Margaret Dashwood is the youngest, aged 13 at the beginning of the story, of the three Dashwood sisters. She's a likeable child, although she seems to need to be held back by her mother and sisters occasionally when she tends to say too much about her family.

I think Margaret is possibly the character most in touch with reality, actually. She is still not yet initiated or motivated to partake in the dance of double entendres and couched language of the social parlors. She wants to know the world for what it really is, in concrete terms- her treasured possession is her atlas and not the flowery poetry of Marianne. Elinor acts as a mediator between both of these worlds, as when she explains to Margaret that after their father's death, the property and everything else in the estate, and in Margaret's correct assessment...her Atlas, now belongs to their brother and his wife, to do with as they wish. In a large way, the Dashwood ladies are liabilities/property to be disposed of, and Margaret sums that up in bluntly stating that "It is no longer [her] atlas, it is now John and Fanny's atlas" making clear in no uncertain terms (ie. impolitely) that anything that was hers, even something that meant nothing to its new owners - down to herself - (certainly Fanny wouldn't take pleasure in a dusty Atlas - let alone be gracious in seeing to the comfortable welfare of the former mistresses of her newly acquired inheritance!), now belonged to someone else.

The social standards of that time dictated that "children should be seen and not heard" makes special sense in this light, as a child's candor and grasp of what is the reality of the situation can often put "polite" intercourse at an uncomfortable disadvantage, when the unfairness of the situation is made abundantly clear.

Lady Middleton seemed to be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of her four noisy children after dinner, who pulled her about, tore her clothes, and put an end to every kind of discourse except what related to themselves.