feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/pinkmonkey/Sense and Sensibility/section_15_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: Sense and Sensibility.chapter 16
feat_summary_id: chapter 16
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter  16", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20180820034609/http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmSenseSensibility30.asp", "summary": "Puzzled about his hasty departure, Mrs. Jennings. shows concern for the Colonel. Elinor feels anxious about Marianne and wonders why she has not disclosed her engagement to her mother. Willoughby visits them everyday and displays his affection for Marianne. On one of his visits, he reveals his attachment to Barton Cottage and asks Mrs. Dashwood not to make changes there.", "analysis": "Notes A few more facts about Colonel Brandon are revealed. Mrs. Jennings talks about his estate at Delaford and about his relatives. Her dropping hints about the family and fortune of Colonel Brandon enhances the desire of the reader to know more about this elusive character. Elinor is concerned about Marianne and her relationship with Willoughby. Though she is aware of their mutual affection, she is not sure about the seriousness of their relationship; Marianne has not spoken about it to any one of them. Willoughby displays another facet of his personality. He can be very sentimental. He talks about his deep attachment to Barton Cottage and shows concern when Mrs. Dashwood expresses her desire to renovate it. He also expresses his gratitude towards them for their kindness. Through his words and actions, he hints at his emotional involvement with Marianne. CHAPTER 15 Summary Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor and Margaret make their customary visit to the Park. On their return, they are shocked to see Marianne looking dejected and flustered. Willoughby informs them about his decision to leave for London immediately. However, his explanation for this sudden departure does not convince Elinor. She suspects something more serious. Mrs. Dashwood is not so pessimistic. Marianne drowns herself in sorrow but refrains from talking about it. Notes The cheerful atmosphere of Barton Cottage is disrupted. Marianne, who had been blissful in the company of Willoughby, now looks miserable. Since she does not reveal anything about Willoughby's conversation with her before his departure to London, mystery shrouds their relationship. The incident casts a cloud over the family. Elinor is puzzled at Willoughby's change of behavior with Marianne and at his sudden plans to visit London. She suspects Willoughby's intentions and is doubtful of his integrity. Mrs. Dashwood, too, is disturbed although she does not share Elinor's view. Jane Austen frequently reminds the reader about Elinor's superior sense and reasoning ability. After observing Willoughby before his departure, she tries to analyze his behavior and his decision to take leave of them so abruptly. Willoughby, who had always spoken openly about all matters, could have revealed the real reason behind his visit to London unless he desperately needed to conceal something. Mrs. Dashwood, blinded by her faith in Willoughby, refuses to entertain negative thoughts about him. She feels sure of Willoughby's feelings for her daughter and hopes for the best. CHAPTER 16 Summary Marianne broods over her plight but hardly talks about Willoughby. Sometimes she inadvertently reveals her feelings for him. One morning, as they are walking in the countryside, they are surprised to encounter Edward Ferrars, who has arrived to visit them at Barton. Marianne is delighted to meet him and is glad for her sister. She welcomes Edward with open arms. Notes Marianne isolates herself from the others and becomes engulfed in a cloud of gloom. By sulking over her fate, she disturbs the peace of her family. She lacks restraint and has no regard for the others in her family. Willoughby exits from the scene and Edward enters. Willoughby's departure had disturbed the members of the Dashwood family, but Edward's visit gladdens them: Edward's arrival at Barton is like a streak of sunlight in an overcast sky. His presence even manages to lift Marianne out of her depression. She forgets her sorrow for the moment and welcomes him. His visit seems to offer her some consolation. She talks to him animatedly and asks him about Norland. Elinor is elated to see Edward but shows restraint in her behavior towards him. She keeps her emotions in control and tries to react normally to the situation."}
text: 
  
  Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able
  to sleep at all the first night after parting from Willoughby.  She
  would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next
  morning, had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than
  when she lay down in it.  But the feelings which made such composure a
  disgrace, left her in no danger of incurring it.  She was awake the
  whole night, and she wept the greatest part of it.  She got up with a
  headache, was unable to talk, and unwilling to take any nourishment;
  giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters, and forbidding all
  attempt at consolation from either.  Her sensibility was potent enough!
  
  When breakfast was over she walked out by herself, and wandered about
  the village of Allenham, indulging the recollection of past enjoyment
  and crying over the present reverse for the chief of the morning.
  
  The evening passed off in the equal indulgence of feeling.  She played
  over every favourite song that she had been used to play to Willoughby,
  every air in which their voices had been oftenest joined, and sat at
  the instrument gazing on every line of music that he had written out
  for her, till her heart was so heavy that no farther sadness could be
  gained; and this nourishment of grief was every day applied.  She spent
  whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying; her voice
  often totally suspended by her tears.  In books too, as well as in
  music, she courted the misery which a contrast between the past and
  present was certain of giving.  She read nothing but what they had been
  used to read together.
  
  Such violence of affliction indeed could not be supported for ever; it
  sunk within a few days into a calmer melancholy; but these employments,
  to which she daily recurred, her solitary walks and silent meditations,
  still produced occasional effusions of sorrow as lively as ever.
  
  No letter from Willoughby came; and none seemed expected by Marianne.
  Her mother was surprised, and Elinor again became uneasy.  But Mrs.
  Dashwood could find explanations whenever she wanted them, which at
  least satisfied herself.
  
  "Remember, Elinor," said she, "how very often Sir John fetches our
  letters himself from the post, and carries them to it.  We have already
  agreed that secrecy may be necessary, and we must acknowledge that it
  could not be maintained if their correspondence were to pass through
  Sir John's hands."
  
  Elinor could not deny the truth of this, and she tried to find in it a
  motive sufficient for their silence.  But there was one method so
  direct, so simple, and in her opinion so eligible of knowing the real
  state of the affair, and of instantly removing all mystery, that she
  could not help suggesting it to her mother.
  
  "Why do you not ask Marianne at once," said she, "whether she is or she
  is not engaged to Willoughby?  From you, her mother, and so kind, so
  indulgent a mother, the question could not give offence.  It would be
  the natural result of your affection for her.  She used to be all
  unreserve, and to you more especially."
  
  "I would not ask such a question for the world.  Supposing it possible
  that they are not engaged, what distress would not such an enquiry
  inflict!  At any rate it would be most ungenerous.  I should never
  deserve her confidence again, after forcing from her a confession of
  what is meant at present to be unacknowledged to any one.  I know
  Marianne's heart: I know that she dearly loves me, and that I shall not
  be the last to whom the affair is made known, when circumstances make
  the revealment of it eligible.  I would not attempt to force the
  confidence of any one; of a child much less; because a sense of duty
  would prevent the denial which her wishes might direct."
  
  Elinor thought this generosity overstrained, considering her sister's
  youth, and urged the matter farther, but in vain; common sense, common
  care, common prudence, were all sunk in Mrs. Dashwood's romantic
  delicacy.
  
  It was several days before Willoughby's name was mentioned before
  Marianne by any of her family; Sir John and Mrs. Jennings, indeed, were
  not so nice; their witticisms added pain to many a painful hour;--but
  one evening, Mrs. Dashwood, accidentally taking up a volume of
  Shakespeare, exclaimed,
  
  "We have never finished Hamlet, Marianne; our dear Willoughby went away
  before we could get through it.  We will put it by, that when he comes
  again...But it may be months, perhaps, before THAT happens."
  
  "Months!" cried Marianne, with strong surprise.  "No--nor many weeks."
  
  Mrs. Dashwood was sorry for what she had said; but it gave Elinor
  pleasure, as it produced a reply from Marianne so expressive of
  confidence in Willoughby and knowledge of his intentions.
  
  One morning, about a week after his leaving the country, Marianne was
  prevailed on to join her sisters in their usual walk, instead of
  wandering away by herself.  Hitherto she had carefully avoided every
  companion in her rambles.  If her sisters intended to walk on the
  downs, she directly stole away towards the lanes; if they talked of the
  valley, she was as speedy in climbing the hills, and could never be
  found when the others set off.  But at length she was secured by the
  exertions of Elinor, who greatly disapproved such continual seclusion.
  They walked along the road through the valley, and chiefly in silence,
  for Marianne's MIND could not be controlled, and Elinor, satisfied with
  gaining one point, would not then attempt more.  Beyond the entrance of
  the valley, where the country, though still rich, was less wild and
  more open, a long stretch of the road which they had travelled on first
  coming to Barton, lay before them; and on reaching that point, they
  stopped to look around them, and examine a prospect which formed the
  distance of their view from the cottage, from a spot which they had
  never happened to reach in any of their walks before.
  
  Amongst the objects in the scene, they soon discovered an animated one;
  it was a man on horseback riding towards them.  In a few minutes they
  could distinguish him to be a gentleman; and in a moment afterwards
  Marianne rapturously exclaimed,
  
  "It is he; it is indeed;--I know it is!"--and was hastening to meet
  him, when Elinor cried out,
  
  "Indeed, Marianne, I think you are mistaken.  It is not Willoughby.
  The person is not tall enough for him, and has not his air."
  
  "He has, he has," cried Marianne, "I am sure he has.  His air, his
  coat, his horse.  I knew how soon he would come."
  
  She walked eagerly on as she spoke; and Elinor, to screen Marianne from
  particularity, as she felt almost certain of its not being Willoughby,
  quickened her pace and kept up with her.  They were soon within thirty
  yards of the gentleman.  Marianne looked again; her heart sunk within
  her; and abruptly turning round, she was hurrying back, when the voices
  of both her sisters were raised to detain her; a third, almost as well
  known as Willoughby's, joined them in begging her to stop, and she
  turned round with surprise to see and welcome Edward Ferrars.
  
  He was the only person in the world who could at that moment be
  forgiven for not being Willoughby; the only one who could have gained a
  smile from her; but she dispersed her tears to smile on HIM, and in her
  sister's happiness forgot for a time her own disappointment.
  
  He dismounted, and giving his horse to his servant, walked back with
  them to Barton, whither he was purposely coming to visit them.
  
  He was welcomed by them all with great cordiality, but especially by
  Marianne, who showed more warmth of regard in her reception of him than
  even Elinor herself.  To Marianne, indeed, the meeting between Edward
  and her sister was but a continuation of that unaccountable coldness
  which she had often observed at Norland in their mutual behaviour.  On
  Edward's side, more particularly, there was a deficiency of all that a
  lover ought to look and say on such an occasion.  He was confused,
  seemed scarcely sensible of pleasure in seeing them, looked neither
  rapturous nor gay, said little but what was forced from him by
  questions, and distinguished Elinor by no mark of affection.  Marianne
  saw and listened with increasing surprise.  She began almost to feel a
  dislike of Edward; and it ended, as every feeling must end with her, by
  carrying back her thoughts to Willoughby, whose manners formed a
  contrast sufficiently striking to those of his brother elect.
  
  After a short silence which succeeded the first surprise and enquiries
  of meeting, Marianne asked Edward if he came directly from London.  No,
  he had been in Devonshire a fortnight.
  
  "A fortnight!" she repeated, surprised at his being so long in the same
  county with Elinor without seeing her before.
  
  He looked rather distressed as he added, that he had been staying with
  some friends near Plymouth.
  
  "Have you been lately in Sussex?" said Elinor.
  
  "I was at Norland about a month ago."
  
  "And how does dear, dear Norland look?" cried Marianne.
  
  "Dear, dear Norland," said Elinor, "probably looks much as it always
  does at this time of the year.  The woods and walks thickly covered
  with dead leaves."
  
  "Oh," cried Marianne, "with what transporting sensation have I formerly
  seen them fall!  How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven
  in showers about me by the wind!  What feelings have they, the season,
  the air altogether inspired!  Now there is no one to regard them.  They
  are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as
  possible from the sight."
  
  "It is not every one," said Elinor, "who has your passion for dead
  leaves."
  
  "No; my feelings are not often shared, not often understood.  But
  SOMETIMES they are."--As she said this, she sunk into a reverie for a
  few moments;--but rousing herself again, "Now, Edward," said she,
  calling his attention to the prospect, "here is Barton valley.  Look up
  to it, and be tranquil if you can.  Look at those hills!  Did you ever
  see their equals?  To the left is Barton park, amongst those woods and
  plantations.  You may see the end of the house.  And there, beneath
  that farthest hill, which rises with such grandeur, is our cottage."
  
  "It is a beautiful country," he replied; "but these bottoms must be
  dirty in winter."
  
  "How can you think of dirt, with such objects before you?"
  
  "Because," replied he, smiling, "among the rest of the objects before
  me, I see a very dirty lane."
  
  "How strange!" said Marianne to herself as she walked on.
  
  "Have you an agreeable neighbourhood here?  Are the Middletons pleasant
  people?"
  
  "No, not all," answered Marianne; "we could not be more unfortunately
  situated."
  
  "Marianne," cried her sister, "how can you say so? How can you be so
  unjust?  They are a very respectable family, Mr. Ferrars; and towards
  us have behaved in the friendliest manner.  Have you forgot, Marianne,
  how many pleasant days we have owed to them?"
  
  "No," said Marianne, in a low voice, "nor how many painful moments."
  
  Elinor took no notice of this; and directing her attention to their
  visitor, endeavoured to support something like discourse with him, by
  talking of their present residence, its conveniences, &c. extorting
  from him occasional questions and remarks.  His coldness and reserve
  mortified her severely; she was vexed and half angry; but resolving to
  regulate her behaviour to him by the past rather than the present, she
  avoided every appearance of resentment or displeasure, and treated him
  as she thought he ought to be treated from the family connection.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter  16
target: Puzzled about his hasty departure, Mrs. Jennings. shows concern for the Colonel. Elinor feels anxious about Marianne and wonders why she has not disclosed her engagement to her mother. Willoughby visits them everyday and displays his affection for Marianne. On one of his visits, he reveals his attachment to Barton Cottage and asks Mrs. Dashwood not to make changes there.
feat_summary_analysis: Notes A few more facts about Colonel Brandon are revealed. Mrs. Jennings talks about his estate at Delaford and about his relatives. Her dropping hints about the family and fortune of Colonel Brandon enhances the desire of the reader to know more about this elusive character. Elinor is concerned about Marianne and her relationship with Willoughby. Though she is aware of their mutual affection, she is not sure about the seriousness of their relationship; Marianne has not spoken about it to any one of them. Willoughby displays another facet of his personality. He can be very sentimental. He talks about his deep attachment to Barton Cottage and shows concern when Mrs. Dashwood expresses her desire to renovate it. He also expresses his gratitude towards them for their kindness. Through his words and actions, he hints at his emotional involvement with Marianne. CHAPTER 15 Summary Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor and Margaret make their customary visit to the Park. On their return, they are shocked to see Marianne looking dejected and flustered. Willoughby informs them about his decision to leave for London immediately. However, his explanation for this sudden departure does not convince Elinor. She suspects something more serious. Mrs. Dashwood is not so pessimistic. Marianne drowns herself in sorrow but refrains from talking about it. Notes The cheerful atmosphere of Barton Cottage is disrupted. Marianne, who had been blissful in the company of Willoughby, now looks miserable. Since she does not reveal anything about Willoughby's conversation with her before his departure to London, mystery shrouds their relationship. The incident casts a cloud over the family. Elinor is puzzled at Willoughby's change of behavior with Marianne and at his sudden plans to visit London. She suspects Willoughby's intentions and is doubtful of his integrity. Mrs. Dashwood, too, is disturbed although she does not share Elinor's view. Jane Austen frequently reminds the reader about Elinor's superior sense and reasoning ability. After observing Willoughby before his departure, she tries to analyze his behavior and his decision to take leave of them so abruptly. Willoughby, who had always spoken openly about all matters, could have revealed the real reason behind his visit to London unless he desperately needed to conceal something. Mrs. Dashwood, blinded by her faith in Willoughby, refuses to entertain negative thoughts about him. She feels sure of Willoughby's feelings for her daughter and hopes for the best. CHAPTER 16 Summary Marianne broods over her plight but hardly talks about Willoughby. Sometimes she inadvertently reveals her feelings for him. One morning, as they are walking in the countryside, they are surprised to encounter Edward Ferrars, who has arrived to visit them at Barton. Marianne is delighted to meet him and is glad for her sister. She welcomes Edward with open arms. Notes Marianne isolates herself from the others and becomes engulfed in a cloud of gloom. By sulking over her fate, she disturbs the peace of her family. She lacks restraint and has no regard for the others in her family. Willoughby exits from the scene and Edward enters. Willoughby's departure had disturbed the members of the Dashwood family, but Edward's visit gladdens them: Edward's arrival at Barton is like a streak of sunlight in an overcast sky. His presence even manages to lift Marianne out of her depression. She forgets her sorrow for the moment and welcomes him. His visit seems to offer her some consolation. She talks to him animatedly and asks him about Norland. Elinor is elated to see Edward but shows restraint in her behavior towards him. She keeps her emotions in control and tries to react normally to the situation.