Sense and Sensibility
Mrs. Ferrars
Edward’s tyrannical mother
A small, sour, wealthy woman who is obsessed with rank and punishes Edward for refusing to obey her.
Mrs. Ferrars is the mother of Fanny, Edward and Robert. She is domineering, proud and bad-tempered, a little thin woman with a sour face and a forbidding manner. She is obsessed with rank and fortune and expects her children to marry accordingly.
She is warm to Lucy Steele, whom she praises as having admirable breeding, and openly insulting to Elinor, whose painted screens she dismisses as mediocre. She values wealth above feelings.
“Break this shameful engagement at once, or you will not receive one single shilling of my fortune!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
When the engagement comes out, Mrs. Ferrars demands that Edward end it or lose his inheritance. Edward refuses, saying that he cannot break his word in honor, and she cuts him off. She gives the estate to Robert.
Her plans fall apart when Lucy marries Robert and not Edward. By then Edward has found a home at Delaford and the love of Elinor, which no inheritance could have given him.
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