Sense and Sensibility bears the hallmarks of Jane Austen's early writings – an absorption in the popular literature of the time, a strong delight in the absurd, and a love of burlesque – and Marianne is often on the receiving end of Austen's humor. One of the problems with the myth, however, is that the novel is entitled “Sense and Sensibility” not “Sense or Sensibility.” It is not the merits of sense and sensibility themselves that this novel explores but the social context in which these different ways of managing one's emotional life play out. Whereas didactic novels in the 1790s teach young women the social codes they must adopt if they are to live as dutiful wives and well-behaved daughters, integrated into their communities, this novel makes those codes, customs, and communities themselves the subjects of its harsh interrogation.