feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/gradesaver/Sense and Sensibility/section_1_part_7.txt
feat_book_id: Sense and Sensibility.chapter 17
feat_summary_id: chapter 17
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 17", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210419170735/https://www.gradesaver.com/sense-and-sensibility/study-guide/summary-chapters-11-20", "summary": "Mrs. Dashwood is happy to see that Edward has come, and welcomes him very warmly as their guest. He becomes more easy and less reserved around them, though it is obvious to them that he is in poor spirits for some reason. Mrs. Dashwood believes this is because his mother has put pressure on him to take up a profession and distinguish himself; Edward says he has no desire to live anything but a quiet, private life, though his mother will not accept this. Small talk follows, about money and character and judging people; then, Marianne remarks that Edward is reserved, and this brings back the dejection they noticed in him earlier in the day.", "analysis": "Again, the theme of money is shown to be of importance to the Dashwood girls; they cannot sustain themselves on their very small fortunes, and this limits their choices. Gender is also a theme in this discussion with Edward; although Edward can choose a profession and make his own money, all that the Dashwood girls can do is rely on inheritances or marriage to sustain them. Elinor also brings up the theme of judgment, and how a person learns to judge other people; she notes how it can be easy to misjudge a person by what people say about them or what they say about themselves, and to not understand who they really are"}
text: 
  
  Mrs. Dashwood was surprised only for a moment at seeing him; for his
  coming to Barton was, in her opinion, of all things the most natural.
  Her joy and expression of regard long outlived her wonder.  He received
  the kindest welcome from her; and shyness, coldness, reserve could not
  stand against such a reception.  They had begun to fail him before he
  entered the house, and they were quite overcome by the captivating
  manners of Mrs. Dashwood.  Indeed a man could not very well be in love
  with either of her daughters, without extending the passion to her; and
  Elinor had the satisfaction of seeing him soon become more like
  himself.  His affections seemed to reanimate towards them all, and his
  interest in their welfare again became perceptible.  He was not in
  spirits, however; he praised their house, admired its prospect, was
  attentive, and kind; but still he was not in spirits.  The whole family
  perceived it, and Mrs. Dashwood, attributing it to some want of
  liberality in his mother, sat down to table indignant against all
  selfish parents.
  
  "What are Mrs. Ferrars's views for you at present, Edward?" said she,
  when dinner was over and they had drawn round the fire; "are you still
  to be a great orator in spite of yourself?"
  
  "No. I hope my mother is now convinced that I have no more talents than
  inclination for a public life!"
  
  "But how is your fame to be established? for famous you must be to
  satisfy all your family; and with no inclination for expense, no
  affection for strangers, no profession, and no assurance, you may find
  it a difficult matter."
  
  "I shall not attempt it.  I have no wish to be distinguished; and have
  every reason to hope I never shall.  Thank Heaven! I cannot be forced
  into genius and eloquence."
  
  "You have no ambition, I well know.  Your wishes are all moderate."
  
  "As moderate as those of the rest of the world, I believe.  I wish as
  well as every body else to be perfectly happy; but, like every body
  else it must be in my own way.  Greatness will not make me so."
  
  "Strange that it would!" cried Marianne.  "What have wealth or grandeur
  to do with happiness?"
  
  "Grandeur has but little," said Elinor, "but wealth has much to do with
  it."
  
  "Elinor, for shame!" said Marianne, "money can only give happiness
  where there is nothing else to give it.  Beyond a competence, it can
  afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned."
  
  "Perhaps," said Elinor, smiling, "we may come to the same point.  YOUR
  competence and MY wealth are very much alike, I dare say; and without
  them, as the world goes now, we shall both agree that every kind of
  external comfort must be wanting.  Your ideas are only more noble than
  mine.  Come, what is your competence?"
  
  "About eighteen hundred or two thousand a year; not more than THAT."
  
  Elinor laughed.  "TWO thousand a year! ONE is my wealth! I guessed how
  it would end."
  
  "And yet two thousand a-year is a very moderate income," said Marianne.
  "A family cannot well be maintained on a smaller.  I am sure I am not
  extravagant in my demands.  A proper establishment of servants, a
  carriage, perhaps two, and hunters, cannot be supported on less."
  
  Elinor smiled again, to hear her sister describing so accurately their
  future expenses at Combe Magna.
  
  "Hunters!" repeated Edward--"but why must you have hunters?  Every body
  does not hunt."
  
  Marianne coloured as she replied, "But most people do."
  
  "I wish," said Margaret, striking out a novel thought, "that somebody
  would give us all a large fortune apiece!"
  
  "Oh that they would!" cried Marianne, her eyes sparkling with
  animation, and her cheeks glowing with the delight of such imaginary
  happiness.
  
  "We are all unanimous in that wish, I suppose," said Elinor, "in spite
  of the insufficiency of wealth."
  
  "Oh dear!" cried Margaret, "how happy I should be!  I wonder what I
  should do with it!"
  
  Marianne looked as if she had no doubt on that point.
  
  "I should be puzzled to spend so large a fortune myself," said Mrs.
  Dashwood, "if my children were all to be rich without my help."
  
  "You must begin your improvements on this house," observed Elinor, "and
  your difficulties will soon vanish."
  
  "What magnificent orders would travel from this family to London," said
  Edward, "in such an event!  What a happy day for booksellers,
  music-sellers, and print-shops!  You, Miss Dashwood, would give a
  general commission for every new print of merit to be sent you--and as
  for Marianne, I know her greatness of soul, there would not be music
  enough in London to content her.  And books!--Thomson, Cowper,
  Scott--she would buy them all over and over again: she would buy up
  every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands;
  and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old
  twisted tree.  Should not you, Marianne?  Forgive me, if I am very
  saucy.  But I was willing to shew you that I had not forgot our old
  disputes."
  
  "I love to be reminded of the past, Edward--whether it be melancholy or
  gay, I love to recall it--and you will never offend me by talking of
  former times.  You are very right in supposing how my money would be
  spent--some of it, at least--my loose cash would certainly be employed
  in improving my collection of music and books."
  
  "And the bulk of your fortune would be laid out in annuities on the
  authors or their heirs."
  
  "No, Edward, I should have something else to do with it."
  
  "Perhaps, then, you would bestow it as a reward on that person who
  wrote the ablest defence of your favourite maxim, that no one can ever
  be in love more than once in their life--your opinion on that point is
  unchanged, I presume?"
  
  "Undoubtedly. At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed.  It is
  not likely that I should now see or hear any thing to change them."
  
  "Marianne is as steadfast as ever, you see," said Elinor, "she is not
  at all altered."
  
  "She is only grown a little more grave than she was."
  
  "Nay, Edward," said Marianne, "you need not reproach me.  You are not
  very gay yourself."
  
  "Why should you think so!" replied he, with a sigh.  "But gaiety never
  was a part of MY character."
  
  "Nor do I think it a part of Marianne's," said Elinor; "I should hardly
  call her a lively girl--she is very earnest, very eager in all she
  does--sometimes talks a great deal and always with animation--but she
  is not often really merry."
  
  "I believe you are right," he replied, "and yet I have always set her
  down as a lively girl."
  
  "I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes," said
  Elinor, "in a total misapprehension of character in some point or
  other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or
  stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why or in what the
  deception originated.  Sometimes one is guided by what they say of
  themselves, and very frequently by what other people say of them,
  without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge."
  
  "But I thought it was right, Elinor," said Marianne, "to be guided
  wholly by the opinion of other people.  I thought our judgments were
  given us merely to be subservient to those of neighbours.  This has
  always been your doctrine, I am sure."
  
  "No, Marianne, never.  My doctrine has never aimed at the subjection of
  the understanding.  All I have ever attempted to influence has been the
  behaviour.  You must not confound my meaning.  I am guilty, I confess,
  of having often wished you to treat our acquaintance in general with
  greater attention; but when have I advised you to adopt their
  sentiments or to conform to their judgment in serious matters?"
  
  "You have not been able to bring your sister over to your plan of
  general civility," said Edward to Elinor.  "Do you gain no ground?"
  
  "Quite the contrary," replied Elinor, looking expressively at Marianne.
  
  "My judgment," he returned, "is all on your side of the question; but I
  am afraid my practice is much more on your sister's.  I never wish to
  offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I
  am only kept back by my natural awkwardness.  I have frequently thought
  that I must have been intended by nature to be fond of low company, I
  am so little at my ease among strangers of gentility!"
  
  "Marianne has not shyness to excuse any inattention of hers," said
  Elinor.
  
  "She knows her own worth too well for false shame," replied Edward.
  "Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or
  other.  If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy
  and graceful, I should not be shy."
  
  "But you would still be reserved," said Marianne, "and that is worse."
  
  Edward started--"Reserved! Am I reserved, Marianne?"
  
  "Yes, very."
  
  "I do not understand you," replied he, colouring.  "Reserved!--how, in
  what manner?  What am I to tell you?  What can you suppose?"
  
  Elinor looked surprised at his emotion; but trying to laugh off the
  subject, she said to him, "Do not you know my sister well enough to
  understand what she means?  Do not you know she calls every one
  reserved who does not talk as fast, and admire what she admires as
  rapturously as herself?"
  
  Edward made no answer.  His gravity and thoughtfulness returned on him
  in their fullest extent--and he sat for some time silent and dull.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 17
target: Mrs. Dashwood is happy to see that Edward has come, and welcomes him very warmly as their guest. He becomes more easy and less reserved around them, though it is obvious to them that he is in poor spirits for some reason. Mrs. Dashwood believes this is because his mother has put pressure on him to take up a profession and distinguish himself; Edward says he has no desire to live anything but a quiet, private life, though his mother will not accept this. Small talk follows, about money and character and judging people; then, Marianne remarks that Edward is reserved, and this brings back the dejection they noticed in him earlier in the day.
feat_summary_analysis: Again, the theme of money is shown to be of importance to the Dashwood girls; they cannot sustain themselves on their very small fortunes, and this limits their choices. Gender is also a theme in this discussion with Edward; although Edward can choose a profession and make his own money, all that the Dashwood girls can do is rely on inheritances or marriage to sustain them. Elinor also brings up the theme of judgment, and how a person learns to judge other people; she notes how it can be easy to misjudge a person by what people say about them or what they say about themselves, and to not understand who they really are