莫內藍 Female, 24. Hsinchu, Taiwan

Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, is such a revolutionary book. It marks a significant epoch in the evolution of an American female literary tradition. From the protagonist, Edna, Chopin successfully reveals her ideas of revealing the situation of wife, the experience of motherhood and the possibility of women’s pursuing of sexual happiness. In addition, Chopin examines the inspirational importance of Edna’s struggle between self-determinated freedom and destined female role. This touches upon Feminism’s discussion of marriage, motherhood and sexuality. Moreover, the implication, contained in The Awakening, of reshaping female nature is somehow promoting to awaken and lessen the unfairly female inequality.

In Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen uses the title of the book as a metaphor to illustrate the differences between the two main characters, Elinor and Marianne. To be precise, Elinor represents “sense” and Marianne represents “sensibility.” In the story, Marianne, trusting the spontaneity of her senses, is eager in everything and shows disregard for social conventions. In contrast, Elinor thinks quite sensibly when making judgments and she understands clearly that violating social propriety will be absolutely improper. These differences in their characters lead to different results when the two sisters experience love, despair and moral dilemma.
Though the story seems to revolve more around how Marianne grows to be sophisticated and learns to follow the social conventions of the 18th century, most of the story is told through Elinor’s eyes. Moreover, Jane Austen seems to agree with all of Elinor’s opinions. According to readers’ understanding, an author’s decision of choosing different points of view will differentiate how readers react to characters’ action in emotional and moral aspect. From a character’s perspective, readers can gain an access to the character’s mind and observe how this character observes the others. To me, the reason that Austen chooses to use Elinor’s perspective is vastly related to Elinor’s personality. She has intellectual stolidity and moral perception which enables her to become a reliable “narrator.” Compared with Marianne who judges things with her intuition, readers tend to believe that Elinor’s criticize on the other characters is more plausible and reasonable. Take the two sisters’ views toward Willoughby for example. Marianne lets her romantic fantasy run wildly and cannot see any of Willoughby’s defects, but Elinor, knowing how a gentleman should behave, holds a reserved opinion of him and reproaches her sister who acts impulsively. Later in the story, it proves that “sense” triumphs over “sensibility.” Elinor’s suspense is justified.
Furthermore, Elinor seldom reveals her emotions and conceals her agony secretly in mind. Even her dearest sister cannot understand her. Therefore, if Austen chooses not to use Elinor’s point of view, it is very likely that Elinor will become a flat character and the intensity of the whole story will be lessened. In other words, using her point of view can provide readers with her feelings to be observed. The more Elinor represses her emotions in her own consciousness, the better readers can understand her.