Of course, Edward wouldn’t be nearly as attractive to Elinor if he hadn’t proven himself an honorable young man who kept his promises. He’s actually described as “fettered” to her. It’s because her future marriage prospects were said to have been damaged by the fiancé’s abandonment.Įdward honors his regretted engagement to Lucy. If the court found that a suitor’s legitimate promise of marriage had been breached, then he could be ordered to pay damages to his abandoned fiancée’s family.

Such lawsuits might be brought by fathers whose engaged daughters were jilted. He’s made a promise to Lucy, and he won’t break it.īut another answer is that if he broke his engagement, then he’d be opening himself up to legal action, in what was called a ‘breach of promise suit’. Readers today sometimes ask, “Why doesn’t Edward Ferrars just break off his secret engagement to Lucy and marry Elinor?” One answer is that Edward, too, has sense-that he’s honorable and does his duty. Edward, who’s secretly engaged to marry Lucy Steele, falls in love with Elinor. She wants her brother to marry for money and influence, and Elinor has neither.īut then a surprise obstacle arises in the form of a second triangle. Fanny tries to break up their developing intimacy.

This triangle-Elinor, her sister-in-law Fanny, and her brother Robert-proves an obstacle Fanny objects to Edward and Elinor’s friendship. He’s the brother of Elinor’s sister-in-law, Fanny. Very early in the novel, Elinor falls in love with the unassuming, good-hearted, and self-declaredly unambitious young man, Edward Ferrars. (Image: FotoDuets/Shutterstock) Elinor, Edward, and LucyĮlinor Dashwood’s character in Sense and Sensibility is associated with sense and duty. According to Jane Austen’s family, Sense and Sensibility had its origins in the mid-1790s, under the working title of its sister-protagonists, Elinor and Marianne.

Having said that, it is important to notice that in this novel, sibling pairs and romantic couples repeatedly find themselves in opposition and challenging relationship triangles. By Devoney Looser, Arizona State University The most significant and enduring love relationship in Sense and Sensibility may be among its two admirable, though quite different, sisters, who, although unfortunately upset at the novel’s beginning, are happily, sensibly, and sensitively resettled together by its end.

Love and friendship summary jane austen