Jane Austen's Emma

Jane Austen's Emma concerns the social milieu of a sympathetic but flawed young woman whose self-delusion regarding her flaws is gradually erased through a series of comic and ironic events. Emma Woodhouse, who begins the novel "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition" (Austen 1), nevertheless suffers from a dangerous propensity to stage manage others' affairs, most notably their engagements, for what she believes is their own good. Despite this, she is a sympathetic character. Her matchmaking leads only to near-disasters and her expressions of remorse following these gaffes are sincere and resolute.

The events which serve to refine Emma are witnessed and commented upon by Mr. Knightley, a man who serves at the start of the novel as a voice of reason and ends the novel as Emma's husband. Emma is transformed by Knightley, "one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse and the only one who told her of them" (Austen 3), and her eventual marriage to Knightley reflects an ability to embrace her flaws and temper her matchmaking propensities with greater circumspection. Through her marriage she is not "reformed" but becomes more self-aware.

This self-awareness comes through a gradual paradigm shift in her beliefs about marriage. She is more than eager to arrange other people's lives in this regard. She encourages her protTgT Harriet Smith to reject the proposal of Robert Martin as being beneath her:

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elusions of Don Quixote and the internal delusions of Madame Bovary (Litz 370), unable to rectify her preconceived opinions about the romantic intent of others with the actual manifestations of romance. Emma is deluded about relationships, about the picture she paints of Harriet, about the intent of Frank Churchill during the game of charades. Mr. Knightley ushers Emma out of self-delusion, according to Litz. For Litz, Knightley "speaks . . . for Emma's heart, for the natural clarity which is the source of her charm" (Litz 373). When Emma concludes that she is the only suitable bride for Mr. Knightley, it is a vindication for Litz that Austen's "authority is vested in Mr. Knightley" (Litz 376). While critic Marilyn Butler, in her essay Emma, rejects the idea that Emma proceeds from self-delusion to self-knowledge, she points out that in Emma's relationship with Mr. Knightley her keenest insights are drawn out. Emma's own internal soliloquies are unreliable, her relationships with others (notably Harriet and Mr. Elton) are fraught with comic misinterpretations and prideful manipulation, but her relationship with Knightley is consistently characterized by honesty, candidness and perception. The social misadventures that are se

Category: Literature - J