Sense and
Sensibility is a 1995 drama movie directed by Ang Lee.The movie
is based on the homonymous novel written by Jane Austen and published in 1811.
The movie, through
the story of the Dashwood family, narrates of complex relations between money,
inheritance, love and marriage in the Regency Era.
The movie
begins with Mr. Dashwood on his deathbed and his son John who is going to
inherit all his father's patrimony since according to the law only men could
inherit patrimony and property.
Mr.
Dashwood convinces his son to give financial support to his second wife and their
three daughters.
The promise
will not be kept since John's wife, Fanny, forces him to give very little to
his step family, leaving Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters Elinor, Marianne
and Margaret with serious issues to provide for themselves.
Financial
difficulties will lead the family to move to a small cottage in Devonshire
given to them by Mrs. Dashwood’s cousin, to discharge most of all of their
servants and to renounce several other things they can no longer afford.
We also see
in Mr. Willoughby's story how the absence of money will lead him to distance
himself from Marianne, who he was romantically interested in, and marry a rich
woman in London.
Marriage
becomes the only way people especially women can improve their financial and
social status.
Mutual
romantic interest and love were definitely neglected elements in marriage.
In the
movie we also see the different ways the two sisters Elinor and Marianne
approach love and romance and courtship.
On one hand
we see Marianne who is very spontaneous and passionate when it comes to love
and expressing feelings.
On the
other hand, we see Elinor’s more reserved and composed approach to romance and
intimacy.
Elinor
perfectly represents how women were supposed to act around men according to
social conventions.
In the
scene where Marianne falls and is rescued by Mr. Willoughby, we see how
emphasized is the touch of the man's hand on the woman's ankle.
Touch was
considered improper. Women should not touch men.
In the ball
scene we noticed how women wear white gloves that prevent them to touch man
with the bare skin of their hands.
In the
movie it is frequently stated that women who were not reserved, modest,
composed, proper and expressed their feelings too much were destined to be
alone for the rest of their lives and that's something Elinor was truly afraid
for Marianne and herself too.
Loneliness
means inability to get married and no marriage means a precarious status for
women.
Another
theme dealt within the movie is different education men and women received.
It is not
largely discussed but there is one particular scene that shows us how education
was different for men and women.
In the
horse-riding scene in which Elinor and Edward appear the words Elinor profers
are really significant.
She is telling
Edward about the situation her family is going through and the feel of being
useless when Edward replies that he feels somehow the same way she does she
replies that at least he can inherit the patrimony of his family. Women cannot
even earn theirs.
This means
that according to the law men were the only ones to inherit money but they also
were the only ones that received an education that allowed them to be employed
and earn their own money.
Personal
freedom was something that not anyone could achieve.
If people
were forced respecting discriminating laws and according to stiff norms society
imposed personal freedom was something very distant from everyone's life.
If I
travelled back to the Regency Era, I would surely do what I could to change the
discriminating conditions people lived.
I wouldn't
probably respect social conventions which will lead me to not get married and
be alone all my life.
I would
miss the freedom of being myself I have the privilege to own thanks to people
who have fought to change women’s condition in the past years in the era I live
in, even if it is not as it should be, but, at least, is certainly more than
what people experienced during the Regency Era.
KENDRA
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