In a time where chivalry is often deemed dead, and true romance is only seen in works of fiction, media that covers the hardships of life, love and passion, while still conveying positivity, gives hope and a pleasant message to those in need. Ang Lee’s 1995 Sense and Sensibility does just that. Lee’s timeless and emotional adaptation of Jane Austin’s novel Sense and Sensibility stars Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant and continues to resonate with audiences of ranging ages as a memorable and touching period piece.
Sense and Sensibility is a must-watch now more than ever to reinstill values of chivalry, honor and genuineness in an era of superficiality and a loss of human compassion or connection due to social media becoming one of the biggest communication sources for younger generations. When the film was released, many Jane Austen novels were also being made into movie adaptations, such as Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Emma (1996). Thus, the formal mannerisms and emotional nature of these films were more normalised in the media and slightly in the real world. Now, issues that Sense and Sensibility portray, such as marriage, dishonesty and grief, are focused on less in the media and treated as orthodox events and thus less important. The film evokes and reminds us how painful and intense the emotions caused by these events can be and more importantly that feeling these emotions is necessary in order to move on from devastating events. Though released decades ago, Sense and Sensibility offers a sharper critique of marriage proposals than most contemporary movies by highlighting the effects on the individual characters from this and their family’s declining economic status.
Remaining largely faithful to the novel, Ang Lee’s direction of Sense and Sensibility fully captures the major themes of the book: reason versus emotion, family relationships, yearning and the role of women in the early 19th century. Following the lives of the Dashwood family – a household of three sisters and their mother who suddenly lost the father and provider of the family – the film explores their navigation through the world after losing their socio-economic status and financial security by presenting the solution as finding a husband for one of the Dashwood sisters – the only way to regain a secure life. Through the search, the Dashwoods move between Sussex and London, England and encounter many different love interests whom the sisters become fervently attached to as their past inexperience with men heightens their emotions and attraction to these new characters. Lee explores the main themes of reason versus emotion through representing the main characters of the play – Elinor and Marianne Dashwood – as complete opposites, Elinor as the more reasonable sister who moves on with her life after her love interest, Edward Ferrars, finds someone else, and Marianne as the sentimental and expressive sister who yearns so deeply for her significant other, John Willoughby, that she falls ill after finding out he is betrothed to another.
One of the most touching scenes in Lee’s Sense and Sensibility is Elinor remaining by Marianne’s bedside after she fell ill due to heartbreak. Elinor is portrayed praying and weeping over Marianne’s lymph body in hopes that she will recover soon as this is where the movie takes a dark turn hinting at the possibility of Marianne dying. However, through genuine compassion, care and sisterly love, Marianne awakens the next day fully recovered and joyous again. Although a slightly hyperbolic scene, Elinor’s love for Marianne shows that family relationships triumph over ephemeral romantic connections and provokes a hopeful and powerful message to viewers not to dwell on the shortcomings of romance.
Although Lee’s Sense and Sensibility adaptation strays somewhat from the celebrated novel by making Marianne’s heartbreak and mourning period seem more dramatic than described in the book, causing the resonance of the film to diminish, some would argue that by overdramatizing the event and adding a vivid scene of Marianne’s emotional breakdown, which is arguably the most beautiful and pastoral scene of the film, the audience yearns with Marianne and is able to experience the same irrevocable and melancholy emotions as she is. In this scene, Marianne is pictured running into a storm of lightning and heavy rain, through inordinately long fields and climbing up monstrous hills. The use of pathetic fallacy and dramatic, sullen music emphasizes the intensity of Marianne’s emotions and yearning for John, adding nuance and making the film a memorable watch.
In sum, Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility goes above and beyond what movie adaptations of novels should do – it follows the novel mostly, captures the traditional culture from the 19th century, adds powerful images to the novel that encapsulate the author’s vision and leaves the audience with a touching and memorable experience, which is to live passionately and love fervently.