Mustafa Sakib

ENGL 257-Dr. Dodman

Thesis Paper: Sense and Sensibility
26 September 2013
Karma in Sense and Sensibility
In Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen governs her characters to meet a
fate, which is in correspondence with the characters accumulated actions
throughout the book. Austen can be seen as the unseen force or the Karma
Police who puts in motion, throughout the book, events which bring about
the character developments seen by the end of the book.
Firstly, one of the two main characters of the book, the embodiment of
sense- Elinor Dashwood, by the end the books is married to her love interest
Edward Ferrars. Her marriage to the person she loved shows the return of
the good karma she acquires through the book coming back to her full force.
Elinors character is sensible, understanding, considerate and composed. Her
ability to withstand pain allows her to think and act clearly in many
situations, allowing her to endure others criticism and mockery with great
control over her emotions. Elinor remains, throughout the novel, very
conscious of her actions; she succeeds in keeping her sanctity through
applying sense to situations and that helps her good Karma points . Her
tendency for having genuine concerns for others and her caring nature
attracts even more good karma to her. In situations where she could easily let
off some of the emotional burden by sharing it with her mother or her sister,
she refuses to do so with the intent of not exerting more emotional stress on
her family, which has been going through various struggles. She suffers a lot
inside, but does not let her suffering get in the way of others happiness.
Elinor, after struggling for so long, finally receives justice through marriage
with her love interest, Edward Ferrars. It seemed to me that the whole

situation befell Elinor like a gift from the Divine. It portrays a sense that all of
Elinors accumulated good karma came back full force to help her out of her
misery.
I would like to draw attention to the character of Edward Ferrars.
Edward is seen as a man who is down and under immense pressure from his
family. Both Edwards mother and sister want for him women of wealth and
good family background. Edwards love for Lucy Steele, formed at an early
age, was beautiful in a rebellious way-until he met Elinor who was everything
Lucy was not. Elinors sweet and tender personality captivated his heart
during his visit to Norland estate. Edward has not been in control of his life
since the beginning of the novel, but the moment he asserts his control over
his life by siding with his honor and standing by Lucy, he is disinherited by his
mother. Karma finds a way to him through Colonel Brandon, who offers him
his Parish so that he could marry Lucy. Lucy on the other hand, seeing the
transfer of wealth to Edwards brother, transfers her love there. In the end
Edward gets to be with Elinor for whom he felt a more grown and mature
connection with. Although, it is noticeable that Edward is basking more in the
positive karmic glow of Elinor, but we as readers are not allowed entry into
the thought processes of Edward so we do not know for certain how his
thoughts, decisions, feelings and actions governed the karma to play out with
him like it did. In Volume 2 Chapter 2, Lucy and Elinor has a conversation
where Lucy gloats that Edwards affections for her are very consistent. Even
though these words give an insight to how Edward behaves off the pages, it is
not clear since the speaker here is Lucy, who is all kinds of treacherous, it is
hard for us to be sure if she is telling the truth or just trying to play games
with Elinor. However, we can make a safe assumption that Edward, since he

is a man of heart, has been true and has acquired enough good karma to be
worthy of Elinors love and their happy ending.
Interestingly enough the character with the most positive karmic glow
is none other than Colonel Brandon. Colonel Brandon is a reserved and
introverted man who carries good wisdom for he has seen much in his life.
Although a man with hardened exterior he is a man of good heart, and good
karma follows wherever there is love. Colonel Brandon falls in love with
Marianne, the moment he walks in to Barton cottage to meet the Dashwoods.
Colonel Brandon is reminded of his former love when he comes across
Marianne where a lot went wrong in many ways, and he wishes nothing but
the best for Marianne. Colonel Brandon remains a self-less and generous man
even after facing many hardships in life and that requires a lot of heart.
Colonel Brandon also takes under his care the child of his former love, Eliza
who is later found pregnant with an illegitimate child of Willoughby. Colonel
Brandon reveals this Elinor only because he felt that it might ease the pain
Marianne has been inflicted with by Willoughby. As I already mentioned
above, Colonel Brandon gives his parish to Edward who had been disinherited
by his mother for staying true to Lucy. There is every reason for Colonel
Brandon to receive something worth-while in return for all his mettle, and
that is exactly what he gets when he is married to Marianne-who in this case
is basking in the karmic glow of Colonel Brandon. Marianne giving in to her
sensibilities suffers terribly and learns a good lesson to not be so nave in
matters of the heart. Marianne who has been looking for love in all the wrong
places wins the most sincere love she could win by marrying Colonel Brandon
by the end of the novel. Austen refers to Marianne learning to love Colonel
Brandon with the same passion, which she once held for Willoughby. Austen

provides justice for Marianne in the way that was not akin to Mariannes
understanding of love because she had a more fairytale understanding of
happiness, which is outside the world of Austens novel where money and
social standing is as real as was in 18th century England.
Speaking of superficial necessities- Willoughby is a character who
sacrifices sensual love for love of the superficial. Willoughbys character is of
the foul sort. He is charming and handsome and very adept at flirting and
wooing women into his web. Willoughbys actions throughout the novel are
without much thought and the actions that consist of thoughts caters to his
needs only- except at the end of the novel when he encounters Elinor;
however, he still presents a slightly questionable behavior. Starting from his
affair with Eliza and the complete disregard of his child with her, he begins
accumulating bad karma points. When Mrs.Smith learned of what he did to
Eliza she sends him off to London. He leaves Marianne without fair warning as
he had no hope of returning to her. Sometime later when Marianne runs into
Willoughby in London, he completely disregards her and tries to push their
romance as completely brought about by Marianne, where it was he who
established the romance in the first place . He acts selfishly every chance he
got and marries Sophia Grey for money leaving Marianne devastated.
Willoughby with all his cruel deeds paves his own path to suffering; however,
in the ending we find him living and enjoying himself with the money that he
has instead of dying of a broken heart. This part piqued my interest
because any sane reader would want this man dead by the end of the novel.
Austen plays around with karma once again but in a very different way.
Willoughby, though drunk, visits Cleveland to see Marianne. Travel was very
difficult in those days and that Willoughby acted upon his thoughts shows

that he had enough heart to be worth saving. He runs into Elinor and
confesses that how miserable he feels with Sophia Grey. He tries to ask for
forgiveness for being the way he was with Marianne and in his own fuddled
way tried to state that he did love her. Willoughby acts on what he thought he
should do for the first time and comes down to ask for forgiveness. I feel this
makes Willoughby worth saving.
The gift of life given to Willoughby is not just the gift to live but a plot
to face the music. Willoughby, with his riches and his wife, never finds any
happiness in his domestic life. He has to see Marianne, his ideal woman, get
married off to Colonel Brandon, whom he envied terribly. A point to take note
here is that there was duel between Willoughby and Colonel Brandon where
both come out unscathed. On doing so Austen allows the sense of divine
justice to flow throughout the novel, and come full circle in the end. Justice
strikes as Willoughby has to watch both the people he crossed to live a happy
life together.