Sense and Sensibility
John Dashwood
The half-brother
Elinor’s half-brother, who promises his dying father to help his stepmother and sisters, then gives them almost nothing.
John Dashwood inherits Norland Park from his father. He is not an ill-disposed young man, unless being rather cold-hearted and selfish counts. He is weak-willed, pompous and stingy, and superficially polite.
He means to keep his promise, but his wife Fanny talks him down at every step. His easy surrender to her makes him one of the story’s more telling figures: a man who does wrong not from malice but from weakness.
“Indeed, Fanny, you are quite right. An occasional present of fifty pounds will be far more thoughtful and useful!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
At his father’s bedside John promises to take care of his stepmother and sisters. Fanny argues him down from three thousand pounds to a present of fifty pounds now and then. The Dashwoods are left with five hundred a year.
In London John complains of poverty while spending freely, and he tells Elinor he had hoped to help their mother. He expects nothing from his sisters beyond their goodwill.
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