Rationality and sensitivity are essential parts of human life. The explanation of rationality in the dictionary is “based on clear, practical or scientific reasons; sensible and able to make decisions based on intelligent thought rather than emotion.” And the explanation for sensitivity is “an acute perception or reactivity to something, such as the emotions of another.” People always want to separate rationality and sensitivity into two opposite things, even the dictionary says that rationality is “intelligent rather than emotional thinking”. In the book Sense and Sensibility, each of the two main female characters, Elinor and Marianne, represent rationality and sensibility, but they both go through a difficult time when they are pure rationality or sensibility. There is a saying in China called "things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme", and that is exactly what we should think about how to balance two consciousnesses. Being overly rational or overly sensible cannot make things happen just the way you want them to be. Finding a “balance” between them is the correct way to live, as Jane Austen suggests in the book. The problems would happen while the “scale” of consciousness was amesiality, both the rational and sensitive sides. Excessive reasonableness makes people show everything to the outside, including their weakness. But being extremely rational can't make things completely different, it just lets people hide everything internal. According to them, a fulcrum between these two extremes is needed. Excessive sensitivity makes people fragile on the outside. In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne was a totally sensible character at the beginning. Unlike its older sister, it is almost a compl...... middle of paper ......d. New York: Anchor Books, 2011. Becoming Jane. Dir. Giuliano Jarrold. Perf. James McAvoy, Julie Walters, Anne Hathaway. 2007. Sense and Sensibility. By Andrew Davis. Dir. Giovanni Alessandro. Perf. Janet McTeer, Hattie Morahan, Charity Wakefield, Dan Stevens, Dominic Copper, Mark Williams, Claire Skinner, Anna Madeley, Daisy Haggard David Morrissey. prod. Anna Pivcevic. 2008. Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice. GreenPenguin, 1996. Spence, JoN. Becoming Jane Austen. New York: Continuum, 2007. Walpole, Horace. Thinkexist. 2012. 09 5 2012.http://thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation.asp?search=Walpole%2C+Horace Information about when Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility and when it was first published comes from Jane Odiwe. Webring. 2012. 09 5 2012.http://janeaustensequels.blogspot.ca/2009/10/sense-and-sensibility-first-published.html