SOURCE: "Moral Priorities in Sense and Sensibility," in Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, Summer, 1983, pp. 269–83.

In the following essay, Reinstein argues that in Sense and Sensibility Austen promotes moderation—"the mix ture of prudence and decorum"—as the ideal quality to possess, not the strict extremes of sense and sensibility.

In Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen ostensibly opposes practicality and sensitivity, praising the former and censuring the latter. Further examination of the novel, however, reveals a subtler, more significant moral opposition between selfishness and unselfishness. Although the title of the novel suggests a simplistic approach to values, Austen's characters and moral discriminations are, in fact, complex, reflecting the complexity of life itself. The qualities of sense and sensibility are embodied by characters in the novel in many gradations and with different shades of definition. Neither consistent, unmitigated sense nor thoroughgoing sensibility is, finally, acceptable...