Old Mr. Dashwood
characters she dislikes, but conveys her criticism with a pointed subtlety, which makes it all the more forceful. For example,
in the opening chapter, Austen sketches the character of John Dashwood in three masterful sentences, achieving a biting
acerbity: the author begins elliptically with a double negative, only slyly to refute it: "He was not an ill-disposed young man,
unless to be rather cold-hearted and rather selfish is to be ill-disposed..." She then ends the paragraph by explicitly skewering
both John and his wife: "Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature of himself; more narrow-minded and selfish." Austen
thus relies on understatement and irony to reveal her feelings towards her more disagreeable characters.
Colonel Brandon - A retired officer and friend of Sir John Middleton who falls in love with Marianne Dashwood and acts
kindly, honorably, and graciously towards the Dashwoods throughout the novel
Mrs
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