Jane Austen’s concerns with health and moral thoughtsthe dashwood sisters and the successful regulation of sense and sensibility

  1. María Teresa González Mínguez 1
  1. 1 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
    info

    Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02msb5n36

Journal:
The Grove: Working papers on English studies

ISSN: 1137-005X

Year of publication: 2019

Issue: 26

Pages: 27-40

Type: Article

DOI: 10.17561/GROVE.V26.A2 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: The Grove: Working papers on English studies

Abstract

According to Cartesian principles, in the seventeenth century the body was thought to be subordinated to the mind. Later in the eighteenth - century male authors of medical treatises supported the idea that the interaction of body and mind produced passion a nd could dangerously turn into mental breakdown. In all her novels Jane Austen showed an enormous interest in all matters concerning medical treatment. In Sense and Sensibility (1811), Austen emphasized illness and suffering by mixing physical health and mental disease with moral and philosophical doctrines. My contention in this article is that moralists, philosophers and thinkers such as Dr Johnson, William Blake, William Godw in, and Adam Smith collaborated with Austen to shape the idea that sensibility was no disease and sense no virtue; instead they propose that human beings, especially women, can obtain individual and collective profit and promote changes not only in the pas t but also in the present if they regulate their reason and feeling with a practical mindset.

Bibliographic References

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