Sense and Sensibility (film) could capture Mr. Palmer's disenchantment and redemption so perfectly, and make it funny." Thompson wrote the part of Edward Ferrars with Grant in mind, and he agreed to receive a lower salary in line with the film's budget. Grant called her screenplay "genius", explaining "I've always been a philistine about Jane Austen herself, and I think Emma's script is miles better than the book and much more amusing." Grant's casting was criticised by the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), whose representatives said that he was too handsome for the part. Actress Kate Winslet initially intended to audition for
Sense and Sensibility the effects of patriarchal control over women in which women cannot earn or inherit their money and use "Sense and Sensibility" as an example of this as the male heir, Mr. John Dashwood, deprives his sisters from their home as well as promised income. They also point to the "despised" Mrs. Ferrars' tampering with the patriarchal line of inheritance in her disowning of her eldest son, Edward Ferrars, as proof that this construction is ultimately arbitrary. Gilbert and Gubar contend that while "Sense and Sensibility's" ultimate message is that "young women like Marianne and Elinor must submit to powerful conventions