Norland Park — Sense and Sensibility

The Dashwood family has lived respectably at Norland Park for generations, but the opening chapter shows how quickly security can vanish when inheritance law favors male heirs. Mr. Henry Dashwood has a grown son, John, from his first marriage and three daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, with his present wife. The old uncle dies and leaves the estate entailed on John's young son, with only a thousand pounds apiece for the girls. Henry himself dies within a year, leaving his widow and daughters with roughly ten thousand pounds and no home of their own. On his deathbed he extracts a promise from John to provide for them.

John begins in a generous mood, imagining he could give three thousand pounds, but he is cold-hearted rather than cruel and easily swayed. Mrs. John Dashwood arrives at Norland without notice after the funeral and behaves with offensive self-assertion, though Mrs. Dashwood's pride keeps her in the house for her daughters' sake. Elinor already reads as the steady counselor who governs strong feeling, while Marianne amplifies her mother's sorrow instead of easing it, and the economic trap tightens around every choice still to come. Women's futures here depend on male relatives who may intend well and still do almost nothing.