Chapter Society and the Individual of Sense and Sensibility - Study Guide by Jane Austen

As for Elinor, her self-control has been painful and difficult. She did not immediately have all the self- possession necessary to cope with being in love with someone who was engaged to someone else, but had to work hard to subdue her feelings:

"'The composure of mind with which I have brought myself at present to consider the matter, the consolation that I have been willing to admit, have been the effect of constant and painful exertion; they did not spring up of themselves" (p. 265)

Elinor is very nearly not rewarded for her efforts. Edward is only able to marry her because of Lucy's defection which, given how rude she and Robert have been about each other, is an unlikely plot contrivance. Is it likely that Robert would marry Lucy when arrangements for transferring Miss Morton over to him were about to be made? Sense and Sensibility avoids tragedy more narrowly than it might appear: Marianne could have died, as she very nearly does, and Edward could have married Lucy, as he very nearly does. This sense of narrowly averted disaster emphasises Elinor's isolation. Through her, Austen shows that social participation and good behaviour cannot save a heroine from internal isolation. Elinor is the only member of her family who does not have a Romantic world-view and the only member of her social circle, except Colonel Brandon, who can hold a sensible conversation. We see all the events of the novel filtered through her consciousness and often the remarks she makes to herself reveal a mind under considerable strain. Austen uses this narrative technique to show how nearly Elinor was a victim of circumstances: she can control herself but she cannot control society. Luck, Austen shows, plays a large part in how things turn out. Beneath the surface of the novel's happy conclusion, then, lie the shadowy yet very real possibilities of death, loneliness, and isolation.