Sense and Sensibility: Victorian-Era Romance and Comedy. Marianne, the second daughter of the very dead Mr. Dashwood, has found love in the dashing Mr. Wiloughby. Elinor, the eldest, cautions Marianne to be more reserved, but the reproach falls on deaf ears. When Wiloughby is called away to London, how will Marianne survive without him? When they follow him to London to find that he is not the man that they thought him to be, what is to be done? How can Elinor pick up the pieces of her sister's broken heart, when she also is suffering from unrequited love?