Rachel G's post below ("What is it all about?") got me thinking on who it's all about. I realize the original epistolary version of this story was entitled Elinor and Marianne, but I wonder.

It's hard to say that any character JA created is expendable, so I won't even try. If you take Elinor out, the story is different. If you take Fanny Dashwood out, same thing. Ditto Edward, Mrs. J, Sir John, etc.

But if you take Marianne Dashwood out then this novel becomes unrecognizeable. All events seem to happen in an orbit around Marianne. This is probably nowhere near an original thought, but I would be interested in hearing others comment.