Transcending the Limitations of Egoistic Perceptions of Others - "Emma" - by Jane Austen

This is the second Jane Austen novel I have read (well, listened to on audiobook), the other being Mansfield Park, which I have written about here. While I very much enjoy the accents and voices the reader of the audiobook performs, there is one limitation in that I cannot mark or highlight particular passages to quote as I would like. Regardless, I will try to express the themes that have manifested themselves in the two months of listening that this took. 

Another commonality between Mansfield Park and Emma is that, to me at least, it seems that 85% of the book is building and building until the last 15% where the majority of the drama unfolds. This, while taking some perseverance from the reader, certainly allows Austen to build characters that the reader comes to know well. 

Some Main Characters

The core of the novel surrounds a young woman (maybe early 20's) who is part of the high-society of the time, living on the estate of Highberry with her elderly father (mother deceased). Her father, Mr. Woodhouse, is overly attached to Emma and cannot bear to live without her. He is constantly saying how sad it is for children to leave their parents and marry. He is also comically always concerned with catching colds. Nevertheless Emma has been raised with every benefit of education and gentility under the care of her former governess, Ms. Taylor (now having been married, Mrs. Weston). To a certain extent Emma is spoiled in that she has such free reign at Highberry that she, herself, doesn't feel that she will ever marry. She is happy with her social society and the freedom that she has. She also has a very high view of herself and her own status as a person of manners and high-society. Emma has a sister, Isabella, who is married to a lawyer, John Knightly and lives in London. John has a brother, George Knightly, who lives in Emma's small parish and helps keep the town functioning. He is single and is something of an older brother to Emma. He is a man of the utmost moral character and sense. 

A Very, Very Slow Rising Action 

The drama that begins the book is Emma's adopting a friend from the abandoned girl's school named Harriet. Harriet has an unknown pedigree and has been raised at the girl's school, but Emma is convinced she can bring her into the high society. A proposal is made to Harriet from a farmer, Robert Martin, but Emma counsels her to reject him. She instead redirects Harriet to a vicar named Mr. Elton, who she thinks would be a good fit for Harriet. She does everything she can to match-make them, not realizing that Mr. Elton is actually in love with Emma. When Mr. E makes his proposal to Emma she harshly humiliates him, and even worse Harriet is heartbroken because it was all a mistake and she cannot stop feeling attached to Mr. E. This begins a serious of blunders by Emma in which her judgment ends up not being as penetrating to the truth as she assumes. 

Mr. Weston has an adult son from a previous marriage, Frank Churchill, who comes into the picture as a clear match for Emma. He is debonair, though a bit morally loose for the taste of someone like Mr. Knightly. Emma judges harshly, but is also flattered by Frank and enjoys his company. She thinks she may even be falling in love with him and a dance is planned, but had to be canceled at the last minute with Frank returning home to take care of his sick mother. Emma quickly rejects her feelings as a passing trifle and resolves against Frank Churchill. 

Another young woman is part of Emma's small town, Jane Fairfax. She was adopted by the poorer relatives of Emma's family, the Bates'. Jane, herself, has been raised with education and gentility and is somewhat the "competition" for Emma of being the pretty and sophisticated girl in town. Emma speculates she is part of an illicit attraction by Mr. Dixon (the man who the other daughter of the Bates' marries) who saved Jane from drowning. This is only spurred on by the reception of a piano-forte as a mysterious gift for Jane. 

After resolving herself against Frank Churchill, she sets it as her object to set Harriet up with Frank. Frank ends up saving Harriet from some Gypsies and thinks that this is the perfect event by which Harriet will become attached to him. She just has to get Frank attached to her. Meanwhile, this turns out to be false, and Harriet has fallen in love with Mr. George Knightly. (Mrs. Weston also proposes to Emma that Mr. Knightly loves Jane, which bothers Emma deeply.) Emma, hearing this, realizes that she has loved Mr. Knightly, and she cannot let Mr. Knightly fall for Harriet, unlikely as it would be. Mr. Knightly, however, does like Emma but thinks she is in love with Frank Churchill. 

Climax

All these love triangles and speculations of Emma come to climax when Frank Churchill's mother dies, and he can finally reveal that he is actually in love and has been secretly engaged with Jane Fairfax for the past months of his presence with them in Highberry. They had known each other previously, and secretly engaged until the time when he was free to marry and no longer needed to care for his sick mother. This is shocking to everyone. 

Resolution

It also sets off a serious of clarifications. Frank never was interested in Emma, he was only pretending to be in order to keep any suspicion from anyone that he was engaged to Jane. Jane was so reserved because she wanted to stay out of the limelight until the time was right. Mr. Knightly, with Frank out of the way and realizing Emma never loved him (Frank), reveals his love for Emma. She reciprocates and they are engaged. Harriet is for a third time let down in her aspirations, but the farmer Robert Martin returns and proposes again, to which Harriet accepts and is finally happy. Everyone is finally married and has found their right spouse. 

A Psychological Novel Before Its Time

One of the most interesting aspects of Emma as a work of literature is that it becomes clear through the novel that it is hard for the reader to separate the actual story and the delusions of Emma's perspective on the events that take place. This is of course seen in the grave miscalculations that Emma makes in her attempts at match-making and understanding the motives of those around her. 

But it is also very clearly seen in the partial character formation of everyone other than Emma. What do I mean by this? It seemed perplexing to me, the reader, why many of the characters seemed to be portrayed in a way that was incomplete, when our knowledge of Emma, herself, is so thoroughly complete. The reader knows Emma and her mind incredibly well, but the reader barely gets a line or two from Jane Fairfax until the very end of the book. She is essentially a character-non-character. Harriet is presented as a completely helpless girl who constantly asks Emma what she should do in every situation. Mr. Knightly is presented as a pillar of moral constancy, and the only one who will stand up to Emma and confront her misdeeds. Mr. Woodhouse is reduced to an old man who is constantly worried about catching colds and lamenting Ms. Taylor leaving them to get married. Frank Churchill is probably the most other well developed character, though we see him through the lens of Emma's judgments about him. 

All this leads to a certain sense that Austen is writing this novel to us as though we were Emma. The events, nor the characters, are meant to be completely objective. Rather, they are all known to the reader through the psychology of Emma. Reality and Emma's perceptions of reality are hard to distinguish for the reader. Given that this work was written by Austen in the early 1800's it seems to be quite before its time in the exploration of the human psyche and this type of first-person perspective. 

Dostoyevsky is also considered an early psychologist for his development of characters in his novels, though later in the 19th Century. Clearly, though, Austen's work is much more subtle in its psychology. Dostoyevsky very clearly explores the dark side of the human psyche with the freaks he puts forth to the reader. Think of the Kirilov from The Possessed or Svidrigailov from Crime and Punishment, both debauched atheists blasting themselves in the head with revolvers to end their lives in dramatic fashion. 

"Badly Done Emma" - Emma the Heroine or Villain? 

Is Emma Woodhouse a heroine or a villain? That is a debatable question to my reading. 

On the villain side one could say that Emma Woodhouse is in many ways insufferable. She is prideful in her estimation of the greatness and the prowess of her mind, and it ends up hurting people. It is clear that while trying to be a virtuous person there is a strong urge toward egoism. For example, she harms Harriet several times over, treating her almost as a pet, calling Harriet her "little friend," and at the end of the book seemingly laughs it off. She harshly makes fun of Ms. Bates on one of their day trips. She demonizing Jane and keeps her distance from her for the majority of the book. She utterly looks down on Mr. Elton as a dog when he confesses his love for her, when she herself praised what a man he was earlier in the book. She criticizes him for looking down on Harriet when she herself does the very same thing to him a few minutes later. There is judgment on just meeting Frank Churchill that he took a trip to London to get a haircut, and thus he must be so vain and frivolous. Anyway, a thousand examples of lines from the book could be provided. 

She is also so utterly obsessed over abstract considerations of every gesture and manner and meaning of people's words ... again, to the point where her thoughts are not accurately representing reality. She is also condescending towards others regarding their status and manners. For example, while trying to build up Harriet as this wonderful woman throughout the book, when Harriet seemingly loves Knightly she says that she could not imagine Knightly debasing himself and stooping to consider Harriet. She is so harsh on Mrs. Elton that it's impossible to know if Mrs. Elton was really as unbearable as Emma represents. But Emma makes it seem like Mrs. Elton is the highest example of "manners," but from a lower bred class of society and who isn't aware enough to realize she doesn't fit in this higher class. 

Indeed, "She [Emma] is a woman of 30,000 pounds a year." She lives in the self controlled world of her mansion where no one challenges her, certainly not her doting and ineffectual father. To interact with her is to play some type of 4-D chess game, and it could be argued that she embodies the worst of female unclarity guised as virtue. 

And yet, Emma can also be seen to a be the heroine of the novel. She almost always has good intentions. Except for her treatment of Mr. Elton and Ms. Bates, she never outright is harsh on others, and even does some charity work in the beginning of the novel. She is not committing any type of evil overtly as a Dostoyevskian character would. Her faults are something more akin to imperfections. And indeed she values Mr. Knightley's strong morel character more than anything by the end of the book. There is no doubt that Emma would be a respected and wonderful wife and friend to know. 

Her best quality is probably he ability to admit that she was wrong, something which we ends up doing a lot throughout the book. She will indeed admit that she has caused another pain and try to set it right if possible. 

A Great Work? - The Limitations of Perception

And so is she a heroine in the sense that it is important for everyone to realize that our view of reality and of other people is almost always skewed by own our egoism, even when we don't mean to be egoistic? Is Emma teaching us that our evaluations and judgments of other people are always limited in their nature? We only see slices of the character and person of others and yet we make judgments about the whole of them. 

This, I think, is the genius of Emma the novel, that we must seek to transcend the limitations of our own egoism in our perceptions of the world, and put forth much effort in seeing the real fullness and depth that makes up other people.