Emma (novel)

The British critic Robert Irvine wrote that unlike in Austen's previous novels, the town of Highbury in Surrey emerges as a character in its own right.[32] Irvine wrote that: "In Emma, we find something much closer to a genuinely communal voice, a point of view at work in the narrative that cannot be reduced to the subjectivity of any one character. This point of view appears both as something perceived by Emma, an external perspective on events and characters that the reader encounters as and when Emma recognises it; and as an independent discourse appearing in the text alongside the discourse of the narrator and characters".[32] Irvine used as an example the following passage: "The charming Augusta Hawkins, in addition to all the usual advantages of perfect beauty and merit, was in possession of as many thousands as would always be called ten; a point of some dignity, as well as some convenience: the story told well; he had not thrown himself away-he had gained a woman of £10,000 or therebouts; and he had gained with delightful rapidity-the first hour of introduction he had been so very soon followed by distinguishing notice; the history which he had to give Mrs. Cole of the rise and progress of the affair was so glorious".[33] Irvine points out the adjective "charming" appears to the narrator speaking, but notes the sentence goes on to associate "perfect" with "usual", which he pointed out was an incongruity.[34] Irvine suggested the next sentence "would always be called ten" is in fact the voice of the community of Highbury, which wants the fiancée of Mr. Elton to be "perfect", whom the narrator sarcastically calls the "usual" sort of community gossip is about a new arrival in Highbury, whom everyone thinks is "charming".[34] Since the character of Mrs. Elton is in fact far from "charming", the use of the term "charming" to describe her is either the gossip of Highbury and/or the narrator being sarcastic.[34]

Likewise, the Australian school John Wiltshire wrote one of Austen's achievements to "give depth" to the "Highbury world".[35] Wiltshire noted that Austen put the population of Highbury as 352 people, and wrote though clearly most of these people don't appear as characters or as minor characters at best, that Austen created the impression of Highbury as a "social commonwealth".[35] Wiltshire used as an example of Mr. Perry, the town doctor who is frequently mentioned in the town gossip, but never appears in the book, having a "kind of familiarity by proxy".[35] Wiltshire also noted that the scene where Emma and Harriet visit a poor cottage on the outskirts of Highbury, and during their walk, it is made clear from Emma's remarks that this part of Highbury is not her Highbury.[35]

The character of Frank is a member of the "discursive community" of Highbury long before he actually appears, as his father tells everyone in Highbury about him.[34] Emma forms her judgement of Frank based on what she hears about him in Highbury before she meets him.[36] Irvine wrote that Austen's use of three different voices in Emma—the voice of Highbury, the narrator's voice, and Emma's voice, can at times make it very confusing to the reader about just whom is actually speaking.[36] However, Irvine wrote that one accepts that the voice of Highbury is often speaking, then much of the book makes sense, as Emma believes she has a power that she does not, to make Frank either love or not via her interest or indifference, which is explained as the result of the gossip of Highbury, which attributes Emma this power.[36]

This is especially the case as Emma is born into the elite of Highbury, which is portrayed as a female-dominated world.[37] Irvine wrote that Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Fanny Price in Mansfield Park enjoy the moral authority of being good women, but must marry a well-off man to have the necessary social influence to fully use this moral authority whereas Emma is born with this authority.[37] Emma herself acknowledges this when she says to Harriet that she possesses: "none of the usual inducements to marry...Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want".[37] However, political power still resides with men in the patriarchal society of Regency England as the book notes that Mr. Knightley is not only a member of the gentry, but also serves as the magistrate of Highbury.[37] Emma clashes with Knightley at the beginning of the novel over the all-important "distinctions of rank", namely does Harriet Smith belong with the yeoman class together with Robert Martin, or the gentry class that Emma and Knightley are both part of.[38] Knightley declares his respect for both Smith and Martin, but argues that as part of the yeomen class, that neither belongs with the gentry, while Emma insists on including her best friend/protegee in with the gentry.[39] In Regency England and in Emma, the term friendship describes a power relationship where one higher party can do favors for the lower party while the term "claim intimacy" is a relationship of equals.[39] Mrs. Elton has "friendship" with Jane Fairfax while "claims intimacy" with Mr. Knightley.[40] The use of the these terms "friendship" and "claim intimacy" refers to the question of who belongs to the local elite.[41] Neither Emma nor Mr. Knightley question the right of the elite to dominate society, but rather their power struggle is over who belongs to the elite, and who has the authority to make the decision about whom to include and whom to exclude, which shows that in a certain sense that Emma is just as powerful socially as is Mr. Knightley.[42] Further complicating this power struggle is the arrival of Mrs. Elton, who attempts to elevate Jane Fairfax into the elite.[42] This is a cruel struggle as Jane is not rich enough to properly belong to the elite, and Mrs. Elton is showing Jane a world to which she can never really belong, no matter how many parties and balls she attends.[42] In addition to her annoyance at Mrs. Elton's relationship with Jane, Emma finds Mrs. Elton an "upstart", "under-bred" and "vulgar", which adds venom to the dispute between the two women.[43] Mrs. Elton is only a first generation gentry, as her father bought the land that she grew up on with money he had raised in trade. Her snobbery is therefore that of a nouveau riche, desperately insecure of her status.[43] When Mrs. Elton boasted that her family had owned their estate for a number of years, Emma responds that a true English gentry family would count ownership of their estate in generations, not years.[43]

Of Emma's two rivals for social authority, one shares a common class while the other a common sex.[43] The marriage of Emma to Mr. Knightley consolidates her social authority by linking herself to the dominant male of Highbury and pushes Mrs. Elton's claims aside.[43] Irvine wrote: "On this view, and in contrast to Austen's two previous novels, Emma works to legitimate established gentry power defined in opposition to an autonomous feminine authority over the regulation of social relations, and not through the vindication of such autonomous authority".[43] However, as the novel goes, such a reading is countered by the way that Emma begins to take in the previously excluded into the realm of the elite, such as visiting the poor Miss Bates and her mother, and the Coles, whose patriarch is a tradesman.[43] Likewise, Jane Fairfax, who is too poor to live off her wealth and must work forever as a governess, which excludes her from the female social elite of Highbury, does marry well after all, which makes her the story of one real feminine worth triumphing over the lack of wealth in Emma.[44]

There are numerous parallels between the main characters and plots of Pride and Prejudice and Emma: Both novels feature a proud central character, respectively, Darcy and Emma; a critical future spouse, Elizabeth and Mr. Knightly; an easily swayed friend, Bingley and Harriet; an almost-thwarted marital ambition, Jane and Martin; a dependent relative, Georgiana and Mr. Woodhouse; and a potential object of matrimony who is a wrong choice for the central character, Anne de Bourgh and Frank Churchill.[45] These pairs suggest that Emma may have been a gendered reversal of the earlier novel.[46] Such reversals were familiar to Austen through the works of favored authors like Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and William Shakespeare.[46]

Austen is thought to have switched gender in some of her earlier work as well. Her cousin Eliza Hancock may have been her inspiration for the character Edward Stanley in “Catharine, or the Bower,” one of her youthful pieces, showing her the “trick of changing the gender of her prototype.”[47] In Pride and Prejudice, Thomas Lefroy, a charming and witty Irishman, may have been the basis for Elizabeth’s personality, while Austen may have used herself as the model for Darcy’s reserve and self-consciousness when among company, but open and loving demeanor when among close friends and family.[47] Austen’s selection of Pride and Prejudice as the basis for reversing gender in Emma may have been motivated by these earlier experiences and insights.[48]

Reversing the genders of Pride and Prejudice in Emma allowed Austen to disturb paradigms and examine the different expectations society had of men and women; the elements she chose to include in Emma and how she chose to revise them yield a powerful but ultimately conventional commentary on the status of women.[46] The novel's central concern with gender is often noted as themes like gendered space, wealth, romance, female empowerment, parenting, and masculinity.

Wiltshire wrote about Austen's use of "gendered space" in Emma, noting the female characters have a disproportionate number of scenes in the drawing rooms of Highbury while the male characters often have scenes outdoors.[49] Wiltshire noted that Jane Fairfax cannot walk to the post office in the rain to pick up the mail without becoming the object of town gossip while Mr. Knightley can ride all the way to London without attracting any gossip.[49] Wiltshire described the world that the women of Highbury live in as a sort of prison, writing that in the novel "...women's imprisonment is associated with deprivation, with energies and powers perverted in their application, and events, balls and outings are linked with the arousal and satisfaction of desire".[49]

Unlike other heroines in Jane Austen's novels, Emma is a wealthy young lady, having a personal fortune amounting to £30,000. Therefore there is little pressure on her to find a wealthy partner.

The novel is set in England, but there are several references to Ireland, which were related to the ongoing national debate about the "Irish Question".[50] In 1801, the Act of Union had brought Ireland into the United Kingdom, but there was a major debate about what was Ireland's precise status in the United Kingdom; another kingdom, province or a colony?[50] Austen satirizes this debate by having Miss Bates talk about Mrs. Dixon's new house in Ireland, a place that she cannot decide is a kingdom, a country or a province, but is merely very "strange" whatever its status may be.[50] Austen also satirized the vogue for "Irish tales" that become popular after the Act of Union as English writers started to produce picturesque, romantic stories set in Ireland to familiarize the English people with the newest addition to the United Kingdom.[51] The travel itinerary that Miss Bates sketches out for the Campbells' visit to Ireland is satire of a typical "Irish tale" novel, which was Austen's way of mocking those who had a superficial appreciation of Irish culture by buying the "Irish tales" books that presented Ireland in a very stereotypical way.[50] Austen further alludes to the Society of United Irishmen uprising in 1798 by having the other characters worry about what might happen to the Dixons when they visit a place in the Irish countryside called "Baly-craig", which appears to be Ballycraig in County Antrim in what is now Northern Ireland, which had been the scene of much bloody fighting between the United Irishmen Society and the Crown in 1798, an enduring testament to Ireland's unsettled status with much of the Irish population not accepting British rule.[52] The American scholar Colleen Taylor wrote about Austen's treatment of the "Irish Question": "That Emma applies a distant and fictionalized Irish space to her very limited and dissimilar English circle, turning a somewhat ordinary English young woman, Jane Fairfax, into an Irish scandal, proves that the object of English humor is—for once—not the stage Irishman but the privileged English woman who presumes to know what he and his culture are really like."[50]

In contrast to other Austen heroines, Emma seems immune to romantic attraction, at least until her final self-revelation concerning her true affections. Unlike Marianne Dashwood, who is attracted to the wrong man before she settles on the right one, Emma generally shows no romantic interest in the men she meets and even her flirting with Churchill seems tame. She is genuinely surprised (and somewhat disgusted) when Mr Elton declares his love for her, much in the way Elizabeth Bennet reacts to the obsequious Mr. Collins, also a parson. Her fancy for Frank Churchill represents more of a longing for a little drama in her life than a longing for romantic love. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XIII, Emma has "no doubt of her being in love", but it quickly becomes clear that, even though she spends time "forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close of their attachment", we are told that "the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she refused him".[53]

It is only Mr. Knightley who can willingly share the burden of Emma's father, as well as providing her with guidance, love and companionship. He has been in love with her since she was 13 years old, but neither he nor she have realized that there is a natural bond between them. He declares his love for her: "What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.".[54]

In Emma, Emma Woodhouse serves as a direct reflection of Jane Austen's feminist characterization of female heroines, in terms of both female individuality and independence (romantically, financially, etcetera). In terms of romantic independence, Emma's father, Henry Woodhouse, very consistently preaches against the idea of marriage. He plays an integral role in Emma's own initial perception of matrimony, leading her to make use of her free time by becoming the town "matchmaker", which leaves her happily single and unwed for the majority of the novel. One of the predominant reasons Emma is able to live a comfortable and independent lifestyle is her gifted inheritance—given to her by a past family member—which allows her to depend on no one other than herself for a sustainable, wealthy, and self-sufficient life. Austen portrays Emma as educated and capable, and despite not constantly being in pursuit of/pursued by a man, is extremely popular and well-liked in her hometown of Highbury.

Literary scholar Laurence Mazzeno addresses Austen's narrative in regard to female individualism and empowerment, stating, “…Austen deals honestly and with skill in treating relationships between men and women, and insists Austen presents women of real passion – but not the flamboyant, sentimental kind that populate conventional romances...Austen is not "narrow" in her treatment of character, either; her men and women furnish as broad a view of humanity as would be obtained by traveling up and down the world...Austen was conservative in both her art and her politics – suggesting that, even from a woman's point of view, Austen was hardly out to subvert the status quo."[55]

In the Bedford Edition of Emma edited by Alistair M. Duckworrth, there are five essays to accompany the text that discuss contemporary critical perspectives. One of which is about the Feminist Criticism. The Feminist Criticism essay was written by Devooney Looser. In her essay, she proposes the question of if Jane Austen is a feminist. She also states in her essay that ones answer to the question not only depends on if one understands Austen's novels, but also how one defines feminism.

Looser states that if you define feminism broadly as a movement attending to how women are limited and devalued within a culture then Austen's work applies to this concept of feminism.

Looser also states that if you define feminism as a movement to eradicate gender, race, class, and sexual prejudice and to agitate for a change, then Austen's work doesn't really apply to this concept of feminism.

The Bedford Edition essay on Feminist Criticism also includes the perspectives of French, British, and American feminists from the 1970s and early 1980s. Thinking about how each group looks at feminism can also help to expand one's own thinking of the feminist critique and gain a better understanding of feminism in Emma and in Austen's other works.

Mr. Woodhouse adopted a laissez faire parenting style when it came to raising Emma. In fact, most of the time it seems that Emma is parenting her father, taking on the role of both daughter and mother, at the young age of twelve, in the wake of her mother's death. Emma is entirely responsible for the wellbeing of her father and therefore encumbered to stay with him. Her father is a selfish but gentle man and does not approve of matrimony. If Emma were to marry he would lose his caretaker. This is not to say that Emma feels restrained by her father, in fact quite the opposite, Emma has the power over the world she inhabits. The narrator announces at the start of the novel: "The real evils of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments" (Austen, 1). While Mr. Woodhouse lacks as a father figure, Mr. Knightley acts as a surrogate father to Emma.[56] Mr. Knightley is not afraid to correct Emma's behavior and tell her what she needs to hear. Mr. Knightley reprimands Emma when he learns of her match-making games and later when Emma is extremely rude to Miss Bates. Still, the reader cannot ignore the developmental damage that has been caused by Mr. Woodhouse's indifferent parenting style as Emma struggles to form healthy adult relationships.

Class is an important aspect to Emma. The distinctions between the classes is made explicitly clear to the reader by Emma and by Austen's descriptions. The social class structure has the Woodhouses and Mr. Knightley at the top, the Eltons, the Westons, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax below them, and even further down the line Harriet, Robert Martin, and the Bates. This social class map becomes important when Emma tries to match Mr. Elton and Harriet together. Harriet is not considered a match for Elton due to her lowly class standing, despite what Emma encourages her to believe. Emma's initial disregard for class standing (as regards Harriet at least) is brought to light by Mr. Knightley who tells her to stop encouraging Harriet.

The scholar James Brown argued the much quoted line where Emma contemplates the Abbey-Mill Farm, which is the embodiment of "English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive" is a fact meant to be ironic.[57] Brown wrote Austen had a strong appreciation of the land as not only a source of aesthetic pleasure, but also a source of money, an aspect of pre-industrial England that many now miss.[58] In this sense, the beauty of the Abbey-Mill Farm is due to the hard work of Mr. Knightley's tenant, the farmer Robert Martin, a man whom Emma dismisses as the sort of person "with whom I feel I can have nothing to do" while Knightley praises him as "open, straight forward, and very well judging".[57] Brown argued that the disconnect between's Emma's contempt for Mr. Martin as a person and her awe at the beauty that is the result of his hard work was Austen's way of mocking those in the upper classes who failed to appreciate the farmers who worked the land.[57]

There is an abundance of food language in Jane Austen's Emma. Food is given, shared, and eaten by characters in almost every chapter. Most of the research on Jane Austen's food language is found in Maggie Lane's book titled Jane Austen and Food.[59] Lane's text provides a general examination of the symbolism of food in Emma and invites further interpretations. Food is used as a symbol to convey class hierarchy, stereotypes and biases throughout the novel.[60] The language and actions that surround food bring the characters of Highbury's inner circle closer together. For Emma Woodhouse, food is a symbol of human interdependence and goodwill.[59] No one in Highbury is starving; everyone is well-fed and takes part in the giving and receiving of food. However, food is a strong class divider though it is rarely openly discussed by characters in the novel. There are a few instances when characters allude to lower class individuals outside of their well-fed society. For instance, when Emma discusses her charitable visit with a poor family, Harriet's encounter with the gypsy children, and Highbury's mysterious chicken thieves. For the most part, the poor in Emma are overlooked by the characters in the novel due to their socioeconomic status.

The constant giving and receiving of food in the novel does not occur without motive.[59] Characters are either trying to climb the social ladder or gain the approval or affections of another. The interpretation of the giving and receiving of food in Emma can be taken in these different directions; however in terms of love: "The novel (...) is stuffed with gifts of food: Mr. Knightley sends the Bates family apples; Mr. Martin woos Harriet with some walnuts; and, to further her son's suit, Mrs. Martin brings Mrs. Goddard a goose".[61] These gifts are not without motive, and food—as it pertains to Emma Woodhouse—only becomes interesting when it pertains to love. "[R]omance is a far more interesting subject than food. Emma quickly reduces the topic of eating to a bottom-of-the-barrel 'any thing,’ and arbitrary and empty screen that only becomes interesting when projected on by those in love".[62] This becomes evident to the reader when Emma overestimates Mr. Elton's affections for Harriet from their engaging conversation about the food at the Cole's party. Emma Woodhouse interprets food conversation and gifts of food as means of affection between two lovers.

Austen explores the idea of redefining manhood and masculinity with her male characters: particularly Mr. Knightley, Mr. Woodhouse, and Frank Churchill. In Emma, Austen includes typical ideals of English masculinity, including, "familial responsibility, sexual fidelity, and leadership transition…”[63] Mr. Woodhouse is portrayed chiefly as a fool and an incompetent father figure. Clark comments on Mr. Woodhouse's age and how this affects his masculine identity. He resists change and pleasure, yet he is still respected in the community. Mr. Knightley is Jane Austen's perfect gentleman figure in Emma. He has manners, class, and money. Further, he is presented as, "a well-adjusted alternative to these more polarized understandings of masculinity seen in characters of John Willoughby and Edward Ferrars.”[63] Men in Emma are more representative of modern-day intersectionalities of masculinity.

• 1995: Clueless, a loose American modern adaptation of the novel, set in Beverly Hills and starring Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz (Emma)[72][73]
• 1996: Emma, an American comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma[74]
• 2010: Aisha, an Indian modern adaptation of the novel, starring Sonam Kapoor as Aisha (Emma).[75]
• 2020: Emma.,[lower-alpha 1] directed by Autumn de Wilde, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma Woodhouse and Johnny Flynn as Mr Knightley.[77]

• 1948: Emma, live BBC TV broadcast, starring Judy Campbell (who also wrote the screenplay) as Emma, and directed and produced by Michael Barry[78]
• 1954: Emma, live NBC TV broadcast, starring Felicia Montealegre as Emma[78]
• 1957: Emma, another live NBC TV broadcast in their Matinee Theater series, starring Sarah Churchill as Emma[78]
• 1960: Emma, live BBC TV serial in six parts, starring Diana Fairfax as Emma and directed by Campbell Logan[78]
• 1960: Emma, live CBS TV broadcast in their Camera Three series, starring Nancy Wickwire as Emma[78]
• 1972: Emma, a six-part BBC miniseries, starring Doran Godwin as Emma
• 1996: Emma, an ITV TV film, starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma
• 2009: Emma, a four-part BBC miniseries, starring Romola Garai as Emma[79]

• 2013: Emma Approved, a YouTube web series produced by Pemberley Digital and developed by Bernie Su, starring Joanna Sotomura as Emma.[80][81]
• 2017: The Emma Agenda, a YouTube web series produced by Quip Modest Productions, starring Selis Maria Vargas as Emma. In this version the role of Mr. Knightley is female, which makes it the first lesbian version of Emma on screen.

• 1991: Emma, a stage adaptation by British playwright Michael Fry, first produced by the Cloucester Stage Company in 1991, and since then produced by a number of theatre companies in Britain and the US[82][83]
• 2000: Emma, a musical written by Stephen Karam and first performed by the Brownbrokers student theatre group at Brown University under the direction of Darius Pierce.[84] In 2004 Karam's musical was put on at the New York Musical Theatre Festival under the direction of Patricia Birch.[85]
• A theatrical adaptation by Michael Napier Brown was performed at the Royal Theatre in Northampton in 2000[86]
• 2007: Jane Austen's Emma – A Musical Romantic Comedy, a musical written by Paul Gordon, which premiered at TheatreWorks in Menlo Park, California.[87] It has since been performed at the Cincinnati Playhouse, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.[78]
• 2009: Emma, a stage adaption by Rachel Atkins for the Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle, directed by Marcus Goodwin with Sylvie Davidson in the title role[78][88]

• Joan Aiken wrote a companion novel, Jane Fairfax: The Secret Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen's Emma.[89]
• Alexander McCall Smith wrote a detective version, titled Emma: A Modern Retelling (2014),[90] as part of HarperCollins' six volume Austen Project.[91]
• Reginald Hill wrote Poor Emma in 1987, included in the 2007 paperback There is no ghost in the Soviet Union, where finance plays a crucial role.
• The importance of being Emma, a novel published in 2008 by Juliet Archer, is a modern version of Emma[92]
• Emma and the Werewolves: Jane Austen and Adam Rann, Adam Rann, is a parody of Emma which by its title, its presentation and its history, seeks to give the illusion that the novel had been written jointly by Adam Rann and Jane Austen, that is, a mash-up novel.
• Emma and the Vampires, a 2010 installation of the Jane Austen Undead Novels by Wayne Josephson, preserves the basic plot of Austen's original while adding contemporary humor and a thematic flair for the undead.[93]
• The Matchmaker: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen's Emma (2015) by Sarah Price
• Emma Ever After, a 2018 modern retelling of Emma by Brigid Coady. In this version, Emma is a PR manager for celebrities and George "Gee" Knightley is the former member of a boy band.
• The Code for Love and Heartbreak (2020) by Jillian Cantor

• In June 2015, a manga adaptation published by Manga Classics Inc. was adapted by Crystal S. Chan with art by Po Tse.[94]