Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0123/01239.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob01239}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of Jane Austen
Essay Questions And Answers}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Austen, Jane}
$Affiliation{Instructor Of English, Rutgers University}
$Subject{emma
knightley
emma's
harriet
social
jane
herself
marry
reader
frank}
$Date{}
$Log{}
Title:       Works of Jane Austen
Book:        Emma
Author:      Austen, Jane
Critic:      Fitzpatrick, William J.
Affiliation: Instructor Of English, Rutgers University

Essay Questions And Answers

     1. Show how Jane Austen establishes the connection between moral defects
and failures in awareness.

     Emma is a complex study of human deception and self-deception. Throughout
the book, characters are deceived by appearances, fool themselves and others,
pretend to be what they are not. Their expectations are mistaken; their
actions grounded in false premises. The author reveals the motives and
consequences of these failures in perception by having their false
understanding culminate in actions whose effects are the opposite of what is
intended. The consequent social disorder forces the reader (and some of the
characters - especially Emma) to see the moral fault which causes the
character to choose to live in illusion.

     This sharp contrast between thought and truth, between what the
characters understand and what the reader understands, between intention or
expectation and fulfillment, is sometimes called dramatic irony. Dramatic
irony may have an objective or a subjective foundation, or both. Appearances
may lie, may suggest the opposite of what actually is. Thus, Frank Churchill
uses Emma as a "blind," gives everyone the impression that he is romantically
interested in her - even though he suspects that she is aware of his motive.
What Mr. Elton intends as compliments to Emma are easily interpreted as being
directed at Harriet. And Emma's attentions to Mr. Elton - though intended to
make it convenient for him to meet Harriet - are easily mistaken to be
encouraging his interest in Emma. Emma's encouraging Harriet to be optimistic
about a socially superior match (XL) is interpreted by Harriet as encouraging
her to hope for Mr. Knightley; and Harriet's declared interest in a person of
higher rank is interpreted by Emma as an interest in Frank Churchill.
The story that Miss Bates tells about Jane and Mr. Dixon seems to solicit
Emma's interpretation of it (XIX). Emma's harmless flirtation on Box Hill
with Frank easily leads Mr. Knightley to conclude that she is in love with
him. Everyone expects that Jane Fairfax will have to become a governess.
In these and other situations, things are not as they would seem. Reality
wears a mask which solicits mistaken judgments.

     But although there are objective occasions for superficial (and
erroneous) opinion, a more cautious scrutiny of the facts would sometimes
avoid this discrepancy between estimation and actuality. Mr. Knightley
believes that Emma is in love with Frank Churchill. What he takes for the
truth (that Emma is in need of consolation because of the news of Frank's
engagement to Jane) is directly contrary to the truth (XLIX). : Emma is not in
the least in love with Frank, but very much in love with Mr. Knightley. The
source of his ironic error, however, lies in the circumstances rather than in
himself (the reader will recall that it was after Emma's and Frank's open
flirtation on Box Hill that Mr. Knightley ran off to London).

     On the other hand, Emma is wrong about Harriet's father, about Jane and
Frank, about Mr. Elton, about herself, because she has disposed herself to be
deceived. Her egotism, her sense of her own superiority, her desire to
arrange other persons' lives so she will not have to run any risks herself,
her refusal honestly to face her own deepest feelings - all of these moral and
psychological failures have blinded her judgment. Things are very nearly the
opposite of what she supposes (she is destined to marry within a year rather
than not at all [X], and she is being very easily fooled by Frank when she
thinks she is being most shrewdly perceptive in detecting Jane's "hidden"
romance with Mr. Dixon.) The irony here is compounded because Emma prides
herself on her intelligence and perception. ("In one who sets up as I do for
understanding" [XLIX].)  When ignorance thus pretends to knowledge, it is
evidence of a moral failure. When Mr. Elton understands Emma's cordiality as
an encouragement to pursue her, his mistake is only partially explained by
Emma's behavior. Any honest assessment of their relative social and
intellectual places would have concluded that the match was out of the
question in spite of Emma's apparent condescension. When Harriet believes
that Mr. Knightley wishes to marry her, she is scarcely justified by
appearances. (Actually, he merely did what any gentleman should [XXXVIII], and
he was inquiring for Robert Martin [XLII].)  Her blindness to the plain
reality is a comment on her vanity (which Emma has unwittingly cultivated),
her exaggeration of her own importance and appeal. In the cases of Emma and
Harriet, especially, the ironic misapprehension of reality is a self-deception
indicative of a will to live in a flattering or comfortable illusion instead
of reality.

     In order to dramatize comically the sham and pretense of some of the
persons in the book, the author juxtaposes their interpretations of themselves
and their actual behavior. Emma's and Mrs. Elton's and even Harriet's pride
in their social status is shown to be exaggerated to the point of a ludicrous
snobbery. The contrast between, for example, Emma's desire to put the Coles in
their place (XXIV) and the Coles' consideration for her and her father (to say
nothing of Emma's subsequent enjoyment of the party) ironically chastizes
Emma's snobbery. The discrepancy between Mrs. Elton's pompous claims to being
in possession of a superior social background and her crude and vulgar
behavior in interfering in Jane Fairfax's life (XXIV, XLII, XLIV), in putting
on airs in public, makes her an ironic figure whose words praise and whose
actions condemn herself. And Harriet, who earlier was humble, timid and
grateful at the thought that Mr. Elton "who might marry anybody" might marry
her, later announces that she (lightheaded, fickle, superficial, without
social graces) is above the worthy Robert Martin (and then she marries him
anyway). The pretensions of these characters are the inverse of what their
behavior shows them really to be.

     The author frequently calls attention to a character's faults by having
him say something in jest which later proves true, or deny something which he
later has to affirm. For example, Emma thinks that "it would be safer for both
(Harriet and herself) to have the judicious law of her own brain laid down
with speed" (XL), and later must admit that her own judgment has been far from
judicious and in fact harmful to "both." Early in the novel Emma says to Mr.
Knightley (without any seriousness) that "were you ever to marry, she is the
very woman for you" (VIII), and later she is desolate at the thought that Mr.
Knightley might, in fact, be thinking that Harriet is the "very woman" for him
(XLVIII, XLIX). When Harriet says, "Oh Miss Woodhouse, how ungrateful I have
been!" (XXXI), we (and Emma) are thereby reminded that Harriet has nothing to
be grateful to Emma for - on the contrary! After John Knightley suggests to
her that Mr. Elton may be in love with her, Emma is amused by the
"consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of
circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment
are for ever falling into; and not very well pleased with her brother for
imagining her blind and ignorant and in want of counsel" (XII). But later
(XVI) Emma must apply this speech to herself. Emma frequently thinks that if
she were to marry, Frank Churchill was "the very person to suit her in age,
character, and condition" (XIV). Later, she comes to judge Frank in harsh
terms and finds him very unsuitable indeed (XXXI, LIV). Though the very
structure of the action of the novel is ironic, the author bolsters it with
numerous mental and verbal speeches which call attention to the ironic action.

     Because characters take appearances for reality, deceive themselves or
are deceived, they act on wrong premises, look forward in error. Things turn
out contrary to their anticipations. Their actions produce effects opposite to
those intended. Thus Emma repeatedly insists that she will never marry (I, X,
XIV, XL, XLVIII) and tries to arrange matches for others. But the only match
she succeeds in promoting is her own. She sets out trying to improve the
social graces of a girl who is "totally free from conceit" (IV) and induces
her to become "vain" (XLVIII). Instead of making her a good match she almost
ruins her chances of marrying. While working to encourage Mr. Elton to pursue
Harriet, she actually leads him to pursue herself. Emma has all along wished
to prevent Mr. Knightley's marrying anyone else but herself, and she almost
prevents his declaring his own love for her because she thinks he will speak
of Harriet (XLVIX). By allowing events directly to contradict the judgments,
expectations, and intentions of her characters, the author clarifies their
limitations. If persons create social disorder around them instead of order,
it can only be that something is wrong with them - they are either stupid or
morally defective. Through dramatic irony the reader (aware of the actual
situation) is made to see reality mock and punish egotism, vanity, and
failures in awareness. This literary device (which is quite realistic) thus
becomes a way of dealing out a kind of natural retribution and of revealing
the surprise and complexity of experience.

     2. Name the chief outmoded social conventions and attitudes one finds in
the novel and explain their significance.

     There are a number of social attitudes we meet in Jane Austen and in her
characters which the contemporary reader often finds strange,
incomprehensible, snobbish, or silly. In Emma, the chief of these are: polite
society's disapproval of earning one's living in "trade"; the relatively
severe attitude to illegitimacy; an approach to marriage based on
considerations of money, breeding, and class in addition to "love"; regarding
a woman's having to work as "deplorable." It is important to emphasize that
the reader should not automatically take an attitude of one of her characters
for the author's.

     Because education and refinement of manners require a certain leisure
(therefore, a certain wealth), the coincidence of good breeding and class
lines is readily (too readily) assumed. A businessman working all day for
money or profit is inferior to a gentleman who spends his time cultivating the
mental and social arts. This is the basis for the bias against being "in
trade." Thus, one of the items in Emma's catalogue of Mrs. Elton's defects is
that she was a daughter of "a Bristol-merchant, of course, he must be called"
(XXII). And Emma resents the social aspirations and social success of the
Coles who were "of low origin, in trade, and only moderately genteel" (XXIV).
But Jane Austen has a more balanced view of the problem than Emma. While she
accepts the rational basis for the prejudice (after all, though morality never
presupposes leisure, education and the social graces do), she shows that one
must not be rigid in one's judgments of the talents and manners of the working
middle class. Though Mrs. Elton is indeed crude, vulgar, insulting,
ill-mannered, and superficial, the Coles are "friendly, liberal, and
unpretending" (XXIV); and the author rebukes Emma for her narrowness by having
her, who would teach the Coles a lesson, learn one herself (XXV, XXVII). The
reader is thus encouraged to judge persons on their behavior primarily.

     The contemporary reader may well be struck with what seems an unfair
prejudice Harriet must suffer because she was born out of wedlock. Knightley
refers to her as "the natural daughter of nobody knows whom, with probably no
settled provision at all, and certainly no respectable relations" (VIII). "Men
of family would not be very fond of connecting themselves with a girl of such
obscurity - and prudent men would be afraid of the inconvenience and disgrace
they might be involved in, when the mystery of her parentage came to be
revealed" (VIII). Robert Martin, the farmer, is the best she can hope for.
Emma is far more tolerant than Mr. Knightley of Harriet's obscure birth (IV)
until her own interests are threatened. Then, she is forced to acknowledge
that "the stain of illegitimacy, unbleached by nobility or wealth, would have
been a stain indeed" (LV). But Harriet is never excluded from Highbury society
because of her birth. And the reader should recall the irony the author
contrives in having Harriet behave with more good breeding than Mr. and Mrs.
Elton. Mr. Knightley admits that she has qualities superior to those of
"better" birth. Again, it is individual worth that counts. The real reason
why "the intimacy between her and Emma must sink" (LV) is that Harriet is
incapable of operating on the same level of intellect and sensibility - she is
her inferior in qualities of mind and emotion and, therefore, an inappropriate
"match."

     Marriage is the social act par excellence. In it, society conserves and
revivifies itself (or disintegrates); in it families and fortunes and
traditions are joined. There is much more at stake than the pitter-patter of
hearts locked in romantic embrace. The richness of Emma derives in part from
the author's exploration of the conflicts, the problems, that attend marriage
among the middle class of English society at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. The ranks, orders and classes of society were acknowledged with
greater formality then than now, and the crossing of class lines was a
dramatic social event. For many (then as now), marriage was a market place
where they must strive to make the best bargain they can in order to conserve
or improve their status in life. It is irrational and impulsive to ignore the
economic facts of life, to think that the level of living and leisure to which
one has been accustomed is not important enough to prevent a marriage. What
Jane Austen implies is that economic considerations alone are insufficient to
cause a marriage. And it is foolish to marry without considering rank, social
duty and status, level of culture, family tradition, and the like. One can
hardly blame a man of good family for being careful not to ally himself with
relations who might introduce vulgarity and (what is worse) lack of discipline
into a family which has striven self-consciously to maintain standards of
disciplined conduct. One must realize that marriage is a joining of families,
if one wishes to build a family that will maintain a level of achievement. It
is only common sense to consider the influence that one family might have on
another.

     Thus, on her visit to Donwell, Emma feels "an increasing respect for it,
as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and
understanding" (XLII). Thus, one's "connexions" are so talked of - for
"connexions" are part of oneself. Even Mrs. Weston, herself a governess,
remarks of her stepson's marriage to Jane Fairfax: "It is not a connexion to
gratify" (XLVI). When Mr. Elton proposes to Emma, she is insulted primarily
because "he wanted to marry well . . . to aggrandize and enrich himself" with
"Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the heiress of thirty thousand pounds" (XVI).
Compared to the Woodhouses, "a very ancient family," the Eltons were nobody
"without any alliances but in trade" (XVI). Considerations of fortune, of the
money a woman brings to a man, arise inevitably when thinking of her
"qualities." Emma concludes (perhaps mistakenly) that Mr. Dixon decided to
marry Miss Campbell, for the sake of the future twelve thousand pounds" (XX).
Augusta Hawkins is also a "nobody" - aside from her ten thousand pounds
(XXII). Here, again, Jane Austen takes a balanced view. The upstart Eltons are
contrasted with the Coles. Emma's desire to improve Harriet's social status is
inappropriate because Harriet's talents are not sufficient to encourage a man
to run the risk of being related to God knows what. Emma's prejudice against
the "yeomanry" as represented by Robert Martin is wrong, because he is more
than worthy of Harriet and in his own right can claim to be a man of industry,
seriousness, and talent. Jane Austen by no means indicates that these various
social and economic considerations are irrelevant to choosing one's friends
and mates, but she condemns the excess of snobbery whenever it appears: in
Emma, in Mrs. Elton, in Harriet. And one of Mr. Knightley's sterling virtues
is that he has not a bit of snobbery in him.

     Jane Fairfax's comparison of working for a living ("the governess trade")
to the "slave trade" is not as melodramatic as it might sound. After
twenty-one years of leisure for education, for music, for social intercourse,
she is faced with the prospect of a radical change in her way of life.

     The contemporary reader is likely to exaggerate the change in social
attitudes since Jane Austen's day. What has changed is Jane Austen's reading
public. Most of her readers today do not have the luxury of sharing many of
these prejudices. But they are easily to be found if one looks for them. After
all, who would become a governess for any other reason than financial
necessity?

     3. Show how the author has prepared the reader for Emma's discovery of
her love for Mr. Knightley.

     When Emma discovers that "Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself"
(XLVII), it comes as only a slight surprise to the reader; for if he has
read attentively, he knows that the main plot of the story is the development
of the romance between Emma and George Knightley. The author prepares us for
the marriage of these two by having Mr. Knightley come into Emma's thoughts
frequently - without her being aware of it, by having her indicate her
dependence on his approval, by having her compliment him on numerous
occasions, by having Mr. Knightley take an inordinate interest in
Emma - advising her, rebuking her, training and guiding her; finally, Mr.
Knightley shows what might well be interpreted as jealousy of Emma's affection
when he criticizes Frank Churchill with such bitterness.

     Emma is furious at the suggestions that Mr. Knightley might marry Jane
Fairfax: "Mr. Knightley must not marry!" (XXVI). Though she pretends that she
is really interested in keeping him a bachelor so that her nephew will inherit
his estate, the violence of her reaction indicates a deeper, more personal
motive. Emma tells Harriet that "you might not see one in a hundred with
gentleman so plainly written as in Mr. Knightley" (IV). She admires his person
extravagantly at the dance at the Crown Inn: "So young he looked! . . . How
gentlemanlike a manner, with what natural grace he moved" (XXXVIII). She
continually praises him to others and herself: "unostentatious kindness"
(XXVI); "he always moved with alertness of . . . mind" (XLV). Emma feels
guilty when he rebukes her: for example, her neglect of Jane Fairfax (XXXIII);
her insult to Miss Bates (XLIII). The author sums up this motive in Chapter
XLVIII: "Till now that she was threatened with its loss, Emma had never known
how much of her happiness depended on being first with Mr. Knightley, first
in interest and affection."

     Also, her criticism of Frank Churchill and Mr. Weston is an implicit
praise of Mr. Knightley, who provides the standard by which she judges men.
And the reader cannot help suspecting that Mr. Knightley's remark which
concludes Chapter XXXVIII ("Brother and sister! no, indeed.") covers a depth
of meaning. Nor can Mr. Knightley's numerous strong criticisms of Frank
(XVIII) be taken merely at their face value. Their bitterness and sharpness
must conceal a more personal motive.

     Thus, Jane Austen has provided us with a great deal of evidence -
evidence that Emma herself long chooses to ignore - of the serious love at the
bottom of Emma's relationship with Mr. Knightley.

     4. Make a list of the various "mistakes" Emma makes and indicate their
source in Emma's psychology.

     5. Make a list of every "match" (false and true) in Emma (including the
non-romantic matches such as Emma and her father). Explain the thematic
function of each.

     6. Write a Comment for every chapter that does not have one.