Sense and Sensibility Lesson Plan

Discuss how Austen brings themes of inheritance and wealth to the forefront in Chapter 1.

The themes of money and inheritance are of immediate importance in the novel: the Dashwood women are cast into a situation dire for women of their class. None of them have money themselves, they cannot inherit because they are women, and they cannot earn a living. Gender is also a deciding issue in this, since the reason they cannot keep Mr. Dashwood's property or money is because women are not legally entitled to receive or own property at this point in history.

Austen contrasts the poor situation of the Dashwood women with that of Henry Dashwood's older son, who is already very...