring 2006

Keywords

Fallen woman

Abstract

Today, many of the literary conventions and tropes utilized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are lost to us; it is understandable, then, that critics have either overlooked or simplified Jane Austen’s subtly revolutionary rewriting of the figure of the fallen woman in Sense and Sensibility. Literature leading up to Austen’s time was often riddled with cliches of the fallen woman: this figure was usually punished for her sexual and social missteppings through disease and death. Austen makes use of such established tropes, as seen in the tale of the Elizas, but with her own aims of undermining this literary tradition. She subverts this convention of punishing the fallen woman through Marianne Dashwood; not only is Marianne allowed to live, but she is allowed to maintain her sensibility even after illness and marriage. Austen creates this new paradigm in light of her representation of Marianne’s extravagant sensibility as both taught and reinforced by her culture, and she therefore refuses to punish Marianne as so many women were punished before her.

Department

English

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Women in literature

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817. Sense and sensibility; Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Characters--Women; Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Characters--Marianne Dashwood

Genre/Form

student projects; term papers

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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