The novel has expounded the moral and behavior norms through the strong contrast with sensibility and emotion. The elder sister Elinor is introverted, calm and quiet, while younger sister Marianne doesn’t like to hide her mood and finds that there are no secrets. Therefore, when they are faced with love, their attitudes are obviously different (Xi Meiyun, 2014:103).

2. Literature Review

Many researches have been made on this masterpiece, most of which are about the characters of the leading characters or other leading players. A study by Lin Jing claimed that Elinor and Marianne are two most important characters in her novel. They may have different personalities on the surface. Though Marianne’s demeanor is contrary to the requirement of the society and she is lack of manners and full of emotion, this is the embodiment of the equality between men and women from view of feminist. The researcher Liu Xia’min claimed that Marianne is a new kind of women who dares to resist to the hypocrisy of social customs and she dares to purse happiness. What’s more, Marianne dares to break the hidebound social customs and a lot of the gentlewomen style at that time.

Furthermore, many researchers study on the feminism in the novel. Tang Jingchun claimed that Austin conveys the thought which is close to liberal thought from the point of view of the development of feminism. The heroines in this novel pursue that it is equal to exchange ideas and communicate between men and women. Elinor and Marianne require that women should have the equal right on the social status. They also insist on the independence and freedom to choose the men. All those ideas are almost shoutings to revolt to the feudal society at that time in Britain. So the feminism at that time helped Austin so much to finish her first novel.

Also, many researchers have studied on the view of the marriage. The scholar Li Liantao thinks that sense emphasizes the realistic marriage while sensibility emphasizes the romantic marriage. The realistic marriage is based on the two sides under the premise of actual demands no matter in love or money. Their combination is to pursue their own practical needs. However, the romantic marriage is built on the emotion regardless of family level, status and money. They just combine because of emotional needs.来.自/751论|文-网www.751com.cn/

In addition, many researchers study the unity of opposites of sense and sensibility. The researcher Mao Lixia claimed that sense and sensibility need to unify rather than opposing. In most cases, sense and sensibility are opposite in the emotional color. Sense is usually given more positive meanings while sensibility is given derogatory meanings. Therefore, the writer Austin says that people can not give themselves to blind emotions and feelings should be restricted by sense.