Marianne Dashwood

Uncommon card · No. 100191

Marianne Dashwood (eventually Marianne Brandon) is a fictional character in Jane Austen's 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility. The 16-year-old second daughter of Mr and Mrs Henry Dashwood, she mostly embodies the "sensibility" of the title, as opposed to her elder sister Elinor's "sense". She embraces spontaneity, excessive sensibility, love of nature, and romantic idealism: Marianne weeps dramatically when their family must depart from "dear, dear Norland", and later in the book, exclaims, "Oh! with what transporting sensations 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." At which the cooler Elinor replies quietly, "It is not everyone who has your passion for dead leaves." And later when she hears Sir John Middleton...

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