Sense or Sensibility?

In her novel Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen resists the culture of sensibility. This resistance does not mean that she completely dismisses the culture of sensibility, as Austen does not advocate sense that discourages true emotion, romance and feeling, but instead calls for sensibility moderated by sense. The culture of sensibility, which defined sense as rational and sensibility as emotional, favoured the physical manifestation of feelings, such as crying or blushing, thus registering emotion. By the end of the 18th century, the period when Austen was writing Sense and Sensibility, the culture of sensibility was unfashionable. This shift in opinion regarding sensibility may account for Austen’s use of satire toward the culture of sensibility, as this is her way of proving its merit while not fully embracing it. Austen's use of sensibility and her satirizing of it results in tension between characters. This tension between sensibility moderated by sense and satire is evide...