A Structuralist Reading of Austens Sense and Sensibility Essay example

A Structuralist Reading of Austens Sense and sensibility   The fundamental structural dynamic underlying the whole manifested universe, much less literature, is duality therefore, Jane Austens Sense and Sensibility is easily analyzed from the structuralist perspective. Each of us is a complex mixture of polar opposites, the most primary of which being the division between right mindset and left brain, or, more commonly, heart and mind. Austens technique in this novel is that of eliminating altogether the corpus callosum, thus juxtaposing the two halves into a binary opposition, a split between the heart that throbs and exults and the mind which ascertains and evaluates. Marianne is, of course, the heart of the novel, Elinor the mind. Moreover, the remaining characters, too, fall within one of these two categories. I progress to arranged the most important figures of the novel in this way           SENSE      &n bsp                   SENSIBILITY          Elinor                         Marianne          Edward                         Mrs. Dashwood          Lucy                   &nbs... ...novel can stand alone from its constituent elements, to be used and reused again and again by simply replacing distinguishable characters, different circumstances. Hesses Narcissus and Goldmund is a perfect example. In this novel, the exact same dualism of heart and mind is explored (and far more interestingly, in my opinion) in the experiences of the two title cha racters. In closing, it must be stated that there are certainly other structural dichotomies within the novel, contrasts of high and low which bisect the lateral distinctions upon which I have focused. These involve the shifts in social stations experienced by various characters such as Elinor, Marianne, Lucy, and Edward. These are, however, secondary to the primary theme, the seemingly impassable, yawning chasm which separates those with sense from those feature by mere trivial sensibility