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| Margaret Dashwood | |
|---|---|
| Name | Margaret Dashwood |
| Series | Sense and Sensibility |
| Creator | Jane Austen |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Member of a landed family |
| Relatives | Elinor Dashwood, Marianne Dashwood, Mrs. Dashwood, Edward Ferrars, Colonel Brandon, John Dashwood, Fanny Dashwood |
| First | Sense and Sensibility (1811) |
Margaret Dashwood
Margaret Dashwood is a fictional character introduced in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. As the youngest of the Dashwood sisters, she functions as a foil and companion to Elinor Dashwood and Marianne Dashwood within the novel’s exploration of social manners, romantic attachment, and inheritance law. Margaret’s presence intersects with figures such as Edward Ferrars, Colonel Brandon, John Dashwood, and cultural settings like Norland Park and Barton Cottage.
Margaret is the fourth child of Mrs. Dashwood and the widow of Mr. Dashwood, raised alongside the elder sisters at Norland Park before the family’s reduced circumstances force relocation to Barton Cottage. Her family relations connect to the landed gentry and nearby families including Sir John Middleton and Mrs. Jennings, whose social ties facilitate the Dashwoods’ interactions in Sussex and with residents of London. As a member of a gentry household shaped by entailment practices rooted in legal frameworks such as the Law of Entail, Margaret’s prospects are constrained by primogeniture favoring her half-brother John Dashwood. Her upbringing reflects the genteel expectations of late-18th and early-19th century English country life typified by settings like Somerset and estates referenced in contemporaneous novels by Fanny Burney and Maria Edgeworth.
Margaret’s temperament combines youthful curiosity with a developing moral sensibility that echoes themes found in works by Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. She displays an imaginative engagement with poetry and play-acting influenced by cultural models such as William Shakespeare, John Milton, and popular ballads of the period. While less philosophically inclined than Marianne Dashwood and less reserved than Elinor Dashwood, Margaret often adapts to social circumstances with a pliant amiability reminiscent of the social tact celebrated in Georgian etiquette guides and observed in characters from Charlotte Austen and Maria Edgeworth—contemporaries and influences on Austen’s portrayal of female domestic roles. Commentators on Austen, including scholars affiliated with Oxford University and Cambridge University, have noted Margaret’s function as a narrative foil that amplifies her sisters’ traits without dominating plot developments.
Margaret occupies a supportive narrative role, accompanying her sisters through key episodes such as visits to Barton Cottage, attendance at assemblies, and interactions with Sir John Middleton and Mrs. Jennings. She participates in scenes that reveal social customs—card-playing, letter-reading, and play-acting—that illuminate contrasts between Elinor Dashwood’s restraint and Marianne Dashwood’s sensibility. Margaret’s presence enables exchanges with peripheral figures like Lucy Steele and observers such as Mr. Palmer, facilitating exposition of Edward Ferrars’s concealed engagement and Colonel Brandon’s backstory. Literary critics in journals from institutions like Yale University Press and Routledge describe her as a stabilizing minor character whose youthful perspective helps frame the novel’s moral resolutions, including reconciliations and eventual marriages that hinge on social connections with families such as the Ferrars family and landed officers like Captain Palmer.
Within the plot, Margaret remains unmarried by the novel’s conclusion, contrasting with the matrimonial outcomes of Elinor Dashwood and Marianne Dashwood. Her sibling bonds with Elinor and Marianne are marked by affection and occasional mimicry; she learns social lessons through observation of Elinor’s prudence and Marianne’s passion. Margaret’s interactions with visiting family members and friends—Mrs. Jennings, Sir John Middleton, and acquaintances from London society—situate her within networks that, in Austen’s social order, would shape marriage prospects through introductions, reputation, and fortune. The narrative leaves her marital prospects open, reflecting Austen’s interest in familial continuities and the modulation of female agency within the constraints faced by gentry women of the era.
Margaret’s social status is defined by her position in a gentry household experiencing reduced fortune; practical domestic arrangements at Barton and patronage from neighbors such as Sir John Middleton demonstrate rural philanthropic dynamics common in period fiction. She observes Elinor’s domestic management of household economy and Marianne’s artistic accomplishments—skills valued among contemporaneous families like the Marshalls and taught in manuals produced in towns such as Bath and Exeter. Margaret’s role within the home includes participation in genteel pastimes, oversight of younger household routines, and attendance at social events that reinforce class distinctions maintained by institutions like the Parish Church and seasonal assemblies in Sussex.
Margaret has appeared in stage, television, and film adaptations alongside portrayals of her sisters by actresses in productions by companies such as the BBC, Merchant Ivory Productions, and West End theater companies. Notable adaptations include the 1981 BBC miniseries Sense and Sensibility, the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility produced by Emma Thompson and Ang Lee’s involvement through screen adaptation and production networks, and subsequent televised and radio dramatizations broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Stage interpretations at venues like the National Theatre and touring productions have varied in assigning Margaret’s age, temperament, and dramatic emphasis, with directors drawing on critical traditions from Harvard University and Princeton University scholarship to inform costume and staging choices.
Category:Fictional characters