] I don't think she is lacking in feeling. She is reacting like alot of mothers would actually.

I didn't say she was lacking in feeling. I said she was lacking in the same *type* of feelings that Marianne and Elinor have, and so she is. Mrs. Jennings' feelings are genuine and kind and all that is admirable, but she just doesn't *get* the kind of feelings the Dashwood girls have because neither she nor her own daugthers have experienced this.

] Mrs. Jennings just has a much more pragmatic and superficial perspective of love and relationships. To her, any two eligible people might as well get together -- she doesn't concern herself with their mutual tastes or feelings or viewpoints. (snip)

Exactly. She is benevolent and motherly and as solicitous of the girls' well-being as she could possibly be, but with her pragmatic perspective she is never going to see that dried cherries and olives are not going to cure what ails Marianne, nor is a man with such strong sensibilities at Colonel Brandon going to rejoice at the prospect of Marianne's 'freedom' because it comes at the price of her abject misery.

] She doesn't believe in the type of introspection and self-indulgence that Marianne engages in.

Doesn't believe in it--or perhaps doesn't even realize that such a thing as introspection of this type exists?

Believe me I am not criticizing Mrs. Jennings here, but if she did have the same types of strong feelings as Elinor and Marianne, she could not possibly be happy for her own daughter Charlotte and the behaviour of her son-in-law Mr. Palmer.