In the 19th century, status and wealth were outrageously prioritized. Gender limitations were also involved in the society everyday. Class and gender difference made judgment, jealousy, appearance, gossip, and success all that mattered to the people living in that time period. Women could not own property, were expected to stay in the home, be polite and perform only the acceptable roles and behaviors which society would allow. Nothing could change or ease that situation, unless they married well.
             The novel Sense and Sensibility is a very admirable example of the situation in which the societies went through in the 19th century. While showing the trouble the girls went through trying to cope with the excessive restrictions, the book also has many examples of the narrow-minded wealthy and a lot of snobbery.
             Old Mr. Dashwood is the owner of a large estate in Sussex called Norland Park. When Mr. Dashwood is dying, gender limitations prevent his wife and girls from inheriting both the estate and the money. Since Old Mr. Dashwood has no sons, his estate is bequeathed to his nephew, Henry Dashwood. Henry, in turn, leaves the estate to his eldest son, John. Trying to find a way to make sure the women are taken care of, he makes his son promise to care for his stepmother and three half-sisters. After Mr. Dashwood dies, he leaves his estate to his son John Dashwood, and leaves his daughters lives up to him.
             Mr. John Dashwood primarily was determined to keep his promise and treat his female relatives generously, but his wife Fanny, a narrow-minded and egotistical woman, convinces him to leave them only five hundred pounds apiece. When Fanny moves into Norland instantly subsequent to Mr. Henry Dashwood's death, she becomes mistress of the estate, relegating John's stepmother Mrs. Dashwood and half-sisters Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret to the position of sheer visitors.
             In the 19th century, women did not have control of what happened ...