Emma (part one)
© Lisa Martin McAfee
Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, is divided into three separate volumes. In the first volume, we are introduced to Emma Woodhouse, who Austen refers to as being “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” However, we find that we do like Emma very much despite her faults because she is very much like ourselves.
If Anne Elliot, from Persuasion, is the archetypical “model citizen” of eighteenth-century England, then Emma certainly would be considered the most human. She is described as being “handsome, clever, and rich” but permitted to have “too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself.” She can be incredibly kind-hearted toward her father, generous with her friend Harriet Smith, and concerned by the plight of the poor. At the same time, she can be cruel to Miss Bates, and full of prejudice and snobbery against John Martin and Jane Fairfax.
She is very much a product of the Regency era in England, and yet, one might argue, she is also representative of the contemporary American woman. For instance, Emma may highly value certain people’s opinions, but she is “directed chiefly by her own.” She is a very competent and self-assured young woman. She is finacially secure, having her own fortune, and sees no particular reason why she should marry. This attitude of self-reliance is unusual for a woman to possess before the twentieth-century.
It is easy to look at Emma as being very much a puzzle that we must piece together, to be able to fully appreciate her. It is interesting to note here that Emma and Harriet avidly enjoy solving riddles which also challenge the readers intellectual abilities. What follows is a series of comedies, mysteries, and ironies as we watch Emma attempt to find a suitable husband for Harriet. In the end of the first volume, we come to the understanding, as does Emma, that Mr. Elton is interested in marrying her, not Harriet. Emma is shocked to discover her own judgement is so far off the mark of all she had percieved.
She is repentant, and vows to never interfere in any further matchmaking attempts. But she really has not learned her lesson very well, and continues to interfere in other people’s lives that are comical yet dangerous.
We will continue with the second volume of Emma next month and expand our understanding of eighteenth-century English society as well as journeying into our own human
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