Jane Austen's Life & Emma

In the novel Emma by Jane Austen, the main character of the same name is a young woman who can be considered a precursor of the modern feminist heroine. From the beginning of the novel, she stands as a strong woman fulfilling her role as mistress of her house and her life. It is not surprising that this character would attract the attention of a rising actress like Gwyneth Paltrow or that the strength of the character would be seen as speaking directly to contemporary generations so that a film of the novel would be made. Actually, this was the second film to be made from Emma within a year, the first being set in contemporary Beverly Hills, while the 1996 version called Emma recreated the period while still imposing a somewhat different sensibility on the original material.

Jane Austen led a relatively short life, and she was born in 1775 and died in 1817. She lived during the reign of George III, which was also the beginning of the transitional period between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and an era in which industrialization in Britain began. The move to an industrial society brought change, but it was not change that had yet reached the country life in the south of England, the life written about by Austen. This was also a period in which religion spread through the Wesleyan movement, and in political terms, it was an era of revolution--the American revolution in 1776, the French Revolution in 1789, and wars between England a

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's nature, seen in her response to the accomplishments of others: Emma has neglected the genteel feminine accomplishments, and cannot endure being reminded of her neglect. Shamed by Jane's superior playing on the piano, she detests her more unjustly than ever. She sketched a fair likeness of Harriet; and the immoderate praise of her subject and Mr. Elton, though it cannot delude her, is enough to flatter her ego into silence (Farrer 186). Knightley is the hero to Emma's heroine, and he thus has important qualities of his own. This is seen first in his name, which evokes the image of the knight on a white horse: He is the most important and the most fully characterized of Austen's heroes, made "real" through the force of his language--terse, objective, rational (though not unemotional), contrasting particularly with the ambiguous, often nonsensical compliments of Mr. Elton when he is courting Emma--through his constant presence, and through his relationships with every other character (Lauber 87). Knightley criticizes Emma's matchmaking attempts early in the novel, and while she believes she has caused a marriage to occur, he sees that this is only her perception and not a reality. Emma always believes she has more power t

Category: Literature - J