Emma, By Jane Austen

Jane Austen is often considered to have one of the most compelling narrative voices in literature. Blurring the line between third and first person, Austen often combines the thoughts of the narrator with the feelings and muses of the focalized character. Emma is perhaps her most prominent example of free indirect discourse, where the narrator’s voice is often diffused into that of the characters. In the following passage, Emma takes on her role at match-maker between Mr. Elton and Harriet Smith, two naïve and somewhat air-headed characters in the novel.

Jane Austen begins the novel Emma by stating, “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” (1) immediately giving readers the impression that Emma is a young woman whom the readers should respect and grow to love throughout the novel. As we continue reading, however, we learn that while Emma has a good reputation and a circle of people who love her and want the best for her, she is extremely flawed. In the article, The Darkness in Emma, Anita Soloway states, “for Emma, beauty, cleverness, and wealth prove to be mixed blessings at best, for they foster the conceit of arrogance that lead her to hurt others and threaten her own happiness” (86) which ties into my argument that Emma’s good reputation is not necessarily based on her character, but instead, the lifestyle she lives, which is a similar concept for Tom in Tom Jones.

Continuing her uncertainty of her sister’s judgement, Elizabeth concurs with Jane’s perception of Bingley while questioning “And so, you like this man’s sisters too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his” (11). Austen included this statement to show Elizabeth’s obsession with people’s manners and acknowledge society’s rules about manners, which Elizabeth has plentiful thoughts about. Simultaneously, Elizabeth ridicules the Bingley sisters’ manners and compliments Mr. Bingley’s. By asking if Jane likes the sisters, Elizabeth’s skeptical and scornful attitude towards people with poor manners is captured. Similarly, Austen demonstrates Elizabeth’s rejection of society’s idea about wealth and being a good person. While she acknowledges that this circumstance is true for Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth uses the Bingley sisters to prove this standard wrong. Without Elizabeth’s pessimism towards the Bingley sisters, the novel would lose

Through the writing, Austen makes each character unique and different. This technique is clearly shown in her novel, Pride and Prejudice. Therefore, Austen identifies the voices of characters, such as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, through the dialogue. Both characters use a complex structure in dialogue. For Mr. Darcy, this shows his intelligence and high class. Whereas for Elizabeth, this shows her insecurity within her social class. Elizabeth competes with Mr. Darcy by using the same structure to showcase her intelligence and wit. Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Darcy’s first proposal demonstrates this concept. She says, “From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that the groundwork of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike” (Austen 131).

The role of women in a patriarchal society is one of the most heavily enforced themes in ‘Emma’ and ‘Clueless’. Austen places great emphasis on how the dominance of men over women was of great importance within the patriarchal social structure of the regency period. Heckerling reimagines ‘Emma’, to show the ways that this perspective has been altered over the next century. Emma and Cher are both products of their own patriarchal, class-driven societies; they are affluent and repressed as women, which leads Emma Woodhouse- the heroine of Jane Austen’s “Emma”- to turn to charity and match-making to fill in her time along with domestic chores, painting and playing the piano, and Cher Horowitz - the

One of the greatest dichotomies in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is made evident in the title. Namely, the book and the title reflect the division between individual as a spontaneous self and individual as socially constructed part of a greater whole, and the interaction that takes place as a result of the interaction between these selves. “Pride,” while it can be informed by the presence of others, is a character trait that can exist individual qua individual. For example, compares “pride” to “vanity,” a word with similar connotations, “Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” “Prejudice,” like vanity, requires the existence of others, upon which to make comparisons.

Jane Austen’s novel of manners, Emma, is about a young woman named Emma who considers herself a matchmaker and believes she will never marry. Austen’s purpose is to unveil the coming-of-age maturity and self realization Emma will go through in the duration of marriages of her friends and situations between her and other people. She creates a witty, romantic atmosphere around the book with the aid of rhetorical devices, such as imagery and symbolism, and occurring themes, such as consummated marriages, foolishness of character, and transformation of the main character. Also, there is a generation of ironic tone in order to capture the attention of readers who relate their feelings towards Emma. This novel captures the readers’ hearts through

For the first time, Emma actually feels slightly guilty for her actions, and takes responsibility for them for the first time. The incident on its own was quite interesting since it is almost as if Miss Bates is honored by being picked on by someone of Emma’s status, as if it makes her more noticeable, or popular. It does not even occur to Emma that she may hurt someone’s feelings when she does not internalize what she is going to say before forcing her thought and opinions on other people; not until Mr. Knightley brings it to her attention, and even then she brushes it off her shoulder. “Emma recollected, blushed, was sorry, but tried to laugh it off.” (Page 299) The correspondences between Mr. Knightley and Emma continue on until the point is made that Emma was very wrong, and out of line. Eventually it dawns on Emma that she should she does mistreat people and this is the turning point of her attitude.

Pride and Prejudice portrays many central values that Weldon in Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen an epistolary attempts to put right in the readers mind. The values of the Female Experience, Marriage and social structure and class. Jane Austen portrays issues in some form or another through her characters, but it is through a reading of Weldon’s ‘letters to Alice’ that clarification of these issues is made more apparent. These intertextual connections that Weldon gives to the reader about Austen’s novel helps them understand Austen’s context, views of marriage and the structure and guidelines of the social system. Weldon encourages Alice to think of these themes in context of her own life, to explore the similarities and differences.

Jane Austen's Persuasion is a dark novel. From the jolting breaks in the romantic drama--the falls of little Charles and Louisa Musgrove--to the heroine's depressing existence--Anne Elliot has a "great tendency to lowness" (Austen 66)-- to the overall autumnal mood, the work is at times a gloomy, though always interesting, read. Perhaps its darkest facet though is the ubiquitous presence of an antagonist. While Mr. Elliot appears, most blatantly, to be the villain, in actuality, it is Lady Russell, whose persuasions are both manipulative and, frighteningly, pervasive, who should truly bear that stigma.

Emma considers Harriet to be rather senseless, she uses gossip to help Harriet get to know the men's background before proceeding into matchmaking. In several occasions Harriet becomes the subject to most arguments between Emma and Mr. Knightley, due to the issues of Emma meddling in her friends business. As Spacks states: "She has become so involved to her immediate social role, in her fantasy of being perceived as powerful, witty, and attractive, that she has lost awareness of others' feelings" (408). In one scene Emma witness Churchill and Harriet acting loving towards one another, her immediate thought is to praise herself: "Could a linguist, could a grammarian, could even a mathematician have seen what she did, have witnessed their appearance together, and heard their history of it, without feeling that circumstances had been at work to make them peculiarly interesting to each other?-- How much more must an imaginist, herself, be on fire with speculation and foresight!-- especially with such a ground-work of anticipation as her mind had already made."

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice takes place in rural England among the landed gentry. In the society’s social atmosphere, it is imperative for characters to have a facade and for most of the characters, their first impressions are much different from who they really are. The only characters that do not have a facade, such as Mr. Collins, are socially inept. These first impressions play a large role in the novel and are often taken at face value, to the detriment of the receiver and impressionist.

Social standing is a central theme in both the novel Persuasion by Jane Austen and the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde in which the interactions among the characters represent significant facades of the Victorian elite, a platform of rigidity and restraint. Both authors employ satire to criticize social behavior of the time and advocate caution against the acceptance of social hierarchies and established traditions; in this manner, the narratives are alike. Austen’s novel Persuasion analyzes the standards of Victorian social ideals that are based on a system of social ranks like “Superior” and “Inferior.” It is the author’s caustic wit that exposes the obstinacy of elitist thinking established under the defects of traditional

In this passage from Jane Austen’s novel, Persuasion, she highlights Anne’s distracted thoughts and emotions of distraught as she had overheard the conversation between Wentworth and Louisa. Through the literary devices of speech and point of view of the author, Austen illustrates Anne’s inner struggle of her past sentiments.

If people focused too much on their own success, society would crumble. His outspokenness against the French Revolution for just this factor led to the demise of his political career. But he was proven right when many atrocities took place in the name of progress. His conservative ideas also apply to the more gradual breakdown of British society over the following century. By the time Jane Austen published Emma in 1816, marked changes had occurred within British society. Austen’s portrayal of small community life chronicles the decline of what Frohnen calls the “conservative good life” emphasized by Burke. Characters in Austen’s work reflect a society struggling with value systems that were slipping away. In Austen’s Emma, her character George Knightley upholds the aristocratic tradition of British society despite the impact of people in his own class who acted against the welfare of the community.