SOURCE: "Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility: The Politics of Point of View," in Philological Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 4, Fall, 1990, pp. 453–70.

In the following essay, Benedict explains how Austen negotiates between epistolary (sentimental) and objective (detached) narration in Sense and Sensibility.

Sense and Sensibility usually leaves modern readers cold, even irritated. They indict the book for a schematic structure which seems to segregate intelligence and warmth; for a tonal instability which seems to sneer while soliciting sympathy; and for a merciless ending which awards a crushed Marianne Dashwood "by general consent" to the flannel-waistcoated Colonel Brandon.¹ By condemning Austen's moral organization, these complaints address a general problem of interpretation: the problem of identifying the narrative attitude. This problem is epitomized by the contradiction between the sympathetic portrayal of Marianne, and the unflagging praise for her opposite, the "sensible" sister Elinor. Such a contradiction seems to weaken the authority of the...