Emma

Emma, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439587) 2003 (first published in 1815).

Summary: A beautiful, rich young women with no interest in marriage makes a series of disastrous assumptions in matchmaking for her friend.

I went through most of this work viewing Emma Woodhouse as a most unlikable character–rich, class-conscious, and with an exaggerated estimate of her ability to understand others. As it turns out, that was Austen’s intent. Before beginning to write, she wrote, “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” On that count alone, Austen succeeds.

Emma Woodhouse is the younger daughter of Henry Woodhouse, a wealthy but frail (or at least he believed himself to be) and fussy old man. Emma’s mother died when she was young. Her older sister Isabella is married to John Knightly and they live in London with their five children. Emma is the lady of Hartfield, wealthy and lacking for nothing and attentive to her father. She insists she is content to remain single.

She also thinks she played an important role as matchmaker with her former governess, Ann Taylor, who marries a widower, Mr. Weston. As a married couple, they live nearby and visit regularly. Mr. Weston has a son by his first marriage, Frank Churchill, raised by his uncle and aunt at Enscombe. The latter plays a controlling role in his life, keeping him close by through her ill health. However, when he finally visits, he manages to stir up trouble.

But Emma does well enough on her own account. She becomes a mentor to Harriet Smith, who supervises younger girls at Mrs. Goddard’s boarding school. The daughter of a successful tradesman, she is attractive, winsome, but untrained in the ways of society. While boarding, she stayed for a summer at Abbey Mill Farm, at the invitation of Elizabeth Martin, one of the students. During this time, she became acquainted with Elizabeth’s brother Robert, who took a liking to her.

Robert Martin was a young, hardworking farmer, well-esteemed by those who knew him. For someone like Harriet, it would have been a good match and he proposed. Enter Emma, who has befriended Harriet. Before Emma tries to make a match for Harriet, she helps break one, influencing Harriet to believe she could do better. That is, she could marry a higher class of person. So, she turns down the match.

George Knightly thinks Emma has misguided her friend. George, who is called Mr. Knightly throughout, is a leading figure in Highbury and owns Donwell Abbey, a large estate. Abbey Mill Farm is part of the estate and so he knows and thinks highly of Robert Martin. He believes Robert would have been a good husband to Harriet. Throughout the novel, Knightly is a friend to Emma, the kind who sees more wisely than she, though it will take some time for her to accept that.

Much of the novel unfolds the successive misguided schemes of Emma to make a match for Harriet. First there is Reverend Elton, who Knightly correctly realizes wants to marry into money, which Harriet doesn’t have. Then there is Frank Churchill, who instead seems to flirt with Emma. Finally, because he acted kindly toward her, Harriet thinks Mr. Knightly might care for her, which Emma supports until she discovers that Mr. Knightly loved another.

In addition to failing her friend, the appearance of two other women give Emma her comeuppance. One is Augusta Elton, who is even more unlikable, arrogantly so, than Emma, who is gracious and pleasant if misguided. Emma gets a brutal lesson in class pretensions when she sees Harriet heartlessly “cut” by the Eltons. The other is Jane Fairfax, who arrives on the scene at the same time as Frank Churchill. She is distinctively attractive, intelligent, and a far more talented musician than Emma.

Emma is young and the novel turns on whether she will go the way of Augusta Elton or become a humbler, better person. And her insistence that she will remain single? Here as well, she will face the chance to know herself better.

The issue of class pretension runs throughout the novel, particularly in the tension between Emma and Mr. Knightly. It’s also subtle, but there is nothing spiritual about the minister, who even “comes on to” Emma during a carriage ride. He only seems concerned with status. Is Jane Austen conveying her low opinion in general of clergy?

In sum, Austen’s title character, unlikable as she comes off, keeps us wondering, and reading, to find out if she will “get a clue” that will enable her to see others, and herself, in a truer light.

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439808) 2003 (first published in 1814).

Summary: Fanny Price moves from poverty to live with rich cousins in Mansfield Park, maturing amid their whirl of social relationships.

This is my second Jane Austen novel in my year-long Jane Austen reading goal. It struck me as a version of the ugly duckling who becomes the beautiful swan–that ugly duckling being Fanny Price. Fanny grew up in Portsmouth in a large and impoverished family. At ten her mother arranged for her to go to live with her sister’s family at Mansfield Park. She’s escorted by Aunt Norris, the imperious wife of a clergyman, who makes it a point to emphasize how indebted Fanny is to her and the family for their good offices.

And so begins an uncomfortable and socially awkward existence at Mansfield Park. Her uncle, Sir Bertram is distant. Lady Bertram is a pampered and self-absorbed woman who, seemingly can do nothing for herself. Fanny becomes her sewing companion, and an extra maid. Tom, her oldest cousin, is a spendthrift who barely notices. Maria and Julia, the two daughters, are caught up in their own social life. Only Edmund, the second son, destined for the clergy even notices her and becomes her confidante, and eventually she, his.

Marrying well, to financial advantage is everything. Aunt Norris, now bereaved and removed from her husband’s living, arranges a match between Maria and James Rushworth. While he has an extensive estate, he’s personally unimpressive. Then enter Henry and Mary Crawford. They are related to the new incumbents to the living, the Grants, and come for a visit. Henry has wealth and is a ladies man. On a visit to the Rushworth’s estate, he flirts with both Maria and Julie, favoring the elder. Fanny quietly looks on.

Then, while Sir Thomas is away attending to business in Antiqua, Mansfield Park brings all these remaining young people together in a play at the behest of an actor friend of Henry’s. Edmund, despite his opposition, ends up playing opposite Mary. While Rushworth struggles to learn lines, Henry pursues a dalliance with Maria. Julie, jealous of Maria, eventually elopes with the actor. And Fanny? She quietly supports the effort behind the scenes, her thoughtful demeanor and growing beauty gaining notice. Yet it all comes to naught when Sir Thomas returns. But this futile effort sows the seeds of so much of what unfolds.

Despite the dalliance with Henry, Maria marries Rushworth. Edmund and Mary are drawn to each other but Edmund’s calling poses a problem. He actually takes it seriously rather than as just a source of income–not the life Mary envisioned. And Henry finally notices Fanny and sets out to win her affections. He arranges the promotion of her brother William. But all his good offices and attentions, and the pressures of others, refuse to convince Fanny. She’s seen his flirtatious character and cannot bring herself to trust him. Again, she and Edmund confide in each other.

As it turns out, character matters as both Edmund and Fanny learn. The more puzzling thing is why it took two such perceptive young people so long to realize that they were the ones they were seeking? Perhaps it was the first cousin relationship. Marriage between first cousins, while not common, was permitted. All I can figure is that it made for good story, though Austen spends precious little of it telling us how they awakened to their love for each other. But I suspect most readers saw this coming from early on in the story.

The story is a fascinating commentary on the conventions of love and the considerations of wealth. Edmund upsets the convention of the convenient living in which a clergyman did little. Maria’s loveless, and ultimately failed marriage to Rushworth portrays the folly of marrying only for money. (I wonder if the relationship of the Bertrams is another version of this). By contrast, Fanny rises in stature through her character, which also becomes a measure of the character of others. One thing is for sure, Austen creates in her a figure for which we all root and wish the best.