Introduction
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility turns on the baffling behaviour of Mr Willoughby, who assiduously courts Marianne Dashwood only to vanish from the neighbourhood. When he is finally tracked down in London, he has married a woman of fashion and wealth, and Marianne’s sister Elinor — with every right to a resounding ‘I told you so’ — has to make sure that Marianne and their mother have both accepted the realities.
Marianne’s lips quivered, and she repeated the word “Selfish?” in a tone that implied “Do you really think him selfish?”
“The whole of his behaviour,” replied Elinor, “from the beginning to the end of the affair, has been grounded on selfishness. It was selfishness which first made him sport with your affections — which afterwards, when his own were engaged, made him delay the confession of it, and which finally carried him from Barton. His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was in every particular his ruling principle.”
“It is very true. My happiness never was his object.”
“At present,” continued Elinor, “he regrets what he has done. And why does he regret it? Because he finds it has not answered towards himself. It has not made him happy. His circumstances are now unembarrassed — he suffers from no evil of that kind, and he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself. But does it thence follow that, had he married you, he would have been happy?
Précis
In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Elinor, her sister Marianne and their mother have been discussing Mr Willoughby. Marianne does not want to label her former lover ‘selfish’, but Elinor gently insists on the word. Not only was his treatment of Marianne selfish, but even now his regrets arise from the inconveniences to himself, rather than any concern for Marianne. (60 / 60 words)
In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Elinor, her sister Marianne and their mother have been discussing Mr Willoughby. Marianne does not want to label her former lover ‘selfish’, but Elinor gently insists on the word. Not only was his treatment of Marianne selfish, but even now his regrets arise from the inconveniences to himself, rather than any concern for Marianne.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, if, just, may, or, otherwise, whether, who.