Sense and Sensibility
Elinor Dashwood
The sensible elder sister
The eldest Dashwood daughter, who keeps her family steady through money troubles and her own private heartbreak.
Elinor Dashwood is the eldest daughter when her father dies and the family loses Norland Park to her half-brother John. She has a strength of understanding and a coolness of judgment that her mother and sisters rely on. She feels deeply, but she believes in governing her feelings, for the sake of her mother and for the family’s future.
She is warm in a quiet way. She draws, she listens, and she takes care of practical matters, such as pointing out that the family cannot afford a horse. At Norland she grows fond of Edward Ferrars, but she says little about it, and she bears the pain of what she later learns without complaint.
“I was bound by a promise of secrecy, Marianne. Do not weep for me; my duty gave me strength.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Elinor goes with her family to Barton Cottage, where Lucy Steele confides that she has been secretly engaged to Edward for four years. Elinor keeps the secret for months, even in London, where she supports Marianne through Willoughby’s cruelty. She hears Colonel Brandon’s story and later nurses Marianne through a dangerous fever at Cleveland.
When Edward is disowned for refusing to break his engagement, Elinor admires his integrity. She helps arrange the living at Delaford. When she learns Lucy married Robert instead, Edward proposes in the cottage garden, and Elinor tells him her heart has been his from the same hour. They marry in a double wedding at Delaford.
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