<P> Other critics, such as Duckworth, contend that Austen's heroines "support and maintain an inherited structure of values and behavior", displaying a version of Christian stoicism . He emphasizes that Austen's novels highlight the dangers of individualism; her heroines emerge from isolation and despair to be reinstated into society . In Mansfield Park, in particular, the morally suspect characters--the Crawfords, Rushworth and the Bertram daughters--represent individualism . The heroine of Emma embodies the dangers of individualism as her position of power allows her to affect everyone in Highbury . In Sense and Sensibility, Austen juxtaposes Elinor, who regulates the expression of her feelings according to social conventions, with Marianne, who expresses her feelings in accordance with sensibility and literary conventions . The novel suggests that Elinor's behaviour "is based on a truer perception of the nature of emotions" than Marianne's, even though it is based on social convention, because those very conventions allow her to process emotions like grief, while sensibility forces Marianne to indulge it . By following social conventions, Elinor is more sensitive to the feelings of those around her; her emotions bring "together private and public experience, or one's relations with oneself and with others". Individual romantic experience is less important than the social good that comes of Elinor's self - denial; however, that very self - denial leads to personal happiness in the end when she marries her love . As Lynch explains, "(a) sa whole Austen's writing is about social relations--the relationship between, say, domestic life and public life--and about reading relations--about the textual conventions by which audiences are formed and distinguished . Her narratives weave together the processes of romantic choice and cultural discrimination ." </P> <P> Austen's heroines often incur a cost to themselves during this social integration . Feminist critics have highlighted the ways in which her heroines accommodate themselves to masculine power by sacrificing their own creativity . Elizabeth and Emma search for replacement father figures in ways that suggest "why female survival depends on gaining male approval and protection". These father figures, who are often also mentors, show Austen's connection to the 18th - century novel, which includes many such figures . Gilbert and Gubar argue that Austen's heroines often have a fragmented self--the private and the public--pointing to Mansfield Park as the most dramatic example . </P>

Features of romantic fiction with special reference to jane austen