The preoccupation with the structure of class and class-relations in Austen’s Emma and Brontë’s Villette arises from the particularities of their historical context. Caught in the liminal moment between two social and political paradigms, modern...

The English novel is a mode that is highly sympathetic to the inequalities of sex. At its inception, it was considered a very feminine form, unworthy of serious academic consideration. The novel had to struggle to establish itself as a legitimate...

Many times, in Austen novels, the conflict revolves around some sort of miscommunication between characters.Though it makes for an interesting read, it begs the question of how these numerous misunderstandings came to be in the first place. In my...

Innovation of existing genre norms and conventions is an important fixture in literature from the late-17th through mid-19th centuries. A time characterized by much societal change, as literature grew available to the masses, more women became...

"Emma herself is never to be taken seriously, and it is only those who have not realised this who will be 'put off' by her absurdities, her snobberies, her misdirected mischievous ingenuities" Do you agree?

In Jane Austen's Emma the eponymous...

Jane Austen's classic is not merely a story of Emma Woodhouse's journey of self discovery, nor is it just a tale of country romance, but rather, Emma chronicles the anxiety of its time: the destabilization of the classes. As the Industrial...

"The exploration of different kinds of selfishness gives Emma considerable depth of meaning beneath it's [sic] comic surface," and also contributes to that comedy. Jane Austen's characters inhabit a hyper-polite society, where admirable displays...

Jane Austen's many novels contain a complexity of thought and a depth of character that distinguish them from other stories; Emma is no exception to this general rule. In fact, Emma's most winning trait may well be the well roundedness of its...

Female speech in Jane Austen's novels is heavily dictated by the whims of her male characters, and although "[f]emale speech is never entirely repressed in Austen's fiction, [it] is dictated so as to mirror or otherwise reassure masculine desire"...

Jane Austen novels tend to exhibit a certain kind of life: parties, walks in the park, trips to London or Bath, posturing for a particularly advantageous marriage - in a word, privilege. In addition, this world is structured according to a...

Although his methods have largely been discredited, Sigmund Freud's theories about the unconscious, the subconscious, and repression are extremely useful when applied to literary texts. None of the three novels discussed here - Jane Austen's Emma,...

It is tempting to approach a novel with a predetermined perspective or goal, to which all passages and plot events can be forced to comply. With this approach, the story theoretically makes more sense; the messages to walk away with are neatly...

Emma, Jane Austen's most comical and spirited novel, is well received for its lively characters and engaging narrative. In yet another story of society verses sensibility, Austen weaves together a myriad of incidents to illustrate how youthful...

Oftentimes, modern adaptation of a classic work loses many elements of the original. This is not the case with Jane Austen’s Emma and Amy Heckerling’s film adaptation, Clueless. The adaptation closely parallels the original text, from themes to...

The Squandering of Wit

Women living in the long eighteenth century in England found themselves snagged in a male-spun web of expectations and exclusions. Despite wit being considered a desirable quality in a woman, the expression of wit was only...

Fear as a negative emotion refers to one of the strongest preventers of a joyful life. Naturally, it becomes the seed of a number of obstacles a person faces. For instance, one may not be willing to move to an opportunistic big city because of the...

Jane Austen’s novel Emma and Douglas McGrath’s film interpretation of the same name share many key similarities. Important transferred elements and cardinal functions are sustained in the jump from novel to film, rendering the plot, atmosphere and...

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence...with very little to distress or vex her.” (Emma, V.1,Ch.1)

This opening character summary of the...

In Jane Austen’s Emma, Mr. George Knightley chooses to live at Hartfield with Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist and heroine, after their marriage, instead of moving her to his elaborate estate, Donwell Abbey. This decision is significant because of...

From their introductions in Emma, Jane Austen sets the characters of Frank Churchill and Mr. Knightley apart, with Mr. Knightley immediately being described as "a sensible man" while Frank Churchill is described as "very good-looking" and in...

“Austen’s novels are all about money.” To what extent is this a true comment in relation to ‘Emma’?

Behind every action is a drive, a will that serves to uphold the most open and secretive desires of the self. Within Jane Austen’s Emma, money...

In Emma, author Jane Austen uses third person narration and free indirect discourse to show the same objects from different perspectives. The detached narration provides an ironic perspective that criticizes the characters’ misreadings of...

While Miss Bates, in Jane Austen’s Emma, may initially be perceived as a minor character from afar, upon deeper analysis it can be noted that she is of capital importance in this novel. Serving as a representative of Highbury’s lower classes, Miss...

Not all art is moral, but all that is moral is art. Especially art which intends to improve life rather than degrade. Set in the early nineteenth century, Emma by Jane Austen traces the social circles of Highbury—particularly the life of Emma...