Sense and Sensibility · Chapter
Chapter XXI explained
The Miss Steeles arrive at Barton Park, and Elinor and Marianne meet them.
What happens
The Miss Steeles arrive at Barton Park, and Elinor and Marianne meet them. Lucy Steele is charming and pretty, while her sister Anne is vulgar and foolish. Elinor observes their flattery of Lady Middleton and her children, and notes the contrast between their behavior and Marianne's honesty.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Appearance
Lucy Steele's calculated flattery and Anne's vulgarity contrast with Marianne's refusal to dissemble, highlighting the tension between genuine feeling and social pretense.
Propriety and Social Conduct
Elinor's burden of telling polite lies and the Miss Steeles' obsequious behavior toward Lady Middleton demonstrate the demands of propriety in social interactions.
Characters to notice
- Elinor Dashwood
Elinor observes the Miss Steeles with discernment, noting Lucy's artfulness and Anne's folly, and is left without wish to know them better.
- Marianne Dashwood
Marianne remains silent rather than feign admiration for Lady Middleton, leaving Elinor to manage polite falsehoods.
- Lucy Steele
Lucy is the younger Miss Steele, pretty and shrewd, who flatters Lady Middleton and her children with constant attention.
- Anne Steele
Anne is the elder Miss Steele, nearly thirty, plain and foolish, who talks incessantly of beaux and lacks elegance.
- Lady Middleton
Lady Middleton is easily won over by the Miss Steeles' flattery of her children, and she dotes on them with maternal complacency.
- Sir John Middleton
Sir John enthusiastically invites the Miss Steeles to the Park and urges the Dashwoods to meet them, praising the girls extravagantly.
Key passages
“What a sweet woman Lady Middleton is!”
Lucy Steele praises Lady Middleton effusively, though her admiration is likely insincere.
Lucy's flattery is part of her strategy to ingratiate herself with the Middleton family.
“Upon Elinor therefore the whole task of telling lies when politeness required it, always fell.”
Elinor is the one who must speak insincerely to be polite, as Marianne refuses to say what she does not feel.
This highlights Elinor's pragmatic adherence to social conventions versus Marianne's romantic honesty.
“I confess, replied Elinor, that while I am at Barton Park, I never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence.”
Elinor admits that she finds the Middleton children's boisterousness tiresome, implying a preference for calm.
Elinor's dry humor subtly criticizes the children's lack of discipline.