Some Emma Thoughts

It is interesting that Jane Austen herself thought Emma a character whom readers 'wouldn't much like". Given the relatively low ranking the novel has received recently from my online Austen group, it appears she may have been right. This has got me to wondering. As many people are won't to do with their favorite characters, I have always liked to suspend disbelief and imagine that someone like Emma might actually exist in the world. Or, more accurately, that the character represents something that may have once existed, and now is gone. Exactly what, I am not certain. While many see Emma as a snob, I think there is more to it than that. For me, she represents a kind of order and propriety tha thas gone out of the world. Not so much that people 'knew their place', but that they knew how to behave (most of them anyway). Something like that.But I have been wondering lately, what might it be that turns so many readers against the Divine Miss W?

One reason for Emma's irking readers may be her self-sufficiency. She is the least 'needy' I think of all Austen's characters. She neither invites, nor receives, reader sympathy. She is, as Austen describes her, 'handsome, clever andRICH..."She doesn't need a husband, and apparently isn't looking for one either. With no wolf at her door, some readers may find little reason to care about Emma.

Another aspect of Emma's personality is her rather dispassionate (if I'm using that word correctly) nature, and her general lack of emotionalism (Emma is perhaps the least emotional fictional character I've ever encountered...except of course when she's being proposed to by the cretinous Mr. Elton...:-) . Again, I would question whether this is an actual character fault. I actually find Emma's reserve kind of refreshing in our let-it-all-hang-out world. I think Emma possesses agreat deal of affection, for her father, and for Mr. Knightley, Mrs. Weston, her sister and her nieces and nephews. Perhaps it is possible for feelings to be quiet, and yet still be strong and genuine?

Along similar lines, Indeed, Emma seems to lack any sexual passion, which is something I don't fully understand.. Likewise, The attention of Frank is a boost to her self-esteem and her self-image, and yet she is never carried away into romantic flights of fantasy, of marriage and a lifetime of undying love. Emma seems impervious to it all.It is interesting to note as well that Emma's marriage to Mr. Knightly is a coming together of minds and personalities, shared values, etc., in some ways a continuation of their previous relationship of wise-older-brother to sometimes-errant-younger-sister, with no trace of Lady Chatterley-like passions bursting their dam.

Of course, there is the question of Emma's 'blindness', or her'cluelessness', but I think this has been over exaggerated. Yes, she completely misreads the bounder Mr. Elton, but she is young and relatively inexperienced, and perhaps too trusting of the good intentions of others. She is also fooled by FrankChurchill and Jane Fairfax...but so is everyone else, including Mr. Knightley. Besides, "Emma" is a largely a novel of a young girl's awakening and moral education. If she knew all there was to know at the start, there'd be no place for the story to go.

What Emma learns, in my opinion, is how decietful and self-serving even the most charasmatic (Frank) and innocent-appearing (Jane Fairfax) can be, and this I believe is what propels her into the arms of Mr. Knightley. He may not be the most exciting dude who ever rode through town, but he is an honest man, a thoughtful and trustworthy man, and one person Emma can completely trust in a world where it is often impossible to distinguish what is real from what is invented.

Finally...I also think Emma is the character who---in some ways, at least---most closely resembles Jane Austen herself. I mean by this that they both seem to live at one-remove from life. Austen seems to have experienced life and love mainly through her imagination and her fiction, Emma through her 'meddling'and matchmaking for others. Neither one seems willing to allow herself to beo verwhelmed by passion or emotion. Both were, in their own ways, supreme artists.