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Small Town In Emma Research Paper

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Emma is set in Highbury, a countryside town in Surrey, England. As is the case with many of Jane Austen's works, this town is almost suffocatingly compact. Of course, a common habit of people living in small towns is to talk about the lives of other people constantly. Interestingly, Austen uses this habit to do many things, including driving the development of many relationships between characters; such as the tenuous relationship between Emma Woodhouse, and Jane Fairfax. As a result of relentlessly hearing about Jane from other people, Emma develops a strong dislike of the woman, causing on an extremely hostile relationship between the two. In addition to this, Austen utilizes the trait of townspeople talking about one another to produce …show more content…

While there are many reasons she did this consistently in the vast majority of her works, in Emma it is done primarily for two reasons. First off, it's set in such a little town where people know everything about other people, to showcase how there is both the good and bad within ordinary everyday people. (Shmoop Editorial Team) Additionally, she utilizes this quaint setting for storytelling purposes. By playing up to the archetype of small towns to be gossip-filled places, she skillfully propels relationships, and plots, in intriguing, complex ways. An example of this is the malevolent relationship that exists between Emma and Jane, and the consequences of this …show more content…

Of course it's questionable how fine a friend they'd be to each other, given their poor treatment of one another throughout the book. However, upon realizing what Jane's been going through, Emma proves she really would have been a worthy friend, had it not been for the gossip. For instance, in chapter 52, Jane confides in Emma her future plans with Frank, now their engagement is in the open. Even though Emm could have reacted cruelly to the news, she instead responds enthusiastically, and encouragingly, thus displaying just how excellent a friendship the two would have had all along. In fact, their friendship would have been so strong, there's a good chance Emma would have figured out about the engagement herself. Even if she hadn't figured it out, it's likely Jane would have told her about the engagement long before anyway. In chapter 50 Frank reveals in a letter to Mrs Weston that, after knowing her for only two weeks, he was "within a moment of confessing the truth"(Austen 342) to Emma. Consequently, it's not hard to imagine that Jane, after knowing and loving Emma for a long time, would have gone all the way and told her. Regardless of if she'd confided in Emma or not, had they been close, the results of that

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