Sense and Sensibility (film) Academy Awards nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Actress. Thompson received the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, becoming the only person to have won Academy Awards for both acting and screenwriting. "Sense and Sensibility" contributed to a resurgence in popularity for Austen's works, and has led to many more productions in similar genres. It persists in being recognised as one of the best Austen adaptations of all time. On his deathbed, Mr. Dashwood tells his son from his first marriage, John, to take care of his second wife and three daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, since they will inherit
Sense and Sensibility of inheritance. Gene Ruoff's book "Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility" explores these issues in an entire book-length discussion on the novel. Ruoff's first two chapters deal extensively on the subject of wills and on the discourse of inheritance. These topics reveal what Ruoff calls "the cultural fixation on priority of male birth." According to Ruoff, male birth is by far the dominant issue in these legal conversations. Ruoff observes that, within the linear family, the order of male birth decides issues of eligibility and merit. When Robert Ferrars becomes the eldest son, Edward is no longer appealing to his "opportunistic