Sense and Sensibility

Austen employs an omniscient narrator to give impartial commentary on characters and their actions. Sometimes, as with the novel’s opening line, “the family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex” (2), the omniscient narration relates indisputable facts that contextualize the story for the reader. This particular authorial comment ensures that from the outset that the reader is aware of the Dashwoods as an old, established family and thus recognizes their pretensions to gentility in the rigid class system of Austen’s day.

At other points in the novel, the omniscient narrator offers critical commentary on the behavior of different characters for the amusement and instruction of the reader. For example, at the end of the novel, Mrs. Ferrars’ changing favor and obvious power moves are satirized. Austen writes how Mrs. Ferrars “had had two sons; but the crime […] of Edward a few weeks ago, had robbed her of one; the similar annihilation of Robert had left her for a fortnight without any; and now, by the resuscitation of Edward, she had one again” (419). The use of the passive voice and the