SAS notes:

A novel about how cunning women manipulate weak men. Women who use manipulation to get their goals are successful but Austen does not praise them - Lucy is socially successful — she marries into the Ferrars family — but Austen portrays her as cunning, superficial, and self-serving. In contrast, Elinor, in particular, endures hardship without scheming or deceit, yet she is eventually rewarded with love and happiness. Her patience and virtue are Austen's ideal. Blatt's observation aligns with one of Austen's central critiques: that the patriarchal, class-conscious society of her time often forces women into roles where manipulation becomes a survival tactic.

Austen "socialises" the domestic sphere, opening it out in the direction of a wider public sphere' - The Dashwood women’s displacement after Mr. Dashwood’s death shows how laws of inheritance (a public/legal matter) directly affect domestic life. Their financial vulnerability is not just a personal hardship but a reflection of systemic oppression against women.

In SAS, marriage is not just about love — it’s closely tied to financial security, class, and reputation

Elinor and Marianne’s romantic struggles take place in drawing rooms and cottages, but they are entangled with public expectations and class structures.

Austen makes clear that the old patriarchy cannot be replaced by a matriarchy, since she presents mothers in this novel as inept mentors - Mrs. Ferrars, who attempts to control her sons' marriages for financial and social reasons, replicates the manipulative, hierarchical behaviour of patriarchs.

Marianne's refusal of everyone's suggested remedies after returning from her walk in the rain in Sense and Sensibility:

• She believes that to accept remedies would be to deny the magnitude of her suffering. She wants to feel the full force of her grief, as though it would be dishonest to suppress it or seek relief.

• It’s almost a kind of emotional martyrdom — proving her love and despair through physical suffering.