Abstract
While all of the female characters experience some benefit and detriment because of their dispositions, whether rational or highly emotional, Charlotte and her mother are the two women whose combination of qualities the novel ultimately defines as the most healthful. [...]their qualities emerge from a deliberate stance of self-reliance and allegiance to an emotional median. While Marianne's "sensibility" is self-centered, theatrical, and imitative, Elinor experiences intense emotions but suppresses them; while Marianne eventually becomes more "refined," compassionate, and restrained in her feelings, Elinor learns to express herself more openly. [...]both sisters are emotionally dependent on men, whether consciously or unconsciously (Marianne's dependence is blatant, Elinor's secret). In one of the earliest scenes of the novel, as Susan Morgan argues, when "Elinor explains to Marianne the doubtful state of her hopes concerning Edward, . . . her explanation involves, though in subdued and careful tones, a confession of love" (189). [...]while Elinor often demonstrates practicality and an almost transcendent adherence to social responsibility over personal passion, she also reveals her "extremely refined" (Todd 7) feelings for Edward. Neither overly sensitive nor emotionless, they also remain consistent in their benignity. Because the mother and daughter appear somewhat sporadically and do not play a direct role in the main conflicts that develop, readers and critics commonly overlook them.