Jane Austen's Novel Emma
This Feisty Heroine Differs from All Others in Jane Austen’s Works
Miss Emma Woodhouse, doted on by her wealthy father, enjoys the privilege of being part of the leading family in the village of Highbury.
Emma feels that she understands the world at large and knows what is best for others. She is good and well-meaning, but shows strains of gentle tyranny, as well.
Jane Austen describes her as such: “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”
There are three main differences between Emma and Jane Austen’s other heroines that are easily pinpointed.
Well-Heeled and Happy
Emma, as Jane Austen tells us, does not have to worry about money. Therefore, she is not in a rush to marry or facing the dreadful situation of having to seek work as a teacher or governess to survive. She is free to live a life of ease without much concern.
- Emma explains her situation thus: “A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else.”
Happy to be Single
Emma, since she is financially secure, is not in the market for a man herself. Therefore, she is free to good-naturedly meddle in the lives of others and attempt to create matches and affections, the misadventures of which lend a good deal of humour to the plot.
- Emma is not intimidated by men, because she is not looking to get married herself: “It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for any body who asks her.”
Love Found Where it is Lease Expected
Emma has known Mr. George Knightley her entire life, and her sister is married to his brother John, so there is a close family attachment. However, Emma, busy with her matchmaking efforts for others and light flirting for her own amusement, fails to recognise the mutual love that exists between her and Mr. George Knightley until the end of the novel.
- Both play the role of the upper class so well that the marriage proposal is described as perhaps a bit more proper than either of them actually feel: “The subject followed; it was in plain, unaffected, gentleman-like English, such as Mr. Knightley used even to the woman he was in love with, how to be able to ask her to marry him…”
- He explains himself to his love: “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
Emma is a joy to read, filled with Jane Austen’s characteristic wit, not the least being in the characters themselves, in Emma’s matchmaking, and in the fact that she could not see or admit to her own love, right in front of her.
This novel is a joyful departure from some of Jane Austen’s heavier, even sadder, plot elements that exist in Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion. It is a joy to read, making it a very valuable book indeed.
For who could not use a bit more joy in their lives?
Sources:
Emma, by Jane Austen, Oxford World’s Classics, 1995.
The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen, compiled by Dominique Enright, Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2002, 2007.
Emma Woodhouse had time to kindly meddle.
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Jane Austen (1775-1817)
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