Emma by Jane Austen - Essay Example

?580661 Emma Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, seems like a fairly typical early nineteenth- century romance novel, but it is really much more literary thanthe modern day opinion about such romance novel often realizes. Written at a time when conduct books were all the rage, Emma may have been Austen’s version of a book of manners or she may have written the novel to parody the genre. Whatever Austen’s intention, the novel holds a great lesson in proper conduct that is still relevant today about the hazards of gossip and the danger of interfering in others’ lives. Often also overlooked is the fact that the message of the novel applies to both women and men. The persistent gossiping that occurs throughout the novel is done not only by the female characters but also the male characters in the novel. Emma gossips, she manipulates, she interferes in other’s lives, and so do other characters, but what makes Emma stand out is that she also bullies Hetty Bates, all of which make her not a very likeable character, but, in the end, apparently redeemable. Pretty much everyone in the little community of Highbury gossips. They all, with good intentions it seems, try to orchestrate love connections and marriage matches. Their manipulations include gossiping and speculating about who does what in the community. Gossip for this parish seems like a pastime, much as it is in small communities all over the world yet today. Today, with the majority of people living in cities and unable to know enough about the other people in their community to effectively gossip, they watch shows that gossip about celebrities and politicians. This informs the citizenry about society even if sometimes it is inaccurate. Then it does damage to reputations, but just like in Austen’s time, that is not the concern of the gossiper. Gossipers want only to amuse themselves and demonstrate their prowess in having “the dirt” on someone else first. Privacy, it seems, has always been elusive. Austen uses the gossip in part as a literary device to characterize. The chatter among the characters, both men and women, serve to reveal facts that a limited omniscient narrator, such as the one who narrates Emma, would not necessarily know. That narrator does not reveal everything though, such as the opinion of others about Emma because the narrator only sees through Emma’s eyes, and she does not always perceive the way others see her or her condescension. A perfect example of this is in Chapter 26 when Emma attends the Coles’ party. During the party, much speculation is made about a pianoforte that arrived unexpectedly at the Bates residence for Miss Bates’ niece, Jane Fairfax. Emma and just about everyone else at the party, including Mr. Knightley, gossip and speculate about who may have sent the pianoforte. Whoever it is, they reason, must be in love with Jane Fairfax. The party at the Coles also serves as an efficient way for Austen to characterize. Emma, for instance, finds the Coles’ invitation to the party presumptuous. “The Coles were very respectable in their way, but they ought to be taught that it was not for them to arrange the terms on which the superior families would visit them. This lesson, she very much feared, they would receive only from herself” (218). Yet she changes her mind and attends the party probably because the entire village planned to attend. Afterwards, “Emma did not repent her condescension in going to the Coles. The visit afforded her many pleasant recollections the next day; and all that she might be supposed to have lost on the side of dignified seclusion must be amply repaid in the splendour of popularity. She must have delighted the Coles—worthy people, who deserved to be made happy!—and left a name behind her which would not soon die away” (239). Of course, Emma’s attitude serves several functions: humor, characterization, and perhaps, more generally, a critique on a stratified society and/or on a community that would generate such trivial discourse. The party shows that the men in the novel gossip and fuss over what sort of romantic matches will be made nearly as much as the women. Emma’s father, Mr. Woodhouse, loves Miss Bates and all the other women of Highbury who fill his dull hours of hypochondria with gossip and speculation about who will marry whom, and he gossips regularly with Mr. Knightley, his neighbor. Mr. Knightley shows an interest in marriage speculation at various points throughout the novel. Such behavior seems pretty trivial of a man who is introduced as a sensible man" and readers feel as if Mr. Knightley may remain above the pettiness of the others in the community (41). So even though the novel’s title bears her name, Emma is not the only object of scrutiny in Austen’s novel. In the opening pages of the novel, Mr. Knightley gossips about the recent marriage of Miss Taylor, Emma’s long-time nanny. He presents an argument to Mr. Woodhouse about the advantageousness of Miss Taylor’s marriage, and he does it as if he is speaking for Emma. “But she [Emma] knows how much the marriage is to Miss Taylor’s advantage; she knows how very acceptable it must be at Miss Taylor’s time of life to be settled in a home of her own, and how important to her to be secure of the comfortable provision, and therefore cannot allow herself to feel so much pain as pleasure” (42). Mr. Knightley seems very concerned about the social positioning Miss Taylor’s marriage provides for her. He also partakes in the gossip at the Coles’ party later on in the novel, so he is not as blameless as he would like to be when he criticizes Emma for doing the very same. Even though Mr. Knightley is guilty of gossiping, interference and manipulation just like Emma and most of the other characters in the novel, when he chides Emma for her unkindness toward Hetty Bates, it seems justified. The other characters all accept Miss Bates for what she is even if she is not perfect. They also accept Emma, who clearly has her own set of faults that the community apparently overlooks. Emma, who believes herself perfect, does not like Miss Bates and is very cruel to her. To Emma it seems that Miss Bates chatters a lot about seemingly unimportant details of daily life. Her words seem meaninglessness and bore those around her, or at least Emma, since hers is the only consciousness the reader enters. From that perspective, readers also see Miss Bates as being dull-witted and slow to understand. Miss Bates may or may not be as annoying to the other citizens of Highbury as she is to Emma because Miss Bates has many redeeming qualities such as sweetness and concern for others. What makes Emma so annoyed by Miss Bates's attention to mundane detail is hard to say, but she insults the woman publicly during a game where the players must say one very clever thing, “two things moderately clever—or three things very dull indeed,” Miss Bates, relieved, says, “Then I need not be uneasy. . . .I shall be as sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth.” To which Emma could not resist replying, “Ah! Ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me—but you will be limited as to number—only three at once” (364). Mr. Knightly reprimands Emma on her rudeness later, but it still leaves the reader wondering why Miss Bates’ triviality bothers Emma so much when the entire community engages in the same sort of superficialities.   Actually, Miss Bates’ is something like a mirror for Emma. Miss Bates is "neither young, handsome, rich, nor married," has "no intellectual superiority," and "never boasted either beauty or cleverness" (52). She also possesses "universal good-will … love[s] every body, [is] interested in every body's happiness, quick-sighted to every body's merits" and has a "home that wanted for nothing" (52). She may seem the exact opposite of Emma, the "handsome, clever, and rich" heroine (37). Emma’s attitude toward Miss Bates, who everybody else likes and includes in their activities, characterizes Emma as a condescending bully. Austen used Miss Bates to characterize Emma, for even though they are the opposite in some aspects, they both have an annoying flaw that the others in the community tolerate. In the end, Emma is not really about Emma, but about how the members of a community tolerate each others’ bad behavior. After all, Highbury residents tolerate Miss Bates annoying incessant chatter but they also tolerate Emma’s rudeness, condescension and bullying of Miss Bates. When one person finally has enough of it, and calls Emma out on it, she begins to see herself as the others see her, and she changes. Of course, then she is as “perfect,” even with the flaws of gossiping and manipulation, as Mr. Knightley, who feels morally superior enough to Emma to judge her, and as the rest of the community. The fact that the entire community is involved in the bad conduct of gossip and manipulation may be Austen’s comment on the greater society. The fact that readers see only through Emma’s eyes may be a comment on how each of us should look inward to be more loving to each other rather than justifying our bad behavior as something everybody partakes in. Works Cited Austen, Jane. Emma. London: Penguin , 1816, 1966. Read More