I have decided to start with one of my foremost loves in literature: Jane Austen. Exactly one year ago I took a month long class called Austen and Film with a fantastic teacher at CU. I have always found it interesting to see how a beloved book is translated to film, however; I am very rarely satisfied. The book is nearly always far, far superior to the film. My love of Austen started when I saw the 1996 Emma as a young girl. I then read Pride and Prejudice, which has earned the distinction of being my favorite book. Over the years I have devoured Austen's works and every film based on them that I could get my hands on, both the very good and the horrifically bad. Therefore, I was understandably thrilled at the prospect of an entire class devoted to Austen and the movies she inspired.
We
covered three of Austen's novels in my class: Sense and Sensibility, Emma,
and Pride and Prejudice. These
are without a doubt my three favorites, which added to my excitement. I
had spent quite a bit of time invested in both Sense and Sensibility [S&S]
and Pride and Prejudice [P&P]. I had not, however; read
Emma more than once and had not
really delved into the material. This lead to surprised delight when I
realized that Emma has more to
discover and engage that I could have ever imagined.
Emma
differs from the heroines in S&S
and P&P in that she is a single
woman of fortune. The Bennet sisters and the Dashwood sisters are in real
danger because of their financial situation, they need to marry men with money
in order to survive. After publishing several novels where she is
commenting on the danger of being a poor woman Emma is quite the contrast. Emma says she does not wish to
marry. She runs her father's household and spends time with her
friends. There is no need for Emma to take a husband, and her father does
not wish to part with her, so Emma spends her time playing matchmaker for those
in her small community. Austen’s
writings are very satirical.
Throughout Emma our heroin’s
prejudices and misconceived notions are used to show the audience what Austen
thinks of different aspects of society.
In one instance Emma tells her friend Harriet, “I shall not be a poor
old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a
generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a
ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls; but a
single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible
and pleasant as anybody else (55-56).
In this declaration Emma is telling Harriet what is the obvious truth to
her. To the reader this sounds
horrible when one knows the difficult situation that Miss Bates lives in.
Austen
uses different narrators in all of her novels, they are omniscient narrators
who know all, however; her narrators always have an opinion. Depending on the novel Austen will give
this opinion in different ways. In
S&S for instance the narrator
prefers Elinor to Marianne and the reader must keep that in mind when deciding
his or her own opinion. In Emma the narrator often gives the reader
Emma’s opinion on matters and it is only through ironic choices in the words
that the reader is able to get the narrator’s true opinion of the events taking
place. For instance, by subtle
choices in the first sentence of the novel Austen is able to imply much; “Emma
Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy
disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had
lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex
her” (1). The narrator never says
that Emma is actually happy with her life; she is handsome, clever, rich, has a
happy disposition, and has very little to distress her or vex her. While all of these things are nice they
are not happiness in ones life.
Additionally, the comment that Emma has had little to distress her or
vex her must foreshadow that she will eventually have plenty to distress and
vex her throughout the novel.
While
there is an abundance of material to absorb from what is considered Austen’s
most complex novel, one thing that stood out the most to me is the relationship
between Emma and her neighbor Mr. Knightly. When I saw the 1996 Emma
I loved the romance that develops between Emma and Knightly, while I still enjoy
it I believe that Austen hints at some strange interaction between the
two. My favorite film version of Emma is the new BBC mini series that
came out in 2009. In this version
the director chose to have the actor who plays Knightly also act as the narrator
in the form of voice over. While I
love this version and think it captures the spirit of Emma much better than the 1996 film, I found the choice of
narrator very strange. This
curiosity about Knightly and Emma lead to me spending a great deal of my time
reading the novel analyzing the interaction between the heroin and her eventual
husband. Emma is born when
Knightly is 16 years old. Even for
Austen’s time this is a surprising age gap. This leads of Knightly having a position of power over Emma,
they cannot be equals because she is a child and her is a grown man. At the beginning of the novel we meet a
21-year-old Emma who is now a grown woman but who has lived a very sheltered life,
which has not prepared her for the eventuality of marriage and leaving her
father’s home. Knightly scolds
Emma and disapproves of her choices throughout most of the novel. This is not the typically way an
audience would expect to see the central couple of a love story interact;
however, Emma and Knightly do not have any other way of interacting. He is a friend of her father’s and has
been in a position more paternal than equal for all of her life. The more of their interactions I
analyze the more troubling I find this relationship. In his declaration of love Knightly tells Emma, “I have
blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in
England would have borne it” (282).
Emma has taken Knightly’s criticisms better than any other woman because
he has molded her to do so. Emma
has very few men in her acquaintance and most of them are questionable at best,
of course Knightly, who she knows well and has taught her so much, seems vastly
superior. I suggest that Knightly,
unconsciously or not, has raised his perfect partner in Emma Woodhouse.
In
Emma Austen puts forth a great deal
of information for the reader to absorb and interoperate. I am fairly certain that I could read Emma over and over and always find something
new to absorb. Emma is one of the
most thought provoking and engaging novels I have had the enjoyment of
reading. I take a great deal of
joy in analyzing Austen’s work and comparing the many different films that have
been based on her works.
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