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Character Role Analysis

Lucy Steele to Elinor and Marianne

Lucy is everything that Elinor and Marianne aren't, though on the surface, she appears to be just like them. Like Elinor, she's thoughtful and intelligent, but her intelligence shows itself in cunning and shrewdness. Like Marianne, she has strong passions and desires, but hers are for less noble things than true love – rather, Lucy's only true love is for social standing. Lucy is, in some ways, like a kind of corrupt Dashwood, whose great natural abilities are warped by her overwhelming desire to succeed socially.