feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/gradesaver/Sense and Sensibility/section_2_part_5.txt
feat_book_id: Sense and Sensibility.chapter 25
feat_summary_id: chapter 25
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 25", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210419170735/https://www.gradesaver.com/sense-and-sensibility/study-guide/summary-chapters-21-30", "summary": "Mrs. Jennings invites Marianne and Elinor to spend the winter with her in London; Elinor isn't excited by the prospect, though Marianne wants to go for the chance of seeing Willoughby. Mrs. Dashwood urges them to go and enjoy themselves; Marianne is determined to go, and Elinor decides she must go too, because Marianne is often uncivil to Mrs. Jennings and needs Elinor's guidance and good judgment. They accept Mrs. Jennings' invitation, and leave in the first week of January.", "analysis": "Marianne's lack of good manners and civility leaves her at a disadvantage; she is lucky that Elinor is always there to guard her and make apologies for her, since Marianne would never do so herself. Marianne's lack of delicacy is childlike, and shows that her character has been indulged a bit too much; however, only experience can teach her, since she is too stubborn to take the good advice of her sister Elinor on matters of society. Self-sacrifice becomes a theme in this chapter, as Elinor decides to go to London against her wishes because it will make her sister happy. Marianne's determination to go looks a little selfish in comparison, considering that she has no thought of repaying the hospitality of Mrs. Jennings with any good company at all"}
text: 
  
  Though Mrs. Jennings was in the habit of spending a large portion of
  the year at the houses of her children and friends, she was not without
  a settled habitation of her own.  Since the death of her husband, who
  had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town, she had
  resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near Portman
  Square.  Towards this home, she began on the approach of January to
  turn her thoughts, and thither she one day abruptly, and very
  unexpectedly by them, asked the elder Misses Dashwood to accompany her.
  Elinor, without observing the varying complexion of her sister, and the
  animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan, immediately gave
  a grateful but absolute denial for both, in which she believed herself
  to be speaking their united inclinations.  The reason alleged was their
  determined resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the
  year.  Mrs. Jennings received the refusal with some surprise, and
  repeated her invitation immediately.
  
  "Oh, Lord! I am sure your mother can spare you very well, and I DO beg
  you will favour me with your company, for I've quite set my heart upon
  it.  Don't fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me, for I shan't
  put myself at all out of my way for you.  It will only be sending Betty
  by the coach, and I hope I can afford THAT.  We three shall be able to
  go very well in my chaise; and when we are in town, if you do not like
  to go wherever I do, well and good, you may always go with one of my
  daughters.  I am sure your mother will not object to it; for I have had
  such good luck in getting my own children off my hands that she will
  think me a very fit person to have the charge of you; and if I don't
  get one of you at least well married before I have done with you, it
  shall not be my fault.  I shall speak a good word for you to all the
  young men, you may depend upon it."
  
  "I have a notion," said Sir John, "that Miss Marianne would not object
  to such a scheme, if her elder sister would come into it.  It is very
  hard indeed that she should not have a little pleasure, because Miss
  Dashwood does not wish it.  So I would advise you two, to set off for
  town, when you are tired of Barton, without saying a word to Miss
  Dashwood about it."
  
  "Nay," cried Mrs. Jennings, "I am sure I shall be monstrous glad of
  Miss Marianne's company, whether Miss Dashwood will go or not, only the
  more the merrier say I, and I thought it would be more comfortable for
  them to be together; because, if they got tired of me, they might talk
  to one another, and laugh at my old ways behind my back.  But one or
  the other, if not both of them, I must have.  Lord bless me! how do you
  think I can live poking by myself, I who have been always used till
  this winter to have Charlotte with me.  Come, Miss Marianne, let us
  strike hands upon the bargain, and if Miss Dashwood will change her
  mind by and bye, why so much the better."
  
  "I thank you, ma'am, sincerely thank you," said Marianne, with warmth:
  "your invitation has insured my gratitude for ever, and it would give
  me such happiness, yes, almost the greatest happiness I am capable of,
  to be able to accept it.  But my mother, my dearest, kindest mother,--I
  feel the justice of what Elinor has urged, and if she were to be made
  less happy, less comfortable by our absence--Oh! no, nothing should
  tempt me to leave her.  It should not, must not be a struggle."
  
  Mrs. Jennings repeated her assurance that Mrs. Dashwood could spare
  them perfectly well; and Elinor, who now understood her sister, and saw
  to what indifference to almost every thing else she was carried by her
  eagerness to be with Willoughby again, made no farther direct
  opposition to the plan, and merely referred it to her mother's
  decision, from whom however she scarcely expected to receive any
  support in her endeavour to prevent a visit, which she could not
  approve of for Marianne, and which on her own account she had
  particular reasons to avoid.  Whatever Marianne was desirous of, her
  mother would be eager to promote--she could not expect to influence the
  latter to cautiousness of conduct in an affair respecting which she had
  never been able to inspire her with distrust; and she dared not explain
  the motive of her own disinclination for going to London.  That
  Marianne, fastidious as she was, thoroughly acquainted with Mrs.
  Jennings' manners, and invariably disgusted by them, should overlook
  every inconvenience of that kind, should disregard whatever must be
  most wounding to her irritable feelings, in her pursuit of one object,
  was such a proof, so strong, so full, of the importance of that object
  to her, as Elinor, in spite of all that had passed, was not prepared to
  witness.
  
  On being informed of the invitation, Mrs. Dashwood, persuaded that such
  an excursion would be productive of much amusement to both her
  daughters, and perceiving through all her affectionate attention to
  herself, how much the heart of Marianne was in it, would not hear of
  their declining the offer upon HER account; insisted on their both
  accepting it directly; and then began to foresee, with her usual
  cheerfulness, a variety of advantages that would accrue to them all,
  from this separation.
  
  "I am delighted with the plan," she cried, "it is exactly what I could
  wish.  Margaret and I shall be as much benefited by it as yourselves.
  When you and the Middletons are gone, we shall go on so quietly and
  happily together with our books and our music! You will find Margaret
  so improved when you come back again!  I have a little plan of
  alteration for your bedrooms too, which may now be performed without
  any inconvenience to any one.  It is very right that you SHOULD go to
  town; I would have every young woman of your condition in life
  acquainted with the manners and amusements of London.  You will be
  under the care of a motherly good sort of woman, of whose kindness to
  you I can have no doubt.  And in all probability you will see your
  brother, and whatever may be his faults, or the faults of his wife,
  when I consider whose son he is, I cannot bear to have you so wholly
  estranged from each other."
  
  "Though with your usual anxiety for our happiness," said Elinor, "you
  have been obviating every impediment to the present scheme which
  occurred to you, there is still one objection which, in my opinion,
  cannot be so easily removed."
  
  Marianne's countenance sunk.
  
  "And what," said Mrs. Dashwood, "is my dear prudent Elinor going to
  suggest?  What formidable obstacle is she now to bring forward?  Do let
  me hear a word about the expense of it."
  
  "My objection is this; though I think very well of Mrs. Jennings's
  heart, she is not a woman whose society can afford us pleasure, or
  whose protection will give us consequence."
  
  "That is very true," replied her mother, "but of her society,
  separately from that of other people, you will scarcely have any thing
  at all, and you will almost always appear in public with Lady
  Middleton."
  
  "If Elinor is frightened away by her dislike of Mrs. Jennings," said
  Marianne, "at least it need not prevent MY accepting her invitation.  I
  have no such scruples, and I am sure I could put up with every
  unpleasantness of that kind with very little effort."
  
  Elinor could not help smiling at this display of indifference towards
  the manners of a person, to whom she had often had difficulty in
  persuading Marianne to behave with tolerable politeness; and resolved
  within herself, that if her sister persisted in going, she would go
  likewise, as she did not think it proper that Marianne should be left
  to the sole guidance of her own judgment, or that Mrs. Jennings should
  be abandoned to the mercy of Marianne for all the comfort of her
  domestic hours.  To this determination she was the more easily
  reconciled, by recollecting that Edward Ferrars, by Lucy's account, was
  not to be in town before February; and that their visit, without any
  unreasonable abridgement, might be previously finished.
  
  "I will have you BOTH go," said Mrs. Dashwood; "these objections are
  nonsensical.  You will have much pleasure in being in London, and
  especially in being together; and if Elinor would ever condescend to
  anticipate enjoyment, she would foresee it there from a variety of
  sources; she would, perhaps, expect some from improving her
  acquaintance with her sister-in-law's family."
  
  Elinor had often wished for an opportunity of attempting to weaken her
  mother's dependence on the attachment of Edward and herself, that the
  shock might be less when the whole truth were revealed, and now on this
  attack, though almost hopeless of success, she forced herself to begin
  her design by saying, as calmly as she could, "I like Edward Ferrars
  very much, and shall always be glad to see him; but as to the rest of
  the family, it is a matter of perfect indifference to me, whether I am
  ever known to them or not."
  
  Mrs. Dashwood smiled, and said nothing.  Marianne lifted up her eyes in
  astonishment, and Elinor conjectured that she might as well have held
  her tongue.
  
  After very little farther discourse, it was finally settled that the
  invitation should be fully accepted.  Mrs. Jennings received the
  information with a great deal of joy, and many assurances of kindness
  and care; nor was it a matter of pleasure merely to her.  Sir John was
  delighted; for to a man, whose prevailing anxiety was the dread of
  being alone, the acquisition of two, to the number of inhabitants in
  London, was something.  Even Lady Middleton took the trouble of being
  delighted, which was putting herself rather out of her way; and as for
  the Miss Steeles, especially Lucy, they had never been so happy in
  their lives as this intelligence made them.
  
  Elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted her wishes with
  less reluctance than she had expected to feel.  With regard to herself,
  it was now a matter of unconcern whether she went to town or not, and
  when she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan, and her
  sister exhilarated by it in look, voice, and manner, restored to all
  her usual animation, and elevated to more than her usual gaiety, she
  could not be dissatisfied with the cause, and would hardly allow
  herself to distrust the consequence.
  
  Marianne's joy was almost a degree beyond happiness, so great was the
  perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone.  Her
  unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness;
  and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive.
  Her mother's affliction was hardly less, and Elinor was the only one of
  the three, who seemed to consider the separation as any thing short of
  eternal.
  
  Their departure took place in the first week in January.  The
  Middletons were to follow in about a week.  The Miss Steeles kept their
  station at the park, and were to quit it only with the rest of the
  family.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 25
target: Mrs. Jennings invites Marianne and Elinor to spend the winter with her in London; Elinor isn't excited by the prospect, though Marianne wants to go for the chance of seeing Willoughby. Mrs. Dashwood urges them to go and enjoy themselves; Marianne is determined to go, and Elinor decides she must go too, because Marianne is often uncivil to Mrs. Jennings and needs Elinor's guidance and good judgment. They accept Mrs. Jennings' invitation, and leave in the first week of January.
feat_summary_analysis: Marianne's lack of good manners and civility leaves her at a disadvantage; she is lucky that Elinor is always there to guard her and make apologies for her, since Marianne would never do so herself. Marianne's lack of delicacy is childlike, and shows that her character has been indulged a bit too much; however, only experience can teach her, since she is too stubborn to take the good advice of her sister Elinor on matters of society. Self-sacrifice becomes a theme in this chapter, as Elinor decides to go to London against her wishes because it will make her sister happy. Marianne's determination to go looks a little selfish in comparison, considering that she has no thought of repaying the hospitality of Mrs. Jennings with any good company at all