Jane Austen did her best to be realistic and this
fact can be seen in her manner of ‘painting’ the world in her novels.
Furthermore, this fact was used both for and against her and she admitted it
herself. It was considered that her imagination is limited and had a narrow
vision, but
“the limits of
Jane Austen’s social setting are, not surprisingly, those of her own feminine
world and her feminine characters -those who matter most- are seen within their
normal surroundings.”[1]
The theme of physical loneliness tends to disappear
from Jane Austen’s novels although the solitude of the heart was an important
theme to her. In “Emma” is strongly
stressed woman’s total absence of solitude, the heroine refusing the idea of
marriage and believing for a long time that she couldn’t be happier than it is.
“… it should be
stressed that Jane Austen had the merit to discover – albeit in a more limited
way – that to recapture the true conception of her life, a woman should not be
artificially separated from her male counterparts.”[2]
The dominant theme of the novel is marriage. “Marriage in itself is appealing; it means a
certain form of independence which cannot be achieved otherwise…”[3]
This is the case of Emma who “points
out to Harriet that accepting Elton would mean ‘consideration, independence, a
proper home.” [4] There were allowed little tricks such
as learning how to dance, practicing the piano and other activities in order to
get a partner. We can observe that everything revolves around marriage. The
novel is circular, it begins with Miss Taylor’s wedding and ends with three
weddings: that of Harriet and Mr. Martin, Emma and Mr. Knightley, Jane and
Frank Chulchill.
Through the novel there are many tries of failed matchmaking:
Emma says that she is the one who matched Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston and then
she tries to match other couples such as Harriet and Mr. Elton who actually was
in love with her, then Harriet and Frank, but actually Harriet set her mind on
Mr. Knightley who also loves Emma. Love leads to marriage and this fact
constitutes the problem not only of the girl but also of the entire society of
which she belongs to.
“In the feminine
tradition of the 18th century novel, Jane Austen studies the problem
of the freedom of choice and of the family’s right of intervention in the
selection of a future husband, but with a greater variety and realism.”[5]
When Mr. Elton has got engaged there were spread a
lot of rumors and everyone was curious to see who was that girl and if she was
a good match for him. It was a small social class formed by the wealthy and
poor people and if something happened everyone knew and the rumors spread
quickly. Mrs. Cole informs at the gathering party that Jane received a piano
and the identity of the person who sent it is unknown. Everyone make
suppositions about the person who sent the piano, some believe that it was Mr.
Campbell, other believe that was Mr. Dixon. When Mr. Knightley brings Jane
Fairfax with his carriage, some people believed that he is in love with her.
Being also an educative novel, Jane Austen wants to
draw the reader’s attention regarding the rumors that preoccupies each character;
these disparage the truth which is totally different from the rumors. People
shouldn’t spread rumors just to have what to say and we shouldn’t criticize the
others and their own decisions. Another attention is draw upon the game of
matching. Through the errors that Emma does by trying to match people we should
understand that we can’t play with other people’s lives as if they were some
puppets. Jane Austen creates a world in which the main character is doing
mistakes and foolish things but finally learns the lesson. She creates a world
in which we can see the importance of social gatherings and in which people
depend on these social gatherings and conventions in order to get their way in
life. Jane Austen also presents us the role of the gender. It is something that
is present in everyday life. Gossip is considered to be a woman’s occupation,
but men also gossip and in some cases, maybe, more than women do; women also
run the social and political networks of the community almost as much as men do
and everybody tries to be a perfect host. Despite this fact, women still have
fewer options than a man have and many people look for a marriage that could
bring opportunities and changes the social status.
The theme of love centers around money and social
status. It was quite complicated to fall in love with the right person; you
should fall in love with someone who has the same social status as you and if
you don’t have money you couldn’t marry for love unless you only want to
improve your situation and social status and if this fact is more important
than love. It is quite difficult to dissociate love and money or social status.
The novel illustrates this through Mr. Weston who was a tradesman and married a
wealthy woman but they didn’t get well because one was poor and the other one
wealthy; Harriet even if she loves Mr. Elton or Mr. Knightley she finally get
married with Mr. Martin who is the right person for her.
“In Emma…we are
told that falling in love is not a simple matter, that it may take different
forms… The heroines themselves…have ceased to belong to the category of the
young lady who is necessarily in love and who loves in despair because of some
artificial obstacle.”[6]
Untraditional and
original characters are Harriet Smith who in the course of the novel fall in
love several times; Jane Fairfax whose secret remains unknown and Miss Taylor
who married after many years in which she was Emma’s governess. The novel’s
attitude to the relationship between love and money didn’t change at the end,
it reflects that the social status can’t be change so easily and the right
option is to find a partner which has the same social status. The novel also
reflects the idea that a relationship, marriage between a poor and a wealthy
person doesn’t work ( Mr. Weston’s first marriage).
“Like so many of
her predecessors, Jane Austen refuses the love-sick heroine who sacrifices all
her other qualities to the first emotion of her heart and who fancies herself
in love because she is the object of some young man’s admiration.”[7]
Most of her heroines marry, sooner or later, with
the man they feel attracted to; even Emma, who was intellectually prepared to
never marry and could have remained single, falls in love with Mr. Knightley
who took possession of her heart in such way in which she didn’t want to accept
any other proposal. Another important theme is that of social classes.
“… for Jane
Austen, society becomes the same many-headed body we are all confronted with
and this enables the portrayal of the whole range of faces which all play a
different part in our lives, even though we cannot help feeling at times that
together they form a great whole which sets limits to our initiatives and, for
better or worse, must influence the course of our destiny.”[8]
The novel presents a small social circle of the
nineteenth century and there are people who are more superior to the others and
people who are trying to improve their social condition. Jane Austen shows the
importance of social classes in the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries and how it
influences people’s behavior and even their destinies. In every kind of
relation – friendship, courtship, marriage- there must be a class equality
between those persons. Persons’ destiny is also influenced by classes and
societies of which they are part. Jane doesn’t belong to a high social class,
but even if she has many other options, her destiny is to be a governess. The
entire society of Highbury believes in the conscience of classes, only Emma
seems to reject this conscience when she desires Harriet’s friendship and she
tries to match her with men that are superior to her friend. Regarding the Mr.
Elton’s friendship with Jane Fairfax it seems to be the same as that between
Emma and Harriet. Emma is determined to raise Harriet into respectable society,
it seems to be also the case of Jane. Mr. Elton and Mrs. Elton are very
preoccupied with her destiny and they want to offer her their help.[9]
“For Jane
Austen, the introduction of a greater number of characters implies a greater
awareness of the variety in human behavior, which compels her to draw her
characters more realistically than in the past, when the extravagance of the
plot compensated the strong resemblance of the characters. [10]
Each character knows
which is his own place in society. Even if Emma seems to reject the conscience
of classes, she is in the same time aware of her position in society and that
she is superior to Mr. Elton whose proposal she rejects. There are characters
who are aware of their superiority but that fact doesn’t prevent them from
behaving oneself with those who are part from a lower social class. For
example, Mr. Knightley even if he is aware of his social class and his
superiority, he acts in a tender way towards Harriet and the Bates who are
inferior. Mr. Elton is also aware of his superiority and after he got married
he treats Harriet with superiority and refuses to dance with her. Emma is
somewhere between rejecting and accepting those who were inferior to her. She accepts
and desires the friendship with Harriet and thinks highly of Harriet as she was
almost as her, but, in the same time she looks down upon Mr. Martin and his
family and she doesn’t consider him a good partner for Harriet because he is
inferior. When Harriet receives the letter from Mr. Martin, Emma is astonished
to see that the language and the expression are refined and she said that
someone must have helped him to write in such a way; she believes that Mr.
Martin is a poor farmer and he didn’t know to write so properly.[11]
The most important and obvious differences between
the characters of the novel are the social classes and its hierarchy. The poor
are at the mercy of rich people as the situation in which Emma visits a poor
family and Mr. Woodhouse sent to the Bates some food. The rich are controlling
the social situation and manners mean everything. Jane Austen presents in the
novel Emma’s attempts to raise Harriet but all attempts to change the social
hierarchy are in vain. Harriet doesn’t have a noble blood and neither Emma nor
Harriet herself could change this, she was born poor and she would die poor. The
social hierarchy is also shown when the Coles decides to organize a social
gathering and invites many people of different social circles. Emma says that
she wouldn’t go because she is superior to them, but all the others received an
invitation except her and she is quite disappointed to see that. When, finally
receives the invitation she decides to go because she wants to be there with
her friends and she even feels well and doesn’t regret that she went.[12]
At some point, Mrs. Weston believes that Mr. Knightley loves Jane and tells it
to Emma who refuses to believe that because this kind of marriage is impossible
because Jane Fairfax is inferior to Mr. Knightley.
Manners are linked to the hierarchy because it
describes which is the place of a character in society. Gentility, compassion
and kindness are not considered by every character as being good manners which
were described as the behavior of those who act like a gentleman or
gentlewoman.
Another important fact is wealth. It represented for
women some independence from men and for men, a comfortable life, power and
respect. As love becomes important there appears a balance regarding the
financial compatibility. The ending of the novel is not a fairy-tale and the
fact that people are happy centers around wealth. But, it was not necessary to
be a wealthy person in order to be respected by the others and Jane Austen
illustrates us this fact through the Bates who were not rich but they were
respected; it is enough to be human, to treat well and respect the others in
order to be served in the same way. Wealth seems to be also important in the
case of a marriage because there appears the balance. Jane Austen shows us that
people have to be equally rich in order to be happy in marriage: Mr. Weston
wasn’t so happy in his first marriage because of that inequality regarding the
fortune, wealth.[13]
There is a relation that is almost indispensable between
the theme of marriage and love. Marriage is not only about love. Love is
complicated by the social status, money, family and land. If characters of the
novel fall in love with someone, that person should be part from the same
social circle, has the same social status. The question of marriage represents
a problem for the entire locality, people judge if both partners have the same
social status or not, if one is too inferior to the other. In their opinion, a
good marriage is when both partners have the same social status.
In those times marriages represented a way of
improving one’s social status and condition and this fact is especially crucial
for women but it can be also applied in case of men. In Mr. Weston’s case, he
was a tradesman who married Miss. Churchill who came from a wealthy family, but
the inequality between them caused hardship to both. His second marriage is a
happy one because Miss Taylor and his social class are more equal and
appropriate. The match which is planed by Emma regarding Harriet, is seen as
being inappropriate by the others because Harriet’s parentage is unknown and
she hasn’t the same social class as Mr. Elton or Frank Churchill. Her
appropriate match is Mr. Martin.
Another
relationship is that between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax. They have to
keep secret their engagement because Frank’s wealthy aunt opposed to it, Jane
is orphan and her grandmother and aunt are poor while Frank is considered to be
superior to her.[14]
But, in fact, there is no big difference between their social statuses. Jane is
poor, but she is raised by a wealthy family and Frank even if he was raised by
his aunt and uncle who were wealthy it didn’t change much thing because his
father is just a tradesman who improved little his condition by marriage with
Frank’s mother. The match between Emma and Mr. Knightley seems to be the best
because both are part from the same social class and the entire circle of
society agree with it.
Marriage is also seen as a change and it is never a
happy event because someone is left behind. Miss Taylor’s marriage is not seen
as a happy event because the Woodhouse are left behind. Mr. Woodhouse didn’t
like changes and he was the one who felt most the loss of Miss Taylor and when
Emma said that she was the one that matched that marriage, Mr. Woodhouse said: “But, my dear, pray do not make any more
matches, they are silly things, and break up one’s family circle grievously.”[15]
When his daughter, Isabella, married and left to London, he felt abandoned and
as if he had lost her, and when Emma and Mr. Knightley tell him about their
engagement he didn’t approve the idea because he didn’t want to lose also her.
Mr. Woodhouse sees marriages as something that takes the people he loves away
from him and that’s why he hates marriages.
Another marriage that involved change was Mr.
Weston’s first marriage. Miss Churchill married with him against her parent’s
disapproval. Being accustomed with a luxury life it was difficult for her to
fit with that change and this fact made Mr. Weston to spend a lot of money in
order to please her wife. Emma, similary to her father, doesn’t like changes
when she thinks to the possibility of marrying Mr. Knightley because she was
accustomed to the Mr. Knightely visits which were for her attention. She knows
that after marriage she should leave alone her father and her condition of
married woman would change. The loss of Emma is something that Mr. Woodhouse couldn’t
suffer and even if Mr. Knightley decides to move himself to Hartfield, for Mr.
Woodhouse it is also a change that he accepts only for reasons of security.[16]
The novelists or critics said that Jane Austen has
the inability to describe love as a passion and it is possible that we come
across over a loveless marriage in her novels and “it can also be argued that her characters’ interest in marriage may
arise in part out of their fear of remaining single…”[17] All Jane Austen’s heroines hope that
marriage will come hand in hand with love and all achieve a satisfactory
marriage.
“The heroine,
when giving her heart away, must regret nothing and lose nothing; her reason
and her intelligence must agree with her heart, and ‘they’ must also fall in
love – another characteristic which should appeal to the champions of all
liberation movements!” [18]
[1] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (pages
49)
[2] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 47-48,55)
[3] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page
58)
[4] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page
58)
[5] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English
Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 52)
Jane
Austen's Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html,
18.02.2014
[6] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 54-57)
[7] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 60)
[8] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English
Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 54)
[9] Jane Austen's Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html, 18.02.2014
[10] Philippe
Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi,
1999 (page 57)
[11] Jane Austen's Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html,
18.02.2014
[12] Jane
Austen's Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html, 18.02.2014
[13] Jane Austen's
Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html, 18.02.2014
Emma
Themes, http://www.gradesaver.com/emma/study-guide/major-themes/,
19.02.2014
[14]
Emma, Jane Austen, Marriage and Social Status, http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/emma/themes.html, 18.02.2014
[17]
Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul
European Iasi, 1999 (page 58)
[18] Philippe Séjourné,
The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 60-61)
