Jane Austen's books are too often reduced to simple two-sided issues and are often seen in a narrow and restrictive light. Instead of being a novel primarily concerned with romantic attachments or the close sisterly bond between Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, Austen's Sense and Sensibility can be read as a creation centered on taxation, motivated primarily by an underlying concern for monetary affairs . This pecuniary understanding of the novel allows audiences to explore the complexity of issues of inheritance, as well as the power dynamics that so fundamentally concerned men and women in Austen's time. While a more common reading of Sense and Sensibility focuses on the idea of ​​female economics in the novel, it soon becomes clear that the issue of male wealth also merits closer examination. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The very first paragraph of Sense and Sensibility opens with the legal concerns of the Norland Park estate, creating a vignette of a family in the midst of a severe economic crisis. It is precisely because of these legal complexities that the youngest members of Henry Dashwood's family – Marianne, Elinor, their sister and their mother – are displaced from their home and sense of security. Essentially, the catalyst for the entire narrative comes from money and inheritance issues. In turn, this draws attention to the fundamental importance of financial matters, not only in the novel itself, but in wider English society. Prominent Jane Austen scholar Lore Segal argues that there is a subtler and more pronounced reason why Austen opens her novel with financial jargon. From the first line, she succeeds in “teaching her readers the gentleman's relationship to his money: he must have inherited it, not earned it” (Segal 252). Although some readers may view the women in the novel as completely dependent on the men in their lives for economic support, this understanding is too rudimentary and narrow. It is clear that the men of this society also had their own industrious habits and financial vulnerabilities. With this more multidimensional understanding, Sense and Sensibility's examination of wealth becomes much more comprehensive and altogether complex. Segal writes that “the kindness of a gentleman is measured by the chronological distance between his money and his origin in commerce; if work did it, he is no gentleman” (253). Authoritarian diktats like these limited the number of perceived gentlemen. Any man who had to work physically to earn money was not considered a gentleman in English society. To acquire a great fortune, it would not be enough to acquire a certain respectability. This idea is only exacerbated by other crucial issues, such as the placement of the firstborn and second son in a family of distinguished origin, for example. is about to take over the family estate, so his brother must venture out in search of a career, whether in the clergy or the navy. This situation is complicated by the events of the novel, especially when Edward receives an ultimatum from Edward. his mother must find a wealthier and more established wife. By refusing to listen to his mother, he is deprived of all his wealth, thus highlighting the vulnerability inherent in his own position. Viewed from a broader perspective, this vulnerability is revealing. problems related to male wealth.