feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/cliffnotes/Sense and Sensibility/section_0_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: Sense and Sensibility.chapter 1
feat_summary_id: chapter 1
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 1", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201101060302/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/sense-and-sensibility/summary-and-analysis/chapter-1", "summary": "For many years, Henry Dashwood and his family had lived at Norland Park and cared for its owner, Henry's aged uncle. On the old man's death, Henry inherited the estate. He had always expected that he would be free to leave it, in turn, to be shared among his wife and three daughters. John, his son by a previous marriage, was amply provided for. His mother had left him a large estate, and his wife further increased his wealth with a handsome dowry. However, when the old man's will was read, Henry found to his dismay that he would not be able to dispose of the estate. The uncle had been wooed by John's young son and wished to procure the estate for him by tying it up in favor of \"his son and his son's son.\" This meant that Henry's wife and daughters could inherit only such money as he could save for them, which turned out to be 10,000 pounds. Henry survived his uncle by only one year. When he was dying, he sent for John and begged him, \"with all the strength and urgency which illness could command,\" to look after his stepmother and stepsisters. Moved by this plea, John promised \"to do everything in his power to make them comfortable.\" One thousand pounds for each daughter would be fair, he decided, and would leave them quite comfortable. John was \"rather cold-hearted, and rather selfish.\" He had married young and his wife had great influence over him. She was \"a strong caricature of himself; more narrow-minded and selfish.\" Immediately after Henry's funeral, without notice, Mrs. John Dashwood moved into Norland Park with her small son and her servants. This insensitive behavior was bitterly resented by Mrs. Dashwood, who thought of leaving Norland Park at once. Elinor prudently restrained her. Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters were a devoted family. Elinor, nineteen, was sufficiently mature and well-balanced \"to be the counsellor of her mother,\" a good-hearted woman who tended to be imprudent. Marianne, though clever and sensible, was extreme in her emotions. She was \"generous, amiable, interesting: . . . everything but prudent\" and thus much resembled her mother. Margaret, thirteen, was an immature girl who took after Marianne rather than Elinor. Marianne and her mother \"gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow,\" encouraging each other \"in the violence of their affliction.\" Elinor suffered too, but she managed to \"receive her sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with proper attention.\" She prevailed on her mother and Marianne to do likewise.", "analysis": "In this opening chapter, Austen sets the scene with her usual clarity and precision. The reader meets most of the leading characters and is given insight into their personalities and temperaments. It is obvious that this is to be a story of opposing temperaments -- Marianne's excessive \"sensibility\" contrasted to Elinor's calm common sense. The reader is plunged into a world which is socially and linguistically very different from the world of today. Austen is writing a \"comedy of manners,\" or \"domestic comedy.\" As a novelist, she narrows her outlook to the people of her own class -- country gentlemen and their families whose main concern is their social status and the comforts it brings them. Owning property is essential to social status, which explains Henry Dashwood's deep disappointment when he finds that he cannot bequeath Norland Park to his wife and daughters. Also, the meager fortune with which the girls are provided makes their prospects for a good marriage rather dismal."}
text: 
  
  The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex.  Their estate
  was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of
  their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so
  respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their
  surrounding acquaintance.  The late owner of this estate was a single
  man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his
  life, had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister.  But her
  death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great
  alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and received
  into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal
  inheritor of the Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to
  bequeath it.  In the society of his nephew and niece, and their
  children, the old Gentleman's days were comfortably spent.  His
  attachment to them all increased.  The constant attention of Mr. and
  Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from
  interest, but from goodness of heart, gave him every degree of solid
  comfort which his age could receive; and the cheerfulness of the
  children added a relish to his existence.
  
  By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son: by his present
  lady, three daughters.  The son, a steady respectable young man, was
  amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which had been large,
  and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age.  By his own
  marriage, likewise, which happened soon afterwards, he added to his
  wealth.  To him therefore the succession to the Norland estate was not
  so really important as to his sisters; for their fortune, independent
  of what might arise to them from their father's inheriting that
  property, could be but small.  Their mother had nothing, and their
  father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal; for the
  remaining moiety of his first wife's fortune was also secured to her
  child, and he had only a life-interest in it.
  
  The old gentleman died: his will was read, and like almost every other
  will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure.  He was neither so
  unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew;--but
  he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the
  bequest.  Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife
  and daughters than for himself or his son;--but to his son, and his
  son's son, a child of four years old, it was secured, in such a way, as
  to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear
  to him, and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate, or
  by any sale of its valuable woods.  The whole was tied up for the
  benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and
  mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by
  such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three
  years old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his
  own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to outweigh
  all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received
  from his niece and her daughters.  He meant not to be unkind, however,
  and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left them a
  thousand pounds a-piece.
  
  Mr. Dashwood's disappointment was, at first, severe; but his temper was
  cheerful and sanguine; and he might reasonably hope to live many years,
  and by living economically, lay by a considerable sum from the produce
  of an estate already large, and capable of almost immediate
  improvement.  But the fortune, which had been so tardy in coming, was
  his only one twelvemonth.  He survived his uncle no longer; and ten
  thousand pounds, including the late legacies, was all that remained for
  his widow and daughters.
  
  His son was sent for as soon as his danger was known, and to him Mr.
  Dashwood recommended, with all the strength and urgency which illness
  could command, the interest of his mother-in-law and sisters.
  
  Mr. John Dashwood had not the strong feelings of the rest of the
  family; but he was affected by a recommendation of such a nature at
  such a time, and he promised to do every thing in his power to make
  them comfortable.  His father was rendered easy by such an assurance,
  and Mr. John Dashwood had then leisure to consider how much there might
  prudently be in his power to do for them.
  
  He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted
  and rather selfish is to be ill-disposed: but he was, in general, well
  respected; for he conducted himself with propriety in the discharge of
  his ordinary duties.  Had he married a more amiable woman, he might
  have been made still more respectable than he was:--he might even have
  been made amiable himself; for he was very young when he married, and
  very fond of his wife.  But Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature
  of himself;--more narrow-minded and selfish.
  
  When he gave his promise to his father, he meditated within himself to
  increase the fortunes of his sisters by the present of a thousand
  pounds a-piece.  He then really thought himself equal to it.  The
  prospect of four thousand a-year, in addition to his present income,
  besides the remaining half of his own mother's fortune, warmed his
  heart, and made him feel capable of generosity.-- "Yes, he would give
  them three thousand pounds: it would be liberal and handsome! It would
  be enough to make them completely easy.  Three thousand pounds! he
  could spare so considerable a sum with little inconvenience."-- He
  thought of it all day long, and for many days successively, and he did
  not repent.
  
  No sooner was his father's funeral over, than Mrs. John Dashwood,
  without sending any notice of her intention to her mother-in-law,
  arrived with her child and their attendants.  No one could dispute her
  right to come; the house was her husband's from the moment of his
  father's decease; but the indelicacy of her conduct was so much the
  greater, and to a woman in Mrs. Dashwood's situation, with only common
  feelings, must have been highly unpleasing;--but in HER mind there was
  a sense of honor so keen, a generosity so romantic, that any offence of
  the kind, by whomsoever given or received, was to her a source of
  immovable disgust.  Mrs. John Dashwood had never been a favourite with
  any of her husband's family; but she had had no opportunity, till the
  present, of shewing them with how little attention to the comfort of
  other people she could act when occasion required it.
  
  So acutely did Mrs. Dashwood feel this ungracious behaviour, and so
  earnestly did she despise her daughter-in-law for it, that, on the
  arrival of the latter, she would have quitted the house for ever, had
  not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced her first to reflect on the
  propriety of going, and her own tender love for all her three children
  determined her afterwards to stay, and for their sakes avoid a breach
  with their brother.
  
  Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice was so effectual, possessed
  a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified
  her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and
  enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all,
  that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led
  to imprudence.  She had an excellent heart;--her disposition was
  affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern
  them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn; and which
  one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught.
  
  Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's.
  She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her
  joys, could have no moderation.  She was generous, amiable,
  interesting: she was everything but prudent.  The resemblance between
  her and her mother was strikingly great.
  
  Elinor saw, with concern, the excess of her sister's sensibility; but
  by Mrs. Dashwood it was valued and cherished.  They encouraged each
  other now in the violence of their affliction.  The agony of grief
  which overpowered them at first, was voluntarily renewed, was sought
  for, was created again and again.  They gave themselves up wholly to
  their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that
  could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in
  future.  Elinor, too, was deeply afflicted; but still she could
  struggle, she could exert herself.  She could consult with her brother,
  could receive her sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with
  proper attention; and could strive to rouse her mother to similar
  exertion, and encourage her to similar forbearance.
  
  Margaret, the other sister, was a good-humored, well-disposed girl; but
  as she had already imbibed a good deal of Marianne's romance, without
  having much of her sense, she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal
  her sisters at a more advanced period of life.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 1
target: For many years, Henry Dashwood and his family had lived at Norland Park and cared for its owner, Henry's aged uncle. On the old man's death, Henry inherited the estate. He had always expected that he would be free to leave it, in turn, to be shared among his wife and three daughters. John, his son by a previous marriage, was amply provided for. His mother had left him a large estate, and his wife further increased his wealth with a handsome dowry. However, when the old man's will was read, Henry found to his dismay that he would not be able to dispose of the estate. The uncle had been wooed by John's young son and wished to procure the estate for him by tying it up in favor of "his son and his son's son." This meant that Henry's wife and daughters could inherit only such money as he could save for them, which turned out to be 10,000 pounds. Henry survived his uncle by only one year. When he was dying, he sent for John and begged him, "with all the strength and urgency which illness could command," to look after his stepmother and stepsisters. Moved by this plea, John promised "to do everything in his power to make them comfortable." One thousand pounds for each daughter would be fair, he decided, and would leave them quite comfortable. John was "rather cold-hearted, and rather selfish." He had married young and his wife had great influence over him. She was "a strong caricature of himself; more narrow-minded and selfish." Immediately after Henry's funeral, without notice, Mrs. John Dashwood moved into Norland Park with her small son and her servants. This insensitive behavior was bitterly resented by Mrs. Dashwood, who thought of leaving Norland Park at once. Elinor prudently restrained her. Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters were a devoted family. Elinor, nineteen, was sufficiently mature and well-balanced "to be the counsellor of her mother," a good-hearted woman who tended to be imprudent. Marianne, though clever and sensible, was extreme in her emotions. She was "generous, amiable, interesting: . . . everything but prudent" and thus much resembled her mother. Margaret, thirteen, was an immature girl who took after Marianne rather than Elinor. Marianne and her mother "gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow," encouraging each other "in the violence of their affliction." Elinor suffered too, but she managed to "receive her sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with proper attention." She prevailed on her mother and Marianne to do likewise.
feat_summary_analysis: In this opening chapter, Austen sets the scene with her usual clarity and precision. The reader meets most of the leading characters and is given insight into their personalities and temperaments. It is obvious that this is to be a story of opposing temperaments -- Marianne's excessive "sensibility" contrasted to Elinor's calm common sense. The reader is plunged into a world which is socially and linguistically very different from the world of today. Austen is writing a "comedy of manners," or "domestic comedy." As a novelist, she narrows her outlook to the people of her own class -- country gentlemen and their families whose main concern is their social status and the comforts it brings them. Owning property is essential to social status, which explains Henry Dashwood's deep disappointment when he finds that he cannot bequeath Norland Park to his wife and daughters. Also, the meager fortune with which the girls are provided makes their prospects for a good marriage rather dismal.