Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 26

Thread: Disapointing Ending

  1. #1

    Disappointing Ending

    I have never been as aggravated with the ending of a novel as I am with the ending of Sense and Sensibility.

    This novel has been described by some to be tedious and wordy. I personally enjoyed 98% of it; the last 7-8 pages were a great disapointment, however. Austen took 260 pages to properly create and colour her characters, develop the plot and create a story, and then used 7 pages to sum everything up.

    The book fell flat on it's face!! At the end of the novel, she briefly describes how Edward's and Lucy's marriage dissolved, and then even more pithily mentions Marriane's marriage to Colonel Brandon. I couldn't believe it.

    It's as if Austen woke up one day and decided to finish the book by noon; one way or the other. The way the novel was going, I don't think it would have been out of the ordinary for it to last another 200 pages.

    Was anybody else disapointed in the manner the ending was executed?
    Last edited by ShoutGrace; 07-05-2006 at 12:01 PM.
    As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .


    Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.



  2. #2
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    trapped in a prologue.
    Posts
    2,383
    Blog Entries
    7
    I agree. I didn't like Sense and Sensibility that much - I read it after Pride and Prejedice (which I liked well enough), and I thought that it didn't live up to P&P, but I definatly agree with you that the ending was cheap.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

  3. #3
    what is a cait? thevintagepiper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Dubai, UAE
    Posts
    967
    I don't love it as much as Pride and Prejudice but I still enjoy the entire Sense and Sensibility anyway. Most of Jane Austen's endings tend to be like that, though not always noticeably.
    [rebelution]-[drorings]-[love]

    don't fall down.

  4. #4
    Me & Myself Shakira's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    1,467
    Yes that is true. Its almost as if she JUST wanted to finish off writing the book & had ran out of ideas. Sense and Sensibility is zilch compared to Pride and Prejudice.
    The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by thevintagepiper
    I don't love it as much as Pride and Prejudice but I still enjoy the entire Sense and Sensibility anyway.
    I very much enjoyed Sense and Sensibility; even as a whole, which is amazing, considering it's pathetic, grovelling, subpar, diminished ending.

    That is why I was so diappointed, then irritated, and then enraged, upon finishing this novel. It had been an appreciable and favorable read up to that point.

    Quote Originally Posted by thevintagepiper
    Most of Jane Austen's endings tend to be like that, though not always noticeably.
    That makes me sad. Throughout the whole of this book and especially after I was finished with it I was looking forward to P&P, and Emma. At first I was looking forward to reading more of the like and now I'm looking forward to some better resolutions and aggregates from her other novels.


    Thanks Charles and VP for your thoughts.
    As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .


    Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.



  6. #6
    Ah, hello Shakira! I must have missed you . . .

    Quote Originally Posted by Shakira
    Sense and Sensibility is zilch compared to Pride and Prejudice.
    Well that makes me feel better. I was/am still looking forward to reading her others, though I do hope that their culminations and resolutions do more for me than did S&S.
    As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .


    Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.



  7. #7
    Ars longa, vita brevis downing's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Romania; actually...somewhere between Shakespeare and modern poets
    Posts
    621
    ShoutGrace,how did you want the book to end?

  8. #8
    Flying Coconuts Danika_Valin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Delaware
    Posts
    43
    I was disappointed about the ending of the book for a different reason. I don't think Colonel Brandon and Marianne are at all compatible. Marianne has a wild, poetic sort of heart that could never settle down with a man like Brandon! In my opinion, Colonel Brandon is a dry, lethargic and pitiful character who is a bore to read. He would be a great match for Elinor --who ISN'T a bore to read but has the same sensible and level-headed personality as Brandon-- but not for Marianne. She isn't looking for a calm, safe marriage; she is looking for something romantic and tragic.

    I wanted her to marry Willoughby. He made mistakes in his past, but he genuinely loved her. That is the sort of relationship I think Marianne should have had. Something loving but extremely complicated.

  9. #9
    Lady of Smilies Nightshade's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Now that would be telling it, wouldnt it?
    Posts
    13,715
    Blog Entries
    144
    So david which others have you read???
    My mission in life is to make YOU smile
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    "The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:

    Forum Rules- You know you want to read 'em

    |Litnet Challange status = 5/260
    |currently reading

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by downing
    ShoutGrace,how did you want the book to end?
    I would have been satisfied if Austen had taken the time to properly relate (in my unesteemable opinion, obviously) the resolution of her novel, both in terms of length and thoroughness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Danika_Valin
    Marianne has a wild, poetic sort of heart
    But at the end of the novel, after all of her 'travails'?

    Quote Originally Posted by Danika_Valin
    She isn't looking for a calm, safe marriage; she is looking for something romantic and tragic.
    I'm quite sure that Marianne wasn't looking for anything quite so tragic as she received .

    I think this might have been true for Marianne more towards the beginning of the novel. After her emotional despair and physical affliction, however, I think she changes some. Her conversations with Elinor bear this idea out, I think, but I'll need some time to find the evidence .

    Her marriage to the Colonel makes sense to me; but I wanted it to happen over the course of another 100 pages, not 1 paragraph.
    As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .


    Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.



  11. #11
    Flying Coconuts Danika_Valin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Delaware
    Posts
    43
    Quote Originally Posted by ShoutGrace
    I think this might have been true for Marianne more towards the beginning of the novel. After her emotional despair and physical affliction, however, I think she changes some. Her conversations with Elinor bear this idea out, I think, but I'll need some time to find the evidence .
    I think Marianne kept her "wild and poetic heart" even till the end of the work. I will need time to find evidence as well, but even at the end of the novel, Marianne continually dramatizes her situation (which is terrible beyond question) as if she "enjoyed" it in some way. As if she was happy that she had found her tragic romance. It distresses Elinor to deal with Marianne's dramatic afflictions while she, at the same time, is upset about Edward's engagement to Lucy Steele. Doesn't Marianne also point out the spot on the hill where she fell and Willoughby found her and speak of it not as only a passing thought or a sad reflection, but as something that still gives her some painful pleasure to think about?



    EDIT--- And on second thought, my thoughts about the improbability of Marianne being happy with Colonel Brandon may also be in the abruptness of the ending. If she DOES change, the change happens very quickly.
    Last edited by Danika_Valin; 07-17-2006 at 11:53 AM. Reason: Changed my mind a bit...

  12. #12
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    3
    I read Sense & Sensibility and thought that Colonel Brandon with Marianne was pretty good. Of course, Colonel Brandon isn't much described except for his sense and strength of character, but remember he was very much loved by the old Eliza, so I definitely think he knows how to appreciate the deep emotions of Marianne, as proved when Elinor was secretly more burdened by Marianne's outbursts to protect Elinor, he found "all that was amiable" in her caring for her sister.

    Well, that's one way to think about it anyway =P. As for Edward and Elinor, would we have wanted it to end another way? =P

  13. #13
    Spirit of Fire Evermore's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Posts
    6
    Quote Originally Posted by ShoutGrace View Post
    I have never been as aggravated with the ending of a novel as I am with the ending of Sense and Sensibility.

    This novel has been described by some to be tedious and wordy. I personally enjoyed 98% of it; the last 7-8 pages were a great disapointment, however. Austen took 260 pages to properly create and colour her characters, develop the plot and create a story, and then used 7 pages to sum everything up.

    The book fell flat on it's face!! At the end of the novel, she briefly describes how Edward's and Lucy's marriage dissolved, and then even more pithily mentions Marriane's marriage to Colonel Brandon. I couldn't believe it.

    It's as if Austen woke up one day and decided to finish the book by noon; one way or the other. The way the novel was going, I don't think it would have been out of the ordinary for it to last another 200 pages.

    Was anybody else disapointed in the manner the ending was executed?


    I think, so far I have studied literature, that the reason of Jane's little work on the ending, as it has happened in other books in a lower scale, may be because she gives it less importance, for everything ends well and needs no detali while the main problems and what she wishes to transmit of her times and society take place with much more description and perhaps it is in the last chapters where little by little we are presented with what is to be the end of the whole book
    "Love is not love
    Which alters when it alteration finds,
    Or bends with the remover to remove:
    O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
    That looks on tempests and is never shaken..."

  14. #14
    Registered User WriterAtTheSea's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Somewhere between reality and creativity... Whether East or West, living at the SEA suites me best!
    Posts
    53
    Blog Entries
    47
    Sense and Sensibility works better as a film. (The version with Emma Thompson) I do agree that the ending was a bit rushed and unfulfilling for a reader. Pride and Prejudice is a far better work of Austen's I feel; both in its original text and as a film.
    Our passions are not too strong, they are too weak. We are far too easily pleased.

    ~C.S. Lewis





    http://michellerichmond.com/fictionattic/?page_id=9

  15. #15
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1
    Read most of Jane Austen's novels. The endings are short and almost ironic in their "happiness." With a close reading you can tell how sarcastic Austen is being by discussing the characters' "perfect happiness" at the conclusion of the novel. Sense and Sensibility is the same. The ending is not important; the changes undergone by the characters are. The actual marriage for them is not the most important point. It's about the relationship and "romance" between the sisters and how their differences have been resolved. It's a "happy" ending, but the ending itself is not important. This was done on purpose... Austen didn't just get bored of writing. Almost all of her endings are short and sparse in explanation.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. 1984 Ending (spoilers)
    By jamesbond in forum 1984
    Replies: 22
    Last Post: 08-05-2008, 06:05 PM
  2. The ENDING!
    By AmberLeighx3 in forum The Count of Monte Cristo
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 12-15-2006, 10:19 AM
  3. The Ending
    By Kale Davis in forum 1984
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
  4. "The Light That Failed" Alternate ending
    By zhiming in forum General Literature
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 03-19-2005, 07:15 AM
  5. "Death of a Salesman" Ending Theories
    By mister_noel_y2k in forum General Literature
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 02-19-2005, 02:09 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •