Critical Analysis Of Simone De Beauvoir's Sense And Sensibility

Jane Austen has become an icon in the literary field over the past twenty odd years due to her well-established and deserved reputation as an author who can speak to the societal issues of her time. More importantly though, Austen has become an icon for feminist theory and academia due to her ability to portray gender issues and female marginalization within society in a complex, yet nuanced manner. While she succeeds in this feat in most of her novels, never is this clearer than in her 1811 novel, Sense and Sensibility, which critically analyzes societal patriarchy and the marginalization of women through the lens of two sisters. While one can easily understand such issues by merely reading Austen’s work, it can help to make use of the writings of feminist scholars as well. One such scholar is Simone De Beauvoir, who once noted “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (1949). Through her writings, where she

She notes, “to see things clearly is not her business, for she has been taught to accept masculine authority” (De Beauvoir, p. 346). De Beauvoir further elaborates on this thought, noting that women, no matter which level of society they occupy, are conscious of the dominion that they live under. As an example she notes that women adhere to the rules of society set out for them for a number of reasons, but “if she belongs to the privileged elite, who benefit from the established social order, she wants it to be unshakeable” (De Beauvoir, p. 347). This example is particularly relevant to Sense and Sensibility, as Elinor and Marianne, acting to keep up illusions of their social standing, do not even think about how this situation could or should be changed, rather they keep up an act and desperately attempt to reestablish themselves within the realm of the privileged elite of their