isn't Austen's critique of uber-romanticism. A couple years ago I remember seeing a documentary that talked about the book The Sorrows of Young Werther (published in Germany in 1774). This book was very popular (still is!) and precipitated at that time, many a young man or woman hurling themselves into rivers to their death in an ecstasy of overwrought emotions. I remember too recently reading a book set during the regency period where the traveler/author was staying with friends who had a beautiful young daughter and while he was visiting them, a forlorn suitor of the daughter actually committed suicide right in front of the house in dramatic display of his grief over unrequited love. So I wonder if, at the time Austen wrote, many people would have recognize Marianne's emotionalism as a youthful trend that seemed to be hyped in the current culture and literature of the day? I think Austen has a good British poke at this type of sensibility via Marianne.