Sensibility
Within the first two volumes of the novel, there are two embedded narratives—the stories of Jessy and Sophy. Similar in tone and theme, these tales contain “family problems and bereavements, love, poverty and isolation”. These two narratives suggest that “the truth of feeling the only valid and useful bond of society”. Jessy, Sophy, and Celestina are heroines of sensibility—characters who feel strongly and are sympathetic to the emotions of others. Willoughby is a hero of sensibility, feeling more strongly than any of the female characters. Unusually in Celestina, it is the women who show more “fortitude”, while the men are often prey to their emotions. Yet it is only the characters capable of feeling true emotion who are moral; those who cannot feel or suffer are incapable of moral good.
Jane Austen, who avidly read Smith's novels, responded to Celestina with Sense and Sensibility (begun in the 1790s) and her own Willoughby. As a teenager Austen wrote parodies of heroes of sensibility, particularly those who focused on their own feelings and ignored their familial duties. Austen's novel parallels Smith's in its structure and setting: both are set primarily in Devonshire and London, for example, both have a heroine who writes an ill-advised letter to a lover. Fletcher notes that "the party scenes are so similar it is fair to assume that Austen initially intended a recognisable critique of Smith's ". However, while Smith's Willoughby is exculpated from any wrongdoing, Austen's is not—her novel rejects the hero of sensibility, critiquing his "moodiness" and "abuse of hospitality".
Read more about this topic: Celestina (novel), Themes
Famous quotes containing the word sensibility:
“When a man’s life is destroyed or damaged by some wound or privation of soul or body, which is due to other men’s actions or negligence, it is not only his sensibility that suffers but also his aspiration toward the good. Therefore there has been sacrilege towards that which is sacred in him.”
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—Paul Horgan (b. 1904)