Elinor Dashwood is a woman of reason. Unlike her sister Marianne, Elinor never allows her emotions to get the better of her. She approaches her world through sound logic and deep reasoning.

At the heart of both the play and the novel Sense and Sensibility lie the two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Elinor is the personification of sense, while Marianne personifies sensibility.