Comparison, themes

• Identity defined by career; sense and sensibility

  
  

  • Edward Ferras his want to work, but not as a lawyer, is what separates him from the rest of his family and results in him being cut off from mrs ferras.
  • Colonel Brandon whole identity is his role, in his name and behaviour, this making him respectable. money was never his reason for ambition, happily married marianne without a dowry
  • Willoughby lack of career leads him to be reliant on other people and lady greys inheritance, this makes him materialistic and unlikable, as he follows money.
• Identity defined by career; The bell jar, women

  • Jay Cee is often ridiculed or made fun of for being a working wife
  • DR Nolans whole character is her being a doctor, and there's little to no mention of her life outside of the hospital
  • Philomena Guinea career allows her to support esther financially
  • Mrs Willard lack of job despite going to university shows the role of women
  • DoDo Conway lack of job and involvement in motherhood shows the expectation of women
• identity defined by career; the bell jar, men 


  • DR Gordons career is suggested to be unfit for his personality
  • Buddy Willard's career aspirations is what makes him a eligible man for esther, also makes him feel superior to esther
• Sense and Sensibility was written under the pseudonym; ' By A Lady'
• The Bell Jar was written under the Pseudonym; 'Victoria Lucas'
• Rebirth; Sense and sensibility

  • Marianne: moving to barton cottage, recovering from illness, marrying colonel brandon

  Bildungsroman where marianne is reconditioned to conform,
• Rebirth; The Bell Jar

  • Esther: First bath, Giving up Doreen, Waking up in hospital, Successful electric shock treatment, Joan's Death, The ending
  • bildungsroman, esther reconditioned to conform
• Changes in Scenery; Sense and Sensibility

  Norland Park > Barton Cottage > London

  • marianne changes in each setting, when moving to barton cottage, she becomes more romantic, links to sensibility and the sublime
• Changes in scenery; The Bell Jar

  New York > Home Town > Hospital > Institute

  • Esther doesn't fit anywhere, as she is alienated in the city, and overwhelmed when in nature
• Failure of Medicine; Sense and Sensibility

  • Mr Henry Dashwood dies and girls are left to the will of John and Fanny
  • Marianne, doctor says he can't help her. Mrs Jennings prescription is taking the girls to london
• Failure of Medicine; The Bell Jar


  • Esther's experiences with mental health, Dr Gordon's first round of electric shock therapy, and how it doesn't work for joan.
  • lack of awareness for women's health when sher haemorrhages
• Relationships between men and women; Sense and Sensibility

  • Willoughby, /Eliza 2 / Marianne - Lady grey
  • Edward Ferras / Lucy Steel - Elinor
  • colonel Brandon / Eliza 1 - Marianne
• Relationships Between men and women; The Bell Jar

  • Esther/ Buddy/ Constantin/ Marco/ Irwin
  • Doreen-Lenny
  • Joan/ Buddy
• Sisterhood and Friendships; Sense and sensibility 


  • Marianne and Elinor, equal balance of sense and sensibility allows for them to have a healthy relationship and happy endings
  • Lucy and Anne, are at the two extremes of sense and sensibility, therefore they do not get happy endings.
• Marriage and effect on women; Sense and Sensibility


  • Marianne became submissive to his husband
  • Elinor became free form her societal behaviours
  • Mrs Dashwood becomes penniless
• Marriage and effect on women; The Bell Jar

  • Dodo became an ideal women, and the envy of the neighbourhood
  • mrs willard devoted her life to be a wife, yet was mistreated and underappreciated, making her cold and bitter
  • Jay Cee social position didn't change when she got married, and she remained working but she was teased
  • girls on the roof, despite being at college are waiting for a husband to find them
  • Mrs greenwood had to become breadwinner after husband died
• Money, class, social hierarchy: sense and sensibility


  • most important factor for how society functions in the book, and mostly the reason for marriages.
  • a woman's appearance dependents on who they will marry and how much they are worth
  • since edward was cut off from his mother he was allowed to married poor elinor
  • and since colonel asked marianne, they were allowed to get married
• Money, class, social hierarchy; The Bell Jar

  • esther is middle class, meaning she can sort of marry anyone
  • philomena Guinea pays for her college, cost of therapy and the nice institution, so she's obviously got a lot of potential or at least publicity
  • Buddy's status over esther means he believes he's more important than her, and cant understand why she would want to work when she could have him
• Social expectations and behaviour; Sense and Sensibility


  • propriety is equally important as money, as a woman who is well behaved is the ideal
  • idea of women is to be seen, not heard.
  • mariannes 'engagement' to willoughby is seen as so improper, that her brother john discusses how she lost her attraction
• Social Expectations and Behaviour; The Bell Jar


  • being a mother,
  • the american dream
  • bad attitude to pre martial sex, something esther feels isolated from, as views as a way to feel a part of society.
• Demonstrations of emotions; Sense and Sensibility


  • marianne is sensibility and like her mother, feels all of her emotions very strongly
  • elinor is sense and suppresses her emotions to support her sister and mother, often enforces them to suppress theirs.
  • romantic expression is looked down upon and seen as improper.
• Demonstration of emotions; The Bell Jar


  • esther trying to hold herself together leads to her feeling numb and being unable to feel anything.
  • this repression leads to her suicide attempts.
  • this is not helped by her mother non empathic and non understating approach in an attempt to help her.
• Self Destruction/ illness; Sense and Sensibility


  • marianne, self destructed by being so intimate with willoughby, this resulted in her becoming 'ill', treated like a punishment for her being so improper.
  • willoughby is also self destructive by his multiple love affairs, that lead him to have to marry someone he doesn't love.
  • elinor could also be seen as self destructive as she doesnt let her emotions be known, so she ends up being unsatisfied for the most of the book.
• Self Destruction/ illness; The Bell Jar


  • esther's suicide attempters and neglection from her mother make her spiral into more of a depression, particularly attempting to kill herself in a bathtub, a place she used to decompress
  • her not telling the full truth to dr gordon at first, was a way for her to regain some power, although this wasn't helpful as it meant she got poor treatment and no actual help, resulting in getting worse
  • equally her being so close to joan was quite destructive as joan was a bad influence.
• Mullan: 'the novel has allowed us to admire some aspects of marianne's impulsiveness'

  'there's nothing more important than money in Jane Austen's Novels'
• Gilbert: 'The experiences of women in and with literature is different from those of men
• Bonds: 'Esther must mutilate or deform herself through mating, marriage and motherhood' (suggest that these things poorly affect or damage a woman, image of childbirth decapitating the mother)
• Marianne's sensibility; 'she was sensible and clever, but egear in everything, she had no moderation'

  'money can only give happiness when there is nothing else'
• Esther's focus on sex; ' i saw the world divided into people who has slept with somebody and people who hadn't
• Marcos control over esther; 'i had been dealt to marco like a pack of playing cards'
• Mrs Jennings 'she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl'
• Mariannes opinion of edward 'ithink him worthy and amiable'
• Marianne at end ' her whole heart became as much devoted to her husband as it once had been to Willoughby'
• Esther + the bell jar 'wherever i sat - i would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air'
• esther ' i hated serving men in any way;
• Wright 'elinor is the heroine and Marianne is her foolish foil'
• Doreen is sexually liberated, however still 'spoons fruit into lenny's mouth'
• Churchwell ' ambitious young women were punished, forced back into submissiveness for wanting the double life reserved for men.'