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Summary of Jane Austen’s Emma
E(caps)mma is a clever, pretty young woman and mistress of the house of Mr. Woodhouse, an amiable old Valetudinarian. Her former companion and governess, Anne Taylor, has just left to marry Mr. Weston. Emma takes under her wing Harriet Smith, a pretty girl of seventeen, daughter of unknown parents, parlour-boarder at a neighbouring school in the neighbouring village of Highbury. Emma moves in favour of Harriet‟s advancement. At first, she prevents Harriet from accepting marriage proposal from Robert Martin, an eligible bachelor, a young farmer as being beneath her. This angered Mr. Knightley, the bachelor and owner of Donwell Abbey who is Emma‟s brother in-law. Emma intends to arrange a match between Harriet and Mr. Elton, the young Vicar, who unknown to her, aspires to Emma.
However, Frank Churchill, the son of Mr. Weston by a former marriage, visits Highbury. Emma supposes him in love with herself, but presently thinks Harriet might attract him and discourages her; an action that Harriet misunderstood to mean an attempt by Emma to discourage her from Mr. Knightley with whom Emma is half unwittingly in love. Emma then experienced the „double shock‟ of discovering first that Mr. Frank Churchill is already engaged to Jane Fairfax, niece of the proud old maid, Miss Bates. Secondly, Harriet hopes to supplant her in Mr. Knightley‟s affections. At last, Mr. Knightley proposes to the humbled Emma and Harriet marries Robert Martin.
3.3 Themes
Some of the themes in Jane Austen‟s Emma are discussed below.
3.5.1 Chronological Nature of Life
Jane Austen presents the human society as sequential in nature. Emma buys a commodious circular table to accommodate visitors at the different levels of their social engagements and interests. It is expected to take those who are for dinner, card and picnic parties. The table seats various social degrees of men/people in the society, from the most to the less important guests. This arrangement again invokes life as chronological.
The order of visits are friends, then the newly married women visit and lead in dinner and dance floor. This arrangement invokes the nature of life in the Romantic age, the orderly or sequential order of life.
3.5.2 Woman as underdog in England
The novelist legislates against women‟s early marriage and parental role so as to keep her virility, figure or posture, emotion and above all her beauty impressive. From the treatment of women in Jane Austen‟s Emma, women of her period were not in any way better than servants, they had their affairs dictated, few were ever educated, and the lesser form of employment were reserved for those of the lower class, such as nurses, dancers, actresses, or shopkeepers.
Best employments are not for women. But how can they be found in such work environment when less women were educated than men? For instance, Mrs. Elton tells Fairfax her duties are to take care of the children when they leave the care of nurses; she teaches the children the necessary three R‟s, reading, writing and Arithmetic and the girls music,painting and sewing and the French or any other languages she knows. Younger women were treated like old women, sit at home syndrome
Emma prefers a single spinster who is healthy to a poor married woman who does not know luxury. She does not like the idea of putting a woman on her toes in the name of getting married to satisfy societal dictates. In the novel, Emma represents a very radical view of a few daring women of the age of Jane Austen who could come out boldly and tell the oppressive and demanding gender conscious society that an unconditional end must be put to women‟s misuse and abuses.
3.5.3 Money and Material determine the social structure of the English society
Social class is viewed and measured with money and material wealth in the novel. Emma and her father are not recognised as land owners in Highbury. Weston is moderately rich; he married a lady from a wealthy family Mr. and Mrs. Churchill do not have any title but very rich. Frank Churchill is living with them, takes their name, survives at their instance. Mr. Knightly is the eldest son of a rich land owner, thus he inherited the Estate of Don Well Abbey, House Farms Estate and money of the deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Bates are not wealthy, do not have rank and are socially inferior. Jane is the daughter of an army officer, Mr. Elton is the younger son of the
army officer but became a clergy man so as to upgrade or improve his economic status. Robert Martin is a farmer who rents house and land from Mr. Knight Ley‟s estate. Jane Austen tried to position every character to be fit into a particular recognisable social structure of the society.
3.5.4 Love and Marriage, a Choice and Conditional
Emma in the novel also desires a husband but not the common types, without a recognisable social standing and wealth in the society. Emma and Mrs. Weston are in deep relationship for eight years; but Emma‟s relationship with Mr. Knightly is from childhood. Without ideal love, there can never be marriage, but a realisable marriage can exist where there is love between people of equal rank, education and sociability.
3.6 Style
Below is a discussion of style in Jane Austen‟s Emma
3.6.1 Irony of Situation
This happens when what is happening means one thing to the person concerned and something else to another who is watching. Emma is at the centre of event. Mr. Elton is interested in Emma but she thinks otherwise: “Mr. Elton and I are very good friends and nothing more.” Mr. Knightly is jealous of Frank Churchill whereas Emma loves him. Emma is jealous of Harriet Smith without being aware that Mr. Knightly loves her.
3.6.2 Use of Misplaced/Retrospective Irony
A cursory look at the events in the novel reveals that Emma feels Mr. Frank Churchill will declare his love for her, but we know that facts are misplaced. We know about this when we read the letter that he was ready to tell her about his engagement to Jane Fairfax. We soon know about the planned engagement and discussion of Jane Fairfax‟s strange acts. Another is the boat disaster and how Mr. Dixon regrets that he was not at the scene to make discoveries arising from the disaster.
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