miercuri, 10 septembrie 2014

The role of women in society - yesterday (18th-19th centuries)


                                                                                    
Everyone knows about the numerous opinions regarding feminism and the everlasting feminine that incited a great number of controversies along many centuries. The feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. “[1] The everlasting feminine is seen as being a psychological and philosophical archetype that idealize the women’s concept of permanence [2], the most repeated sentence that we all have heard at least once: ‘The woman is still a woman’. When a man says that, he generally may refers to the fact that a woman never change the way of being, even though her role advances along centuries, her nature didn’t change and nowadays she is still followed by the ancient stereotypes. I think that women were created by God to be men’s presence, to complete each other and a woman should have been regarded as an angelic human being without who the man wouldn’t manage.
It is said that women were not created from men’s legs to touch the earth or from head to be superior to men but from men’s anat in order to be equal.[3] But, it did not happen that, women were not equal to men. They were seen as being inferior to men and more sinful. Women were destinated to express the eternal beauty, both external and internal beauty and even if they are considered to be more sinful than men, because of Eve who eat from the forbidden tree and gave the forbidden fruit also to Adam, they are a sort of angelic human beings that were useful for poets who took them and their beauty and sensibility as muse when they wrote their poems. This is another fact that proves the importance of women in men’s life. Excepting that sin, they are considered to be perfect, God gave to woman external beauty but also internal beauty which consists in sensibility, fragility, having a good heart but despite these ‘weaknesses’ a woman is stronger than a man because she is the one who bears more than men do and she still stay strong. And the fact that ‘a woman is still a woman’, that’s true, she can’t change, that is her nature and she remains how God created her.
From the most ancient times human communities were organized in roles that were attributed to men and women. This image of the ‘first’ woman dates for a long time and lasted until the beginning of 19th century when the woman starts to be recognized as mother and wife, but even though she starts being idealized, this fact didn’t wipe the reality of social hierarchy of sexes because the important decisions are still taken by men. After the ‘model’ of the ‘first’ woman who was inferior, in 19th century appeared the image of the ‘second’ woman who was worshiped and in this century, women will recognized the last form of men’s domination.[4]
During the 18th century, in England like in other many countries, there was the belief that men and women were different from each other and society favored men. Society did not appreciate women, and their role not only in society but also in men’s life was extremely difficult, their role was null and they did not matter. In this century persisted the idea that women and men naturally posses distinct characteristics. Still from the beginnings, boys were thought that a man was the stronger sex and he must be intelligent, courageous, strong, determined, agressive and on the other hand, girls were thought that a woman was more governed by her emotions, she was more passive and her virtues must be chastity, modesty, compassion and pity.[5] We can observe that from the beginnings there was a preconceived idea; boys and girls were prone to what they have to be and how they must behave in society or in couple’s life when they would become man and woman. Boys or men were prone to violence, obstinacy and selfishness while girls or women were prone to teach how to be a good wife and mother. Because of this preconceived ideas women had to suffer.
Women in the 18th and 19th century lived in a patriarchal society dominated entirely by the word of men. Women were considered as being weak and it was like they came to world only to suffer, so they had no importance and they were regarded as being a sort of ‘erotic passives bodies’ or ‘children producing machine’. Simone de Beauvoir is doting this reality very well telling us what a woman is: “Tota mulier in utero, says one, woman is a womb.”[6] John Shebbeare, an English tory, he also is doting in 1758  this reality by saying that “The woman was the companion in the hours of reason and conversation in French, but in England she was only the momentary toy of passion.”[7] According to these statements it can be said that women’s role is to give life and to feed, being excluded from other things that involved men. “And she is simply what man decrees; thus she is called ‘the sex’, by which is meant that she appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex-absolute sex, no less.”[8] Men ruled over their wives and all property belonged to the husband; women did not have the right to own properties and they had to obey their husbands.
Robert Burton stated that “England is paradise for women, and hell for horses; Italy is a paradise for horses and hell for women.”[9] I think that Paradise is a great place where every person would like to live but in this statement, Robert Burton compares women to horses and as we know, horses are like slaves because they receive commands from their masters, women, they also had to obey their husbands. This Paradise for women is actually the same hell like for horses because both are living out their days in the style provided by men, their masters. Usually, women were not included in men’s discussions, in their business and unfortunately men were very proud of their reputation of treating their women like that and to exert their authority and superiority on them, they really felt as being their masters and felt very powerful.

“…woman has not been socially emancipated through man’s need – sexual desire and the desire for offspring – which makes the male dependent for satisfaction upon the female. Master and slave, also, are united by a reciprocal need, in this case economic, which does not liberate the slave.” The master is the one who owns the control and thus he can satisfy all his desires.[10]

There is a sort of indispensable relationship between slaves and masters, they need one another. The slave knows that he need the master in order to survive (to be dressed, to eat and so on) and the master needs the slaves in order to be helped in house-keeping or other works. Thus, regarding the relationship between the wife who is associated to a slave and her husband who is considered to be the master, there is no big difference. The wife has to obey her husband, to do her duty in house-keeping because the husband is the one who keeps her and the husband satisfies her pleasures and sexual desires. Married women had no control of their earnings and could not appear in court as witness or vote; only the widows had a better situation because they could receive a part from their late husband’s property and they could had control over it. And, a widow could also vote but only in some areas.[11] All these represent the so called ‘Paradise for women’.
In the 18th century women were not encouraged to receive education because it was believed that women would ruin their marriage chances and it could be harmful for them if they were well educated.[12] Maybe, if they were less intelligent than men were, it was easier for men to exert their superiority on them, they were believed as being stupid and incapable to think. Only the daughters of wealthy families or nobility could benefit an education and the nuns were also among the women who had an education. Upper class girls received a good education that centered on making them as marriable as possible. They had governesses whose main job was to give them an education that consisted in some knowledge of reading, writing, dancing, music and how to behave in society, the elementary things. Or, some upper class and middle class girls had the opportunity to go to boarding schools which were called seminaries. The educated young women during the 18th century were usually upper class ladies that had progressive parents. But, they had to hide their knowledge because in that century, society didn’t want educated women and they were regarded by the society as being women of questionable moral character. Poor women who wanted to be educated would join the convents. [13] People thought that women didn’t need education and there were very limited careers for women because their role was to stay at home and take care of children and other things that a wife does, so, women had fewer skills and obligations than men had. A few sectors of the economy were seen as being an extension to domestic responsibilities, so, women could work in these sector but they were law paid than men. Poor people had to work hard in order to survive, they did everything that was necessary, and so, their life was less comfortable.[14]
Regarding marriage, in the 18th century, it was vital for a woman to get married, although some women preferred to remain spinsters, not to get married because they knew that they would lose their freedom and become the ‘slaves’ of their husbands. In poor families women’s role was homemaking and this occupied all their time, they had to cook meals, make clothing, clean the house, and take care of animals and children. Middle class and wealthy women were a little bit luckier because they had servants that helped them in homemaking. Women were also responsible for children education, if their children were not well educated, their mothers were, usually, those to blame: “Men were the primary wage earners, while women were expected to be primarily responsible for housework and childcare.”[15] The growth of children and the care of family were women’s priority. This kind of woman, we can say, lived for others, the welfare of her husband and children were a priority for her and her personal needs were on the second plan. Generally, women had no word in many aspects of the male decision. While women stayed at home doing domestic activities and taking care of children; men had the opportunity to get an education. Women and men, both were pressed by society to marry. Girls had to marry at tender age and if they did not get married until 25 it was socially humiliating.[16] Generally, marriage was not carried out from romantic situations but for economic benefits and sometimes children’s parents were those who plan their marriage without taking children’s opinions into account. What really matters was to have a family name that has an important role in society, have properties, a good reputation and condition. Even the widows were pressured to get married again as soon as possible, no matter if their husband was death or not since only one year or less. Husbands were responsible for all things that were in connection with their wives, even discipline.
Usually, women ran away from bad marriages because divorces were rarely granted and in case of separation or divorce women could not gain the custody of the child. If a woman lost her virginity before marriage she was seen by society as ruined or fallen. A woman was expected to lose her virginity only after marriage and to have relations only with a man who was her husband. For men was acceptable to have many partners in their life and to have relations before marriage. Often, upper class and middle class women or ladies spent their time attending social events such as balls and dinners and these places were a good occasion for unmarried ladies to revolve around capturing a husband and, usually, they were looking to be a wealthy man, educated, intelligent and with a good reputation and social condition. All unmarried girls were the property of their fathers until they got married and became the property of their husbands and if the father of unmarried girl dies before his daughter gets married, then she will be taken at the mercy by a relative male, for example an uncle or a family male close friend.[17] For the women whose role in society revolved around the idea of getting a husband the major concern was dressing and presenting oneself well. In the early 18th century, they wore a dress with wide volume called mantua that was for formal occasions and hair was worn close to the head with a small cap that was covered by a hood or heat. The ideal woman in the 18th century had white skin, plump cheeks, black eyes, small lips, narrow waist that was accomplished by constricting the abdomen with a corset and had to be pure, modest, refined, and chaste and to have manners. Women were dressed according to their social class. Clothing that people wore could reflect their status and situation. A typical men’s outfit consisted in knee-length coat, knee breeches, a vest, and leather shoes with heels of low or medium height and a hat with upturned brim.[18]
Robert Burton says that “One was never married and that’s his hell, another is and that’s his plague.”[19] In this statement, Robert Burton refers to woman as being in the same time something good but also something bad. The hell may represent the life of an unmarried man, he is unhappy because he hasn’t got a family and he suffered for being alone. We can say that Robert Burton refers to the woman as being an angel that comes in man’s life to save him from living a life like in hell, unhappy and alone. The woman is like something necessary in men’s life, but the man is also necessary in woman’s life, so they are a necessity one to another. Simone de Beauvoir stated about the woman that “she is the Other in a totality of which the two components are necessary to one another.”[20] But, the woman is also compared with a plague; once one gets married he remains married till the end of life, the woman is like a plague because you can’t get off of her anymore. “…woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity.”[21] Unfortunately, women were also the victims of violence; men beat their wives and it was legal, they had the right to do it. “Even the word of the law seems to encourage the superiority of men and their dominion over women”: in 1782, a British judge, Sir Francis Buller declared that it was “Perfectly legal for a man to beat his wife, as long as he used a stick no thicker than his thumb.”[22]
If women thought that they would have a happy marriage, they were wrong, they could realize that once married here start the limitations, stress and struggles. So, most of women were unhappy thanks to domestic violence. If a husband murdered his wife, the law says that he would be hanged and if a woman murdered her husband she would be burned alive. And, if happens that a woman runs away from her husband it was considered to be a thief because she was stealing the clothes that she was wearing. English society consisted not only in civil society but also in Anglican Church society. Women’s role in Anglican Church was the same as in society, they were considered those who brought the sin on the earth and it was considered that they could not have virtues, they could not speak in terms of theology and they were criticized by the clergy. At the end of 18th century and also along the 19th century, the rights regarded as a concept started to gain political, social and philosophical importance. The movements asked for freedom of religions, abolition of slavery, rights for women, rights for those who had no property and the universal vote. Also, at the end of 18th century the problem of feminism and of women’s rights became a theme of debates. The law said that a married woman must obey her husband and she was considered the man’s property round the others properties.[23] A married woman had no legal identity apart from her husband, but “men privilege and domination began to be eroded in the nineteenth century. It was the Victorians who pioneered the emancipation of women.”[24] The image of the ‘first’ woman existed for a long time and lasted in some societies until the beginning of the 19th century which started to rise up women’s role and their power.
The late eighteenth and the begging of the nineteenth centuries brought significant changes in gender roles which led to separate spheres. The nineteenth century is often called the ‘Victorian Age’, this name comes from England’s Queen Victoria who ruled many years. Even though she was also a woman, she hardly did something in order to support women. Only in 1870 Queen Victoria wrote that the woman should be let to be what God intended, to be a helpmate for man but with different duties and vocations. [25] In this century England was transformed by the Industrial Revolution, women started to fight for their rights and for the first time they started to work outside the home. The 19th century saw the organized women’s movement that had a major impact and enlarged their opportunities and their rights in the following centuries. In 1856 there was a petition to Parliament, which was signed by 26,000 women, regarding the spheres of occupation, the right of education for women and to break down their dependence upon men. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ as a response to 18th century’s educational and political theorists who present women as being totally inferior to men and said that women didn’t need to have an education. Mary Wollstonecraft is called the ‘first feminist’ or ‘mother of feminism’ and she affirms that women are not so weak as men believe, she defend women’s rights and she said that they must have an education, otherwise how could they educate their children and having a good education they would be well regarded by society. She also presents women as being equal to men in some areas, but she carefully draws the attention on the fact that she “do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”[26]
For Mary Wollstonecraft women were rational creatures who were capable of intellectual achievement as men are. So, she advocates in her ‘Vindications of the Rights of Woman’ the equality between men and women. She also shows to women which rights they should have and tries to convince them to fight for it because they have the right to be more independent and not to be treated like slaves; they are human beings as men are. In 1860 the public put in question women’s rights and her role and in the middle of 19th century appeared the first writings in favor of women. [27]
Abigail Adams wrote to her own husband a letter that pleaded for Congress (where her husband was at that moment) to remember ladies when writing to the new constitution and her husband ensured her that the law would not be changed but they would take in account ‘the ladies’. There also appeared some famous female novelists such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters who present in their works the condition of women in society. Feminist writers, in 19th century, started to question women’s inferior social position and they tried to eliminate discriminatory practices. The role of women in society and in politics started to be questioned in times of wars through the Revolution that took place in 1848. During the Revolutionary war women played an important role because they were those who sew the uniforms that soldiers needed and they even started to make cartridges and wrote about the war in the local newspapers. And when the war had finished women started to focus on how to change their rights and their inferiority to men. During the whole of the
nineteenth century, women still had no political rights but there had been some movements in other areas in order to advance the rights of women. [28]
Thus, the 19th century showed an improvement in women’s education, and it was also the war that opened up the work place to women and increased their job opportunities. After the war there were more opportunities for girls or women regarding the education, especially for upper class girls or women. Jane Austen, in her novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ said that

 “a woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages, to deserve the world; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.(Caroline Bingley)”[29]

In this century, in society, appeared the idea that a well educated woman is better regarded in society, when she has some knowledge about music and dance (it was a pride for them to know how to sing at piano and dance, for example, at different balls), about drawing, arts and it was, also, very important that a woman know how to behave in society, how to speak and to be standoffish. But, girls received less education than boys, were barred from universities and could obtain only low-paid jobs. They were thought reading, writing, math, foreign languages, dancing, drawing and music. Middle class women received limited education and poor women could attend school. Society started to encourage modern languages, French being at that time the most popular language. Modern languages became something fashionable, were useful when people traveled abroad and it was also a way of broadening lady’s horizons. Some women, even if it was not permitted yet, excelled also in subjects that were considered to be only for men such as science, art, law, engineering, physics.[30]
Women’s fashion during this century was largely dominated by full skirts which gradually moved to the back of the silhouette; the fashion is renowned for its corsets, bonnets, top hats, bustles and petticoats. Like in the previous century, the ideal silhouette demanded a narrow waist. “Women’s fashions became more sexual, the hips, buttocks and breasts were exaggerated with crinolines, hoopskirts and corsets which nipped in the waist and thrust out the breasts.”[31] The fashion was quite similar in both 18th and 19th centuries. But, the 1870s to 1880s introduced styles that revealed their natural silhouette and the corset became a very elegant and desirable object in a woman’s wardrobe and it took a V form. The hair was arranged at the top of the head in a bun and puffed out around the face. Women were dressed in the way that they could be separated from the world of work. Regarding men’s fashion, it had changed by the early 19th century: the coat still finished in long tails at the back but was cut higher in front; long trousers were adopted rather than knee breeches and a tall hat.
Starting by the nineteenth century women ceased from being excluded from work and public life and they were allowed even to keep money that they earned. Lower class women had to work with sweat in order to support themselves and their families and their job, usually they were working at home and their job was the sewing. Middle class and worthy women could be authors, teachers, make charity work and towards the end of the century they could even become shop assistants, typists and clerks.  Also, some women were thought how to own their own businesses such as clothing store or sewing shop and some were employed even in heavy industry such as coal mines and the steel industry. Poor women who were pregnant worked up until the day they gave birth and they returned to work as soon as possible, when their physically able. Only in 1891 it was introduced the law that required that women could take four weeks away from the factory work after giving birth, but they were not paid in that period of staying home and many of them could not afford to lose money. Middle class women who had the possibility to study had a chance for better jobs such as saleswomen, cashiers, typists, secretaries, school teacher and governess. In the 19th century also appeared three medical professions for women such as nursing, midwifery and doctoring but only in nursing were widely women accepted because it was believed that doctoring was characteristic for men, so women were confined to their role as nurses. Wealthy women and ladies spent their time learning music and conventional skills also in order to be well regarded by their match maker and to conquer him. Also, in this century, charitable missions did begin to extend the female role of service.[32]

Thus, “most people in mid-nineteenth-century England believed that women should and would participate in philanthropic work. As a number of historians and critics who have studied the history of women and their roles have observed, women’s philanthropy seemed to be a natural extension of their domestic role.”[33]

In the 19th century took place great changes concerning also marriage and divorce. Apparently, in 18th century, marriage was motivated rather by money than by love.

“For most people in early nineteenth century England marriage was an indissoluble union, terminable only by death; this was because the Church Courts could not give an absolute divorce, though they could grant a legal separation, known as divorce a mensa et thoro, ‘from bed and board’.”[34]

This situation takes another aspect in the mid nineteenth century when it started to be allowed marriage from love and women could marriage being in love with their husband and also they could choose their other half. Women started to have limited access to divorce, but even so, it was difficult to obtain. It would be accepted only in case of adultery and if a man or a woman uses adultery in order to divorce, the adultery should be demonstrated. A woman could divorce from her husband if he was cruel to her or if she was left by him and if he committed adultery but she also had to prove that. Divorces were very expensive, one can be lose wealth and even properties, so, for poor people the divorce was not an option. The numbers of divorcing in this century were minuscule and “one reason for this was that it was much more difficult for a woman to file for divorce than it was for a man, since a man had only to prove adultery plus aggravating offences by her husband.”[35]
Beginning from 1839, in case of divorce or separation, a woman could take custody of their children only if she is not accused for adultery. Before this new law, in case of divorce, the father was the one who was given the custody of children no matter which were the reasons of the divorce. In 1870 the law started to allow women to keep their earnings and inherit property and in the later years of the 19th century women gained the right to vote.[36]

“In the half-century between 1870 and 1923 ( when women were allowed to sue for divorce on the same grounds as men) women achieved an equality of legal rights within marriage which had not been theirs during the eight-and a half centuries since Anglo-Saxon England.”[37]

Regarding the domestic life, women’s place was still in the home being a good mother and wife. Queen Victoria represented a kind of femininity which was centered on the domestic life, on the family. She became a model for all women of that period; she wanted to give herself to them as an example. Being a woman did not mean anymore the one who had to make children, an erotic passive body, but she received a symbolic meaning and many people started to regard the role of woman as a mother and as a wife like a sweet vocation. Marriage signified that a woman achieved her maturity and she expected to become mother; a childless single woman was a figure to be pitied and she was often encouraged to find work such as being a governess or a nursery maid in order to compensate her for her loss. As the 19th century continued society had increased the attention of domestic violence towards wives, it was somehow imposed some legal limits on the amount of force that was permitted.
The ideal woman in this century is the same as in the 18th century, except the fact that in the 19th century it became very important for a woman to be educated and it was still expected that women, especially middle class and upper class women, had sexual relations only after marriage and only with their husbands, but husbands could have pre-marital sexual relation with servant or could spend their inheritance on a mistress or on prostitutes. Most women of these classes learned about sexual relation from their husbands in the wedding’s night. Prostitution was rife in this century; the majority was casual and resorted to only when there was no any alternative. Most doctors of that period said that a real woman is that woman who had no sexual desire or just little and only abnormal women felt strong sexual desire. Only men’s sexual desire was ‘permitted’ but it was thought that if it cannot be controlled it could damage men’s health and it was seen as being something unnatural and evil. In 19th century were widely discussed cases of excessive hardship for wives and were regarded as being unusual.[38]

Regarding the marriage, every woman dreams about a perfect one, thus, “women had a clear idea of what they hoped to achieve in marriage (whatever really followed). They wanted affection and companionship, even if they thought romantic love was not likely to last; they wanted a home of their own, children, a husband with a legal obligation to maintain his family, an acknowledged status in the community as a wife and mother.”[39]

The Christian churches, Parliament, and the government thought about marriage that it was an indissoluble contract, a validation of property and inheritance rights and a legally approved sexual relationship. In the early nineteenth century, if a husband ill-treated his wife or was unfaithful to her even she could afford, it was little likelihood getting a full divorce. “Her only redress in the early nineteenth century being to try to put an end to their cohabitation by obtaining a judicial separation (divorce a memo, et thoro).”[40]
As the century advanced it was considered necessary that law should protect not only the property of upper class wives but also that of wives of all classes. “ ’I changed a Misses trammel’d life / For all the glorious licence of wife’; said a character in the early nineteenth century play, Whistle Me First ( quoted in Airlie, 1921).”[41] Thus, wealthy women who had separate estates, after marriage, they were the most liberated group of women in the nineteenth century and they could do whatever they wanted and so they did. A woman who had personal wealth, after marriage, she could lead a much more independent life than other women; she could travel at home or abroad, visit friends or relatives and thereby she could avoid the claustrophobia of marriage where the spouses depended on each other entirely and she could leave her husband since she could maintain herself. Middle class wives were the most affected by the laws of marriage and they were those who most reacted against them and these reactions were those which provoked changes in the legal relations between husbands and wives and, these introduced the concept of separate spheres and the ideal of the angel of the house. Working class women also benefited from changes in marriage such as legal separation and they could also maintain and control their own earnings.[42] Thus, the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries greatly differed from the roles of women in today society, they had few opportunities and were not appreciated as women are nowadays and

“the nineteenth century was a period during which gender roles and above all women’s role in society underwent considerable change. At the beginning of the century, the notion of separate social spheres for women and men was firmly established; at the end of the century, the women’s suffrage movement, dominated by middle class women, had grown strong and the stage was set for the suffragettes’ battle for the beginning of the twentieth century (Leneman 1998: 37-8).”[43]






[2]  Eternul Feminin, Posted by Cătălin Stănculescu, http://mythologica.ro/eternul-feminin/, 17.12.2013
[3]  Biblia- verset cu verset : « Căci precum femeia este din bărbat, aşa şi bărbatul este prin femeie”, Facerea 2,22, http://ziarullumina.ro/agenda-crestinului/biblia-verset-cu-verset-caci-precum-femeia-este-din-barbat-asa-si-barbatul-este, 17.12.2013
[4] Gilles Lipovetsky, A treia femeie (traducere de Radu Sergiu Ruba si Manuela Vrabie), Univers, Bucuresti, 2000, (pages 180-184)
[5] Gender roles and Gender differences, http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072820144/student_view0/chapter15/,  17.12.2013
6 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second sex, Vintage, Reissue edition, 1949 , (page 2)
7 Beyond the Sea, Quoting poetry, http://sailingbeyondthesea.blogspot.ro/2011_03_20_archive.html, 19.12.2013
[8] Simone de Beauvoir, The Second sex, Vintage, Reissue edition, 1949,  (page 8)
[10] Simone de Beauvoir, The Second sex, Vintage, Reissue edition, 1949,  (page 17)
[12] Women’s Education, http://womenseducation.blogspot.ro/, 20.12.2013
[13] Women’s Education, http://womenseducation.blogspot.ro/, 20.12.2013

[14] Gender in the Proceedings, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp, 23.12.2013

15 Gender roles in the Eighteenth Century, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp#genderroles, 23.12.2013
[16] Women’s Education, http://womenseducation.blogspot.ro/, 20.12.2013
[17] Gender roles in the Eighteenth Century, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp#genderroles, 23.12.2013

[18] Women’s Hairstyles & Cosmetics of the 18th Century: France & England, 1750-1790, http://demodecouture.com/hairstyles-cosmetics-18th-century/, 23.12.2013

[20] Simone de Beauvoir, The second sex, Vintage, Reissue edition, 1949  (page 16)    
[21]Simone de Beauvoir, The Second sex, Vintage, Reissue edition, 1949 (page 6)
22 English women in the eighteenth century...?, https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101029003415AAA5Oc0, 24.12.2013



24 Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989
  (page 2)
[25] Women In The Victorian Age 1860, [Doc] written by Ambra Garcea & Valentina Guerrini, 26.12.2013

[26] Quotes About Women’s Rights, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/women-s-rights, Marry Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 27.12.2013

[27] Rosemarie Ton, Feminist Thoughts, Westview Press, 2009 (pages 1,13,15) ; Mary Wollstonecraft Legacy, http://womenshistory.about.com/od/wollstonecraft/a/wollstonecraft-legacy.htm, 27.12.2013

[28] The first women's movement. Suffragist struggles in the 19th and early 20th centuries, [Pdf] http://www.amerikanistik.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/konferenzprojekte/ip_60s/finalpapers/juncker_remy.pdf , 27.12.2013
30 Women’s status in mid 19th-century England, A brief Overview, By Helena Wojtczak, http://www.hastingspress.co.uk/history/19/overview.htm, 01.01.2014

[31] Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain, By Lynn Abrams http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanhood_03.shtml, 01.01.2014

[32] Gender in the Proceedings, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp, 01.01.2014

[33] Dorice Williams Elliott, The Angel Out of the House: Philanthropy and Gender in Nineteenth-Century England, University of Virginia Press, 2002 (page 6)
[34] Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989  (page 22)
[35] Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989 (page 23)
[36] Gender in Proceedings, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp, 01.01.2014
[37] Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989 (page 8)
[38]  Gender in Proceedings, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp, 01.01.2014
[39] Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989  (page 30)
[40] Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989 (page 24)
[41] Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Lyceum Books, 1989  (page 76)
[42] Gender in Proceedings, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp, 01.01.2014
[43] Merja Kytö, Mats Rydén, Erik Smitterberg, Nineteenth-Century English. Stability and Change, Cambridge University Press, 2009 (page 18)

sâmbătă, 6 septembrie 2014

Anne Fortier - Julieta

" Tu ce ai face daca ai descoperi ca strămoașa ta este nimeni alta decât Julieta lui Shakespeare? Si ca in orașul natal te așteaptă o moștenire de familie aflata sub apăsarea unui blestem cumplit, dar si dragostea vieții tale, la fel de intensa ca in urma cu peste șase veacuri? "
     Anne Fortier s-a născut si a copilărit in Danemarca, pe țărmul Marii Nordului. A studiat Istoria ideilor la Universitatea Aarhus, iar numeroasele ei calatorii de studii au purtat-o in Norvegia, Statele Unite, la Paris si la Oxford. După ce și-a obținut doctoratul, s-a stabilit in SUA, unde a fost coproducătoare a documentarului Fire and Ice: The Winter War of Finland and Russia, distins cu premiul Emmy in 2007, an in care Anne Fortier își începe colaborarea cu Institutul de Studii Umaniste din Washington D.C. A debutat ca scriitoare in 2005, ca o fantezie gotica intitulata Shepherds on the Mountain, publicata in Danemarca. In 2008, romanul Julieta a fost achiziționat de Random House , iar intre timp drepturile asupra traducerii au fost vândute in treizeci de tari.
          Plin de mister, pasiune si suspans, romanul Julieta este o abordare inedita si îndrăzneață a povestii de dragoste care a stat la baza celebrei piese shakespeariene Romeo si Julieta. Cartea a carei acțiune se petrece, in cea mai mare parte, in decorul romantic al orașului Siena, descrie aventurile incredibile ale tinerei Julie Jacobs.
Julie Jacobs, a carui nume real este Giulietta Tolomei, primeste in urma mortii matusii sale Rose o cheie si o scrisoare in care ii dezvaluie adevarata identitate. Matusa Rose ii schimbase Giuliettei numele atunci cand a luat-o sub custodia ei. Desi de-a lungul vietii, matusa Rose nu ii permisese fetei sa mearga in Italia, acum, ea trebuie sa plece in cautarea comorii a carui cheie o primise. Astfel, Julie porneste spre Siena facandu-si pe drum o noua prietena care se dovedește a fi nimeni alta decât bunica lor. Ajungand in Siena revendica asa zisa comoara lasata de mama ei intr-o banca. Inauntrul ei nu se afla decat niste foi pe care intr-un final, Julie decide sa le citeasca. De asemenea, Julie gaseste alti membrii ai familiei care sunt extrem de bucurosi sa o vada. Apare si sora ei care ii duce adevărata scrisoare a mătușii Rose. Pe parcursul romanului cele doua, mai ales Julie încearcă se refacă acel puzzle pornind de la foile si poveștile pe care i le lăsase mama ei, descoperind in final cine este, cu adevărat, tatăl lor, statuia si multe alte lucruri.

vineri, 5 septembrie 2014

Jane Austen - biography and literary work


On December 16th 1775 in the Hampshire village of Steventon, England, was born Jane Austen; a realist English novelist from the romantic pre-victorian period. She was born in a middle class family of the country nobility of which the customs form the substance of her novels. Jane Austen was the seventh child in a family of eight children and the second daughter of George and Cassandra Austen. She is one of the most loved and famous writers who wrote novels which are very appreciated in literature even nowadays. Austen is admired for the fact that she wrote her novels in the period in which there were few women writers and she would open the way for the next generation of women writers. Many of her books were written under a pseudonym. Her father, the Reverend George Austen, was a rector of the village who also tutored young students in order to supplement his income. Jane was educated mainly by her father, who taught his own children as well as many other children who were boarded with the family, even though she and her sister were attending many different schools. When Jane was 25, her father retired and by that time, two of her brothers became admirals, had a family and a career of their own. Her mother was a woman of ready wit and was famous for her verses and stories. Jane lived in the middle of a numerous family, with some English counties such as Bath, Southampton and Londra. All her life, she lived in the same room with her sister, Cassandra, and she didn’t meet any other important writer. Jane Austen was in correspondence with her sister the most of their lives and many things that we know about Austen were found from those letters but Cassandra had destroyed a part from the letters. Even if her books relate the central drama of marriage, Austen has never been married although it seems to had had many sentimental adventures and had rejected a marriage proposal.[1]
Jane Austen was exposed to the world of the English upper classes through the visits that she has made to her brother Edward who was adopted by a wealthy and childless cousin. She was very close to her sister, Cassandra who remained unmarried. She was her closest companion and they were inseparable. From 1785 to 1786 the two sisters attended the Reading Ladies Boarding School where they studied French, music, dancing, etc and they also studied at Oxford when they were eight years old. The Reading Ladies Boarding School, where lived the two sisters, seem to be described by Austen in her novel ‘Emma’. Their studies had finished because of economical reasons and they continued to study at home, especially Jane Austen who was guided by her father, who had a large library, in order to develop her literary mind and her received education was also consummate through the numerous readings. Austen read the Fielding, Richardson and also Frances Burney. She started her career when she was twelve and in her writing, she was influenced by different circumstances in her life that she used in her settings. The works written between 1787 and 1793 were put together into three manuscripts which are known as ‘Juvenilia’ and in which, some pieces, are dedicated for Jane Austen’s first niece, Anna. During Austen’s life, Anna tried to write a never completed novel called ‘Which is the Heroine?’ being advised by her aunt, but it is said that she destroyed the manuscript after Jane Austen’s death.  As she continued writing, Austen became sentimental novels of the eighteenth century as her novels concentrate on marriage, love and courtship. In 1793 Jane Austen begun to write her first lengthy piece of work called ‘Lady Susan’, a novella written in the form of letters, but it was never published in her lifetime. Another early work is ‘Love and Freindship’. In this period, Austen also started to have ideas for the novel that would later become ‘Sense and Sensibility’.
In 1795, at Steventon, Austen met the nephew of their neighbors, Thomas Lefroy, the relative of Austen’s friend. The correspondence between Austen and her sister Cassandra, reveals the fact that Tom and Austen spent some time together and it may implied some romantic feelings, but,  it couldn’t be spoke about a marriage between them. Little time after that, her aunt from Lefroy tried to marry Jane with Reverend Samuel Blackall, but she wasn’t interested to marry. After the romance that she had with Tom, Jane Austen worked at her second novel called ‘First Impressions’ which later became ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and she also started a revision of  ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and worked on a gothic satire called ‘Northanger Abbey.’ The Austen resided at Steventon until 1801 when Reverend Austen announced his retirement and they moved to Bath. This removal from her childhood home provoked mixed feelings to Austen and she had a lack of productivity as writer because during her time at Bath she only did some revisions to ‘Northanger Abbey’ and started but abandoned a fourth novel. [2]
In 1802, while in Bath, Jane Austen was proposed for the first time by Harris Bigg-Wither. She accepted, but the following day she changed her mind. Jane Austen wrote, sarcastically, in a letter to Cassandra:

“Tell Mary that I make over Mr. Heartley and all his estate to her for her sole use and benefit in future, and not only him, but all my other admirers into the bargain wherever she can find them, even the kiss which C.Powlett wanted to give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to Mr. Tom Lefroy, for whom I do not care sixpence. Friday: At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow at the melancholy idea.” [3]

Thus, even if she had the chance, she never married. Her niece wrote about Austen’s refuse that “Having accepted him, she found she was miserable and that the place and fortune which would certainly be his, could not alter the man. I have always respected her for the courage in canceling that ‘yes’.”[4] In 1805, Jane Austen’s father died and the Austen women lived at the charity of  Jane’s brother. Thus, Jane, her sister and their mother moved to his wealthy brother’s cottage at Chawton where was much quieter than in Bath and Jane Austen started to write more often. Being thirty four, she didn’t had any hope to get married and she started to concentrate upon her novelist career and, thus, while in Chawton, four of her novels saw the light of the print: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ published in 1811, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in 1813, ‘Mansfield Park’ in 1814, a novel that was sold all the copies in little time (less than six months) and ‘Emma’ in 1815 which was dedicated to the regent prince. In the following year was published a second edition of ‘Mansfield Park’, but this edition hadn’t the same success like the first one. In 1816 she fall ill, some critics said that she suffered from Addison’s disease. She was moved in Winchester for a better care. In spite of her illness, she continued to write and even started a new novel which she hadn’t finished because she died on July, 8 1817, at the age of 42, and her two novels, the ‘Northanger Abbey’  and ‘Persuasion’ were published posthumously. The last words she said were that she doesn’t want anything but to die.[5]
Jane Austen’s novels generally present the drama of the common life and customs that were present in the life of country English families. She didn’t write about what she didn’t know. All her books tend to represent a moral lesson for the heroines that are constantly trying to succeed in the life and to model their behavior in a mean society and her novels reflect her opinions regarding the life and the life that she had was a source of inspiration in her writings. Unfortunately, she spent most of her life being criticized by other social classes. The members of her family were her best friends and those from the same social class and, maybe, this is the reason according to which, the majority of her novels are centered around two, three families that are from the middle social classes. There have been two museums that were dedicated to Jane Austen: The Jane Austen Centre in Bath and The Jane Austen’s House Museum, the place where she lived between 1809 and 1816. [6]
            List of Works:
·         Novels: - ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (1811)
                          - ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813)
                          - ‘Mansfield Park’ (1814)
                          - ‘Emma’ (1815)
                          - ‘Northanger Abbey’ (1818) - posthumous
                          - ‘Persuasion’ (1818) – posthumous
·         Short fiction: - ‘Lady Susan’ (1794, 1805)
·         Unfinished fiction:  -‘The Watsons’ (1804)
                                            -‘Sandition’ (1817)
·         Other works:   -‘Plan of a Novel’
 -‘Letters’
             Juvenilia – volume the first:   -‘Edgar and Emma’
                                                            -‘The three sisters’
                                                            -‘Amelia Webster’
             Juvenilia – volume the second:  -‘A Tale’
                                                                -‘The History of England’
            Juvenilia – volume the third: -‘Evelyn’
                                                           -‘Catharine’ or ‘the Bower’[7]



Biography of Jane Austen, http://www.gradesaver.com/author/jane-austen/, 12.02.2014
[2] Biography: Life (1775-1817) and Family, http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html#life1a, 12.02.2014
[3] Biography: Life (1775-1817) and Family, http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html#life1a, 12.02.2014

[4] Jane Austen Biography, Childhood, Juvenilia, In love, Novelist, Death (1775-1817)

[5] Biography: Life (1775-1817) and Family, http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html#life1a, 12.02.2014
[6] Biography: Life (1775-1817) and Family, http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html#life1a, 12.02.2014

miercuri, 3 septembrie 2014

Jane Austen - Emma - the book

By the time that Jane Austen completed the novel entitled ‘Emma’ when she was thirty-nine years old. She started to work at the novel in January of 1814 and finished it a year later, in March of 1815. The novel was printed in 2,000 copies at the end of 1815, but not all the copies were sold – 563 copies were not sold even after four years. During her lifetime Jane Austen didn’t earned much from her books but after her death. A year and a half after her novel ‘Emma’ saw the light of printing, Jane Austen died. ‘Emma’ was the fourth published novel and the last that was published before the Jane Austen’s death.[1]
Emma’  is a novel of manners of the English provincial society at the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It is among the most important achievements of English fiction. ‘Emma’ is a novel that is dominated by the personality of its heroine. Jane Austen was considered to have accepted her world as it was and she is considered the painter of a world that is limited as she introduced a young lady who can decide for herself and even to make a selection regarding her partner.[2]

“In other words, Jane Austen had decided to leave behind her the world of Little Red Riding Hood, in which the wolves were represented by Lovelaces and where the victims must always be innocent little girls who had to pay a high price for disobeying their mothers.”[3]

It was written in a period in which Jane Austen was at the height of her popularity and it is said that Austen dedicated this novel to the Prince Regent, George although she wasn’t so excited because of what kind of person he was – dissipated, drunk and superficial. George was a person that adopted the behavior of a gentleman during his lifetime. He considered that men who were fashionable were dandies – that kind of man that gives a particular importance for the way in which he looks, for his physical appearance. Jane Austen, besides marriage, also takes up the question of gentleman’s behavior through the character of Mr. Knightley who is rugged, thoughtful and honest. It seems that Jane Austen ironically called him also George.  Jane Austen, generally, uses in her novels the countryside background of the sentimental stories and “the central character is still a young lady and she continues to face sentimental problems. Anne, Catherine, Elinor…the whole set of them, even Emma, for all her originality, pursue the same quest of love.”[4]
Jane Austen’s novel has been a subject of dispute and she “set out with the playful intention of unsettling her readers, judging by one of her rare surviving authorial comments: I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.”[5] Also, her novel would be ridiculed by some female generations such as Maria Edgeworth who says that “there is no story in it, except that Miss Emma found that the man whom she designed for Harriet’s lover was an admirer of her own…”[6] Sir John Mackintosh, a good friend of Madame de Staël, was the admirer of Austen’s novels and he said that “there was a genius in the sketching out that new kind of novel.”[7] He recommended Austen’s novels to his friend who “expressed her view that Austen’s novels were vulgaire, too close to the English provincial life she detested for its narrowness and dullness, its emphasis on duty and stifling of wit and brilliance…”[8] George Eliot said that Jane Austen’s novels gained a high reputation and there are many controversies that are always felt when the author dares to be natural. He considers that Austen is a true artist that makes accurate portraits of the people and society by describing what she knew and had seen.
It was considered that Austen’s novel had also a didactic purpose; she had to control the behavior of her women characters who appeared to be something else instead of what they should have been. Arnold Kettle gave his opinion regarding the moral didactic purpose:

“the prevailing interest in Emma is not one of mere ‘aesthetic’ delight but a moral interest’, and Austen’s ability to involve us intensely in her scene and people is absolutely inseparable from her concern. The moral is never spread on top; it is bound up always in the quality of feeling evoked…The delight we find in reading Emma has in fact a moral basis.”[9](114,119)

This ‘didactic intention’ it is also applied by Jane Austen to his male characters and even to society. Jane Austen discussed the masculine selfishness in her novel Sense and Sensibility through the two sisters and invites the female readers not to judge the ones who never declared their love because it could be only the heroine’s imagination and mind; “men were also being taken to task: not only the double-dealers like Willoughly in Sense and Sensibility and to a lesser extent Emma’s friend, Frank Churchill”[10], but also those who got married only in order to improve their fortune. The new social life that Jane Austen had adopted became an essential element of the feminine novel and “the importance of balls as far as women were concerned need to be stressed…”[11] Actually, there weren’t only the balls that were encouraged but all kinds of social encounters and, thus, the heroines didn’t need to face with solitude and they could participate at different social gatherings. This thing is important because it change the novelist’s attitude towards her work; if the heroine is separated from the world, from the social life, she ceases to find herself. Thus, she decided that isolation is not a good idea and she considered that her characters had to live like any other human being.
The novel centers around romance and courtship and it also presents the distinctions of classes and the importance of manners that were prevalent in the English society. An example is the importance of balls and social gatherings. Being considered the most influent family in Hartfield, the Woodhouse, often, organize gatherings, especially from Emma’s desire. There is not much action and suspense. Jane Austen presents everything in detail, her characters are presented walking, eating, discussing, doing common things. All these constitute the landscape of the social classes of the Victorian period. Jane Austen is a good expert of that society and she presents different problems of that period as the situation of woman in society, differences between social classes and the arranged marriages. The feminism that Jane Austen presents in her novel is subtle and it can clearly be seen the fact that Austen encourages the idea of getting married from love and not for the social status.

“She illustrates her theory all the more successfully because she breaks the spell of an extravagant plot and recreates a realistic world of flesh and blood characters in which falling in love may take time and must follow the evolution of the heroine’s psychology.”[12] 

Jane Austen shows in ‘Emma’ the importance of class in British society. Even if the characters live in a small town, there is in it a specific social structure. Emma with her father and Mr. Knightley are at the top of the social hierarchy, while Harriet Smith, Miss Bates, Mr. Martin are the lower level of the hierarchy. Austen also encourages respect between social classes and also encourages people to maintain their social status. When Emma insults Miss Bates she breaks the rule of class interaction; she is superior to Miss Bates but it doesn’t mean that she has the right to treat her in that way. Austen also encourages the idea that women can also be independent and take decisions by their own and they can even be superior to men: “… the roles are reversed; as in the novels of the pioneers, the heroine is sometimes felt to be far superior to some of the male characters: Emma, for all her faults, can look down upon Elton…”[13]

The writing style in Emma is subtle and ordinary. It can be easily read, it is logical and follows a structured form. Critics said that Jane Austen used in her writing a mixture between neoclassicism and romanticism and though it seems impossible such thing it is said that combining these two was one of her strong talent. Her novels are representative of the late eighteenth century moral world view. People live in this society in socially, economically, emotionally and ethically harmony. The novel is told in the point of view of an omniscient narrator through which Jane Austen presents her visions upon society of the late eighteenth century and the narrator presents the events and characters through Emma’s eyes and perspective. According to some critics, Jane Austen and the narrator is one and the same person and she constantly shares her point of view.[14]



[2] Jane Austen, Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 (cover)
[3] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 43)
[4] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction,  Institutul European Iasi, 1999(pages 43-45)
[5] Jane Austen’s Emma: A Casebook, Edited by Fiona Stafford, Oxford University Press, 2007  (page 9)
[6] Without Brilliancy of Any Kind. What Some Women Should Not Have Said About Jane Austen.
A Male Voices Web Page,
http://www.theloiterer.org/ashton/women.html, 15.02.2014
[7] Without Brilliancy of Any Kind. What Some Women Should Not Have Said About Jane Austen.
A Male Voices Web Page,
http://www.theloiterer.org/ashton/women.html, 15.02.2014
[8] Without Brilliancy of Any Kind. What Some Women Should Not Have Said About Jane Austen.
A Male Voices Web Page,
http://www.theloiterer.org/ashton/women.html, 15.02.2014
[9] The Dilemma of Emma: Moral, Ethical, and Spiritual Values, www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol21no2/jackson.html, 15.02.2014
[10] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 46)
[11] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (pages 46-47)
[12] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999  (pages 58-60)
[13] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999  (page 65)

luni, 1 septembrie 2014

Jane Austen - Emma - plot


The novel opens by introducing Emma Woodhouse who is sad because she has just lost her governess and companion, Miss Taylor, who has just married with a wealthy man, Mr. Weston and Emma was  left without a companion. After Emma’s sister, Isabella, moved to London, Miss Taylor became her best friend and she also offered to Emma a motherly love after the Emma’s mother’s death. But, it seems that not only Emma suffers the loss of Miss Taylor, her father, Mr. Woodhouse also does and he would like that she comes back: “-Poor Miss Taylor! I wish she were here again. What a pity it is that Mr. Weston ever thought of her!”[1] While trying to comfort her father, even if she was in the same situation, they receive a visit from Mr. Knightley, Isabella’s brother-in-low and an old and a good family friend. While discussing about how the wedding was and about the loss of Miss Taylor, Emma said that she was the one who planed this marriage and then it came in her mind the idea that she had to plan another marriage, that of Mr. Elton.
Giving a small dinner party to which the Woodhouse family invite also members that are part from other social circle such as the widow Mrs. Bates and her daughter, Miss Bates, Emma meets Harriet Smith who came with Mrs. Goddard, the mistress of the local boarding school. Harriet would become Emma’s best friend and she immediately plans to introduce Harriet to the high society, to match her with Mr. Elton and to detach her from the Martin family who Emma considers to be inferior for Harriet. Emma encourages Harriet to tell her everything and was often invited to Hartfield. Thus, Harriet Smith became one of the common guests. After Harriet told Emma about Mr. Martin, she did her best in order to make Harriet not to think to Mr. Martin anymore and she even acts in such way in which, when Harriet received the proposal from Mr. Martin, she refused him. It is obviously that Harriet is not happy for the decision that she took and she had some feelings for Mr. Martin, but Emma tries to match Mr. Elton and Harriet by pointing out to Harriet the qualities that Mr. Elton has. She is sure that Mr. Elton loves Harriet because he volunteers to take the portrait done by Emma to London, but he was behaving well with Harriet just for Emma because, actually, he was interested in Emma. When Mr. Elton returns from London with the framed portrait of Harriet, he gives to Emma a letter with a riddle:


   
To Miss _ _ _ _,
                                            Charade
                 My first displays the wealth and pomp of kings,
                 Lords of the earth! Their luxury and ease.
                 Another view of man, my second brings,
                 Behold him there, the monarch of the seas!

                 But, ah! United, what reverse we have!
                 Man’s boasted power and freedom, all are flown;
                 Lord of the earth and sea, he bends a slave,
                 And woman, lovely woman, reigns alone.
                 Thy ready wit the word will soon supply,
                 May its approval beam in that soft eye![2]
               
Emma thought that the letter was for Harriet and she gives it to Harriet who didn’t understand what the riddle wants to say and Emma immediately translates the riddle for Harriet; the answer is the word ‘courtship’. She also tries to convince Harriet that the riddle is a proposal: “I congratulate you, my dear Harriet, with all my heart. This is an attachment which a woman may well feel pride in creating. This is a connection which offers nothing but good.”[3]  The two copied the riddle into Harriet’s book and after a discussion among the family who anticipates the visit of Isabella, Mr. John Knightley and their children, Emma told Mr. Elton that she solved the riddle and copied in Harriet’s book.
Next day, Emma and Harriet make a visit to a poor family near the place where Mr. Elton lives and when they left, on their way, they meet Mr. Elton and Emma wants to let them alone. When they were close to the home parish, Emma pretended that she can’t keep going because her sly person was torn and she said to Mr. Elton to go to his home parish in order to be given by his housekeeper a ribbon. While she was busy with the ribbon she expected that Mr. Elton confess his love to Harriet but he didn’t and Emma considers him slow but she is sure that her plan didn’t failed. Emma’s sister, Mr. John Knightley and their children arrive at Hartfield and this fact temporarily occupies Emma’s attention. The entire family discuss about Miss Taylor, now Mrs. Weston, and they make different speculation whether Frank Churchill, the son of Mr. Weston, will visit his father and his step mother. All the family and even Harriet and Mr. Elton are invited to the Weston family for Christmas Eve dinner. Unfortunately, Harriet fall ill and she couldn’t go and Emma is surprised to see that Mr. Elton refuses her suggestion to skip the party if Harriet will not be there. John Knightley is the one who realizes that Mr. Elton has feelings for Emma and when he tells that to Emma she says that he is wrong and they are just good friend. On their way to home, Emma finds herself alone with Mr. Elton in one of the carriages and he confess his love to Emma. First, Emma thought that Mr. Elton is drunk and he confuses her with Harriet, but in the end she understands that she is the one who Mr. Elton loves. When she arrived home she started to think at this situation feeling guilty. The Knightely family leaves back to London, Mr. Elton will spend few weeks in Bath and Emma visits Harriet to say to her what happened and, now, she tries to drive Mr. Elton out from Harriet’s mind.
Emma and Harriet go for a walk and they also visit Mrs. and Miss Bates who tells them about Jane Fairfax, Mrs. Bates’ granddaughter, who sent a letter in which she announce her visit in Highbury. Miss Bates reads them the letter and Emma suspects that there has been a romance between Jane and Mr. Dixon, the son-in-low of the Campbells, her guardians, and that’s why she didn’t go with them in Ireland. Jane Fairfax became orphan after her father and mother’s death. She lived with her aunt and grandmother until she was eight years old and then she was raised by a friend of her father, the Colonel Campbell. The Bates and Mr. Knightley visit Emma and her father and, thus, Emma finds out that Mr. Elton will marry a Miss Augusta Hawkins who incited many speculations and rumors. Harriet received a letter from the Mr. Martin’s sisters that surprised her and Emma believes that she should visit them but not to stay too much because she still maintain the distance with that family.
Frank Churchill finally has arrived at Randalls and he visit Hartfield with her stepmother. Emma was delighted to meet him and was impressed to see Frank’s warmth toward Mrs. Weston. Frank also visited the Bates and, now, he discusses with Emma about Jane Fairfax. The good impressions that Emma had about Frank were injured when he went to London only to get his hair cut. Meanwhile, the Coles organize a gathering and Emma is offended to see that she wasn’t invited while other received an invitation, but, finally the invitation arrives and she accepts it. At this party it is spoken about the piano that Jane had received, Emma finds out that Mr. Knightley brought his carriage in order to convey Jane home and this fact made Mrs. Weston believe that Mr. Knightley was the one who sent the piano to Jane and it could be a relationship between them, but Emma opposed. Emma and Jane are invited to play the piano and Frank accompanies them.
Emma Woodhouse is invited by Miss Bates to see the piano. When Emma visits the Bates, she meets there Frank Churchill who was trying to fix Mrs. Bates’ glasses. Frank said to Jane regarding the piano that “true affection only could have prompted it”[4] and Emma believed that Frank referred to Mr. Dixon. Frank had the idea to organize a ball before his leaving and which will take place at Crown but it will also be postponed because Frank is called back to Escombe because his aunt is ill. In the period in which Frank was left, Emma realizes that she might be in love with him; she believes that she loves him. Mrs. Weston receive a letter from Frank and Emma reads it very attentive. Mr. and Mrs. Elton arrive in Highbury and Emma visits them and they return the visit. She dislikes Mrs. Elton and noticing that Mrs. Elton begins to return the sentiment. Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Elton become friends and Emma tries to find out if Mr. Knightley has feelings for Jane.
Emma organizes a party for Mrs. Elton; Harriet excuses herself that she can’t come and in her place is invited Mr. John Knightley who brought his children to visit their aunt, Emma. The discussion takes into account the fact that Miss Jane was seen by Mr. John Knightley this morning at the post office and Mrs. Elton insists that her servant should deliver the letters for Jane and she also offers to help Jane to find a governess position. Meanwhile arrives also Mr. Weston with a letter from Frank who announces that he will come back at Randalls. Frank arrives and there is set a new date for the postponed ball. Emma realizes that she was wrong regarding her feelings for Frank. The day of ball arrives and Emma is invited by Mr. Weston to come earlier to give a hand and her opinions about the arrangements. Jane and her aunt are also invited to come earlier. When the dance begins, Harriet is left without partner, Mr. Elton didn’t want to dance excusing himself by saying that he is now a married man and that his time passed. Harriet is invited by Mr. Knightley to dance and Emma is very pleased to see that. Harriet and Miss Bickerton left and on their road they are followed by gypsies, Miss. Bickerton managed to run while Harriet was surrounded by them losing her conscience. Mr. Knightley and Emma were talking when Frank appears with Harriet on his arms. When she revived she told them the story.
After few days, Harriet visits Emma and tells her that she doesn’t have feelings anymore for Mr. Elton and she throw away what she kept as remembers from him (a bit of court-plaster, a useless bit of pencil). Harriet says to Emma that she will never marry and thus, Emma believes that Harriet said that because she has feelings for someone of a higher social class and Harriet recognize that, Emma believes that she has feelings for Frank Churchill. Emma and Harriet go for a walk being accompanied by Mr. Knightley; on their way they come across with Mr. and Mrs. Weston, Frank Churchill, Miss Bates and Jane. Emma insists to come in everyone for a tea and they play a word game and Frank constructs the word Dixon then shows it to Emma who laugh and to Jane who pushes the puzzle away in anger. They plan a trip to Box Hill which is not a success because of some incidents. Next morning Emma visits the Bates and finds out that Frank departed for Richmond. When she returned home discovered that Mr. Knightley and Harriet arrived in her absence and finds out that Mr. Knightley will go to London. Mrs. Churchill dies and Emma is visited by Mr. Weston who  takes her to see Mrs. Weston who received a letter from Frank and she shows it to Emma who is shocked to find out that Frank reveals that he is engaged with Jane. Emma assures Mrs. Weston that she has no feelings for Frank and Mrs. Weston says that Mr. Churchill has given his consent to this engagement and he requested that it should remain a secret until his wife’s death. Emma feels sorry for Harriet and she tells her the news but Harriet already heard about that; Emma is surprised to see that Harriet is not sad and she realized that actually she never had feeling for Frank. Finally, Harriet confesses that she has feelings for Mr. Knightley and Emma is very surprised to hear that. While walking in the garden, Emma has the surprise to see that Mr. Knightley returned from London and joined her. Emma tells him about Jane and Frank’s secret engagement and Mr. Knightley offers his consolation, but Emma assures him that she has never had feelings for Frank. Mr. Knightley confesses to Emma that he loves her and she is very surprised. They decide to get engaged and he accepts not to leave alone Emma’s father after their marriage.
Frank asks for forgiveness to Emma and after some misunderstandings he reconciles with Jane. Emma shows the letter to Mr. Knightley who tells his opinions while reading it. Emma arranges to send Harriet to London. Emma visits Jane but they couldn’t talk openly because of the Mrs. Elton’s presence. Mr. Elton turns up annoyed because Mr. Knightley didn’t come to their meeting and Emma leaved thinking that maybe he was waiting for her at Hartfield. After Mrs. Weston gives birth to a girl, Emma and Mr. Knightley tell everyone about their engagement and soon this engagement is the talk of Highbury, but only the Eltons are not pleased to find out the news and that Emma has made such a good match.
In the end, Harriet will marry Mr. Martin in september and she revealed that her father is a trademan. Frank and Jane will also marry, in November and Mr. Woodhouse finally accepts Mr. Knightley and Emma’ marriage and he is glad to hear that Mr. Knightley wouldn’t take away Emma from him.



[1] Jane Austen, Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 ( chapter I, page 8)
[2] Jane Austen, Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 ( chapter IX, page 59)
[3] Jane Austen, Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 ( chapter IX, page 61)
[4] Jane Austen, Emma, Open Road Media, 2014  ( chapter XXVIII, page 194)