Although Elinor acts with justice toward all of the other characters, even when her own family urges her not to, the most just action she does is concealing the secret engagement betwee n Lucy and Edward. This virtue is unique because it necessarily involves another person. Justice is the constant and perpetual will to render the other their due. This happiness is a happiness of soul because she understands that she has been able to act with perfect justice through her fortitude. In bearing this evil, instead of outing the secretly engaged couple, Elinor is able to attain a certain kind of happiness. Lucy, who is very jealous and knows Edward e steems Elinor, continuously tests Elinor by speaking of the love betwee n herself and her fiancé. Elinor is aware of the engagement and that her hopes of happiness have been dashed because of it, but she continually bears with Lucy’s fei gned friendship. In this case, Elinor must endure the evil of Lucy, who is secretly engaged to Edward, the one Elinor loves.
Fortitude is the endurance of evils that repel us from the good we seek. The next virtue Elinor displays is fortitude. She understands that a moderate and simple house is all they can afford, so naturally, when they finally move into a cottage and out of a mansion, Elinor is the happiest for it. Although Elinor does not have to restrain herself concerning food, drink, or sex, which are proper to temperance, she does have to subdue her mother and sister in their desire for a house beyond what reason would dictate they could afford. Temperance is a restraining of the appetite for goods that are beyond right reason. The first virtue displayed by Elinor is temperance. One of the best examples of this is Elinor Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility. These characters are happy because they are virtuous: governed by prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. After reading almost all her novels many, many times-and my Dominican brothers being so often astonished when they hear that she is my favorite author-I have come to realize that one of the reasons I appreciate them so much is simply because her characters, at least the protagonists, are always happy. However, I believe this is an incredible understatement. People often think of Jane Austen as an English novelist who wrote simple love stories exclusively for women.
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