Dashwood family

fictional characters

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Article History

Dashwood family, featured characters in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility (1811). The widowed Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters—Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret—are impoverished by the death of Mr. Dashwood and by the selfishness and neglect of his heir, who is his son by his first wife. The two older Dashwood sisters represent opposite temperaments: Elinor, the oldest, is “sensible,” rational, and capable of exercising self-restraint, whereas Marianne, who shares her mother’s temperament, is emotional and impulsive.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.