Emma by Jane Austen Essay

Jane Austen is often considered to have one of the most compelling narrative voices in literature. Blurring the line between third and first person, Austen often combines the thoughts of the narrator with the feelings and muses of the focalized character. Emma is perhaps her most prominent example of free indirect discourse, where the narrator’s voice is often diffused into that of the characters. In the following passage, Emma takes on her role at match-maker between Mr. Elton and Harriet Smith, two naïve and somewhat air-headed characters in the novel.

Set during the Regency period, Pride and Prejudice focuses on the upbringing of women in a male dominated society in which marriage was the only escape from destitution. For women, the story emphasizes the major motives behind matrimony such as financial stability, social pressure, and passion, but it ultimately embodies the idea that females are capable of marrying for true love. In the following pages, this essay will first provide background information about society during the English Regency and the marriage customs set for women during this time period. This essay will then offer a brief summary of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Finally, this essay will analyze the various motives of marriages presented between

Jane Austen provides her readers with insight into marriage and English society within the 1800’s. In Emma, the story establishes the idea that society could not function without marriage and how the institution of marriage defined one’s social status.

In eighteenth century which feminist in social status was not popular by that time, author can only through literature to express her thought and discontented about society. Jane Austen’s Emma advocates a concept about the equality of men and women. Also satirizes women would depend on marriage in exchange to make a living or money in that era. By the effect of society bourgeois, Emma has little self-arrogant. She is a middle class that everyone could admire, “Young, pretty, rich and clever”, she has whatever she needs. She disdains to have friends with lower levels. However, she is soon reach satisfaction with matchmaking for her friend. Story characterizes a distorted society images and the superiority of higher class status. It

The life of Jane Austen is a very interesting story and many would say that Jane Austen wasn’t like the rest. She was an English novelist who was not only successful but also very quiet about her writings and publishments; most of her novels were not open to the public during her lifetime. She was born on December 16th of the year 1775, and she was the seventh child to a well known clergyman and wife. Jane was not educated like most would be; she was homeschooled by her father. Her father had huge libraries in their home and this is what created the school-like feeling of the Austen estate. Jane was a normal, and a quiet young lady but also had the opportunities to live life in the greater world, by the access

Austen further instigates these thoughts into the reader’s minds as she expounds in the chapter about how Mr. Elton fails to inquire more about Harriet, and still goes out to the party without her or a second thought. Textually, this is supported by Emma’s narration, as she is shown thinking it strange that Mr. Elton would leave Harriet behind. Accompanied by the thought, is an after thought of Emma’s where she excuses a single man like Mr. Elton’s blatant disregard for Harriet by thinking, “...such a passion for dining out; a dinner engagement is so high in the class of their

Emma Woodhouse, who begins the novel "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition" (Austen 1), suffers from a dangerous propensity to play matchmaker, diving into other’s lives, 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 mistakes are sincere and resolute. 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.

The value given to marriage in the 18th century is examined by Jane Austen in pride and prejudice. These values are further explored and evaluated by Letters to Alice. Pride and Prejudice shows the urgency and importance placed on marriage as a vehicle for getting wealth, social status, and a home for women of the 18th century. Letters to Alice brings new insight into the context surrounding the motives of marriage in Pride and Prejudice, whilst also providing insight into the marriages of Weldon’s own era. Charlotte Lucas is characterised as a woman not ‘thinking higher either of men or matrimony,’ but she still marries Mr Collins

In Austen’s times, social hierarchy was based primarily on one's name, wealth, and family connections. It was highly rigid, and the only way to improve one's situation was to marry up. This was reflected by the fact that while Harriet is deemed to be good company, she is never considered by anyone to be on the same social standing. So by manipulating her to refuse Mr. Martin’s proposal, Emma is doing her friend a huge disservice, for as “the natural daughter of somebody”, Harriet had no better option. Austen critiques the superficiality of the class system by contrasting the views of Mr. Knightley with those of Emma. Knightley deems Mr. Martin an “intelligent, respectable gentleman-farmer”, making an evaluation of his character. Emma, however, always sees a person’s status first and makes a judgment of character around that – and so she is immediately disapproving of Mr

The marriage of Mr. Elton and Miss Augusta Hawkins is a very common situation. “... Mrs. Elton is a vain woman… but with manners which had been formed in a bad school…” (272) Mrs. Elton, whether Emma approves of her manners or not, was bred to be a wife, not an independent woman as many Victorian women were. Mrs. Elton seemed to influence her husband’s personality even though women were not meant to influence their husbands at all. The way that Mrs. Elton carries herself was very common, but Austen uses relationships between husband and wife to show that women had more power than originally thought by society. Harriet and Robert Martin’s marriage explicitly show the contradiction of Victorian Society. Emma and Mr. Knightley argued about the engagement of Harriet and Robert due to the difference in social class, with Emma on the “moral” side and not supporting the marriage. Soon after learning of their engagement, Emma changed her views. “‘I am perfectly satisfied,’ replied Emma, with the brightest smiles, ‘and most sincerely wish them happy.’”(446) Victorian England would not approve of Harriet and Robert’s marriage because Harriet is of a higher class. Emma is in strong favor of this view at the beginning of the book, “‘The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do...but a farmer can be none the help…’” (29) Over the course of the book, Emma realizes that love matters more that what society thinks, and that your happiness contributes more to life than being correct in society’s eyes. Being a woman who will not get married unless it was for love, Emma learned that she really should view her friend’s well being as something that should be good and right, not so much what Emma wants. Her views relate directly into her own

The romantic era in literature was characterized by many different authors, male and female. Jane Austen was only one of many authors in that era, and one of the longest lasting; through her many novels, she shows various views on love and marriage. In Jane Austen’s critically acclaimed novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen spares no character, male or female, in her criticism of the understood custom that the only route to happiness was marriage.

Jane Austen’s novel is commanded by women; Pride and Prejudice explores the expectations of women in a society that is set at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the plot, Austen’s female characters are all influenced by their peers, pressures from their family, and their own desires. The social struggle of men and women is seen throughout the novel. Characters, like Elizabeth, are examples of females not acting as proper as women were supposed to, while other women like Mrs. Bennett allow themselves to be controlled by men and society. Mr. Collins is a representation of the struggles males deal with in a novel dominated by women. The theme of marriage is prominent during Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Marriage can be examined in

Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen is critical of the gender roles in place during the 19th century English Regency period. She critically assess these gender roles through Elizabeth Bennet, the second child in a family of five daughters. In general, this novel shows how many women conform to the socially constructed norms during this time period, in order to marry a wealthy and successful man. While marriage is thought of as a binding agreement between a man and a woman, marriage during this time period often conflicted with a woman’s sovereignty. A woman needed a man’s financial support in order to survive, and thus served as a primary impetus for marriage.

Jane Austen presents her readers with the concept of love and the overwhelming power of it, seen through the obvious transformations in the characters of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy and alluded to by Austen throughout the novel. Austen views love as a necessary part of marriage, mocking society for casting this aside and focusing on other, less important aspects such as wealth and status. This can be seen throughout the novel with the issues in the loveless marriage of the Bennet parents and the love-filled and hence happy marriage of the Gardiners. Austen’s use of direct characterisation in “her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her” mocks the relationship of the Bennet parents and sets