Terms

 Benevolence: quintessential attribute + cardinal virtue of characters in sensibility literature

                           sensibility as an ethic advocates a benevolent community

                            -> radiates outward, public

                            -> sensibility often considered something private

                            -> clash

Virtue:                belief in humanity's innate goodness + natural moral excellence

                             a healthy soul is virtuous, in a natural state of well-being

                             - often tried in literature: characters who fail to behave virtuous die

                             e.g. Tourvel succumbs to Valmont (Dangerous Liaisons, 1782, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos)

Physiognomy: a person's nature can be judged by studying the outside

                            "read that countenance"

                            the body is considered a central side of meaning, as eloquent as language

                            description of outer appearance to create a whole sign-system for deciphering the internal

                                  qualities of the individual

                            -> superficiality

                             often linked to gender (virtue), class and race ("other", skin colour)

Landscape:       source of emotional stimuli

                             literary tradition of sensibility confronts a natural landscape which was seen as a rich site

                                     of vague but powerful potential

                             nature presents many similar problems as the human body

                             landscape affects people with a certain physiognomy more

Animals:            like landscape: incites emotional response

Heart:                 evokes rich emotional resonance

                            lodging for innate goodness, empathy, and moral

Understanding: = intelligence, sympathy

                              In the literature of sensibility emotions and imagination are crucial guides

                                    in the endeavor to understand the world. (You can only come to an

                                    understanding of the world if you are susceptible to emotions and have

                                    imagination.)

Sense:           means perception, external as well as internal, and observing one's own feelings

Compassion/      easily excited in a sensibilious person

pity:                       in novels extended to extremes: e. g. crying over grubs crushed during a walk

                                       or envisioned distress of an imaginary prisoner

Melancholy/      Physicians at the time saw body fluids and spiritual condition linked to each other

madness:             -> melancholy as a medical condition connoted acute sensibility and prefigured

                                   breakdown of body and soul, which could end in madness.