After watching the film Becoming Jane played by Anne Hathaway and reading the book Sense and Sensibility , I feel complicated because it seems that all in Jane’s life, she made a decision between sense and sensibility. The book could be regarded as her real story or someone else’s. Who knows? Love and sense are enemies at any age.
There was an important person in her career, the authoress Mrs Radeliffe whose novels were filled with romance, danger and terror, anything her life was not. At that time, a woman’s dream of being an authoress was not so easy to come true. As if the writing a woman did not display the greatest powers of mind, knowledge of human nature, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour. And people thought having a wife with a literary reputation was nothing short of scandalous. But with an independent thought, she made it! In her love world, there were two men. One was Tom Lefroy, a handsome, social guy but totally depending on his uncle. Another was Wisley, a booby having a respectable property of 2000a year, in addition to even greater expectations as Lady Gresham’s heir. So Tom standed for love or sensibility and Wisley standed for money or sense. Jane didn’t believe the saying “Affection is desirable, money is absolutely indispensable.” In other words, she gave up a splendid home, a comfortable life and chose Tom. But when she found their love will destroy Tom’s family, her sense told her to make the great decision to leave him to avoid a long slow degradation of guilt and regret and blame. What a pity she can’t marry with the one who she doesn’t love even a loved one! In her short life, Jane Austen wrote six of the greatest novels in the English Language. Tom Lefroy had a successful career as a lawyer and named his eldest daughter Jane. Jane never married in her life.