Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are sisters. Both are intelligent and beautiful, but there the similarities end. Elinor values propriety and common sense; Marianne has extravagant Romantic ideas. Jane Austen explores two ways of thinking and acting – the ‘sense’ of Elinor and the ‘sensibility’ of Marianne – as they try to find happiness in a world full of hypocrisy.