Jane Austen - Emma"I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like" How does this comment by Jane Austen fit with your reading of her presentation of Emma?

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Jane Austen: Emma

“I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”

How does this comment by Jane Austen fit with your reading of her presentation of Emma?

Today, we can interpret this remark as the recognition of a problem that was to be successfully overcome, instead of looking at it as an accurate prediction. Readers like the author’s niece, Fanny Knight, who could “not bear Emma herself” have been in the minority. Most readers, myself included, have liked Emma Woodhouse and the novel that bears her name. It is an intricate, complex and perfectly achieved work that takes an apparently trivial matter – “3 or 4 Families in a Country Village”, in Austen’s famous phrase – and makes it captivating, involved and rich with meaning.

During this essay I intend to outline what Jane Austen means by “heroine”, and explain how Emma fits this title. I shall explore why Austen feels her character will not be liked, and yet what defies these intentions and regardless encourages the generally felt affection towards Emma. Jane Austen nurtures many issues during her novel, I need to examine them, and decide on their relevance to the characters position.

 

Jane Austen’s use of ‘heroine’ in her comment outlines who the chief character of the story is, in this book we immediately discover its Emma Woodhouse. The book is justly named Emma, as the whole thing is Emma. There is only one short scene where Emma herself is not on stage; and that one scene is Knightley’s conversation about her with Mrs Weston, proving she has a very dominant role. As readers we would usually expect the heroine of the story to be the most courageous, clever or perhaps even the most blasphemous. They usually have an attribute that sets them apart from everyone else. In this book though, Emma is mainly a figure of fun. We see the gradual humiliation of self-conceit through a long succession of disasters - serious in effect, but written comically throughout. The disasters occur through Emma’s absurdities, her snobberies, her intrinsic honesty and her misdirected mischievous conduct. The reader feels affection for the character not because of her charms, but in defiance of her defects as she develops this rogue image. Her features allow her to take rank not with the ‘sympathetic’ heroines, but as the culminating figure of English high comedy.

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The word ‘heroine’ can also be used to describe someone much admired for their bravery. In my view, this ironically can also be applied to interpret Jane Austen’s comment, and even Emma herself. Perhaps she doesn’t demonstrate bravery of a courageous format, but she does show brave recognition of her faults, which could be employed to give her the title of a ‘heroine’ in her own way.

Jane Austen creates a wonderfully flawed heroine. Had Emma been perfect, her situation would have been of no interest to anyone; her flaws are what interest both reader and critic. The basic ...

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