Austen’s novel draws a distinction between the cult of sensibility—a social and literary movement of her time that lauded being ruled by one’s emotions—and real feeling, which constitutes sensitivity to others’ emotions in addition to one’s own. While Marianne is aligned explicitly with sensibility, Elinor disdains overt displays of emotion, preferring to seek out concrete evidence and respond accordingly.

From the outset, Marianne allows her emotions to dictate her actions despite being “sensible and clever” (5). Mrs. Dashwood’s encouragement of Marianne’s sensibility mirrors the fashionable attitude of the Romantic period, where people who were overcome by emotion were seen as more instinctive, sensitive and appealing. Given that getting carried away is the opposite of the rationality required in the male institutions of public life during Austen's time, sensibility is an especially feminine trait. Thus, Marianne’s sensibility would make her seem even more feminine, and so more attractive to men.

Still, Marianne’s self-involved emotional world causes her to transgress the societal expectations for young ladies of late 18th-century England. She neglects her appearance and the obsequious manners required for social influence in the throes of heartbreak, and she takes solitary walks to indulge her feelings even further. Austen does not celebrate this kind of independence; instead, she frames Marianne's attitude and actions as selfish and even foolish.