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“I met her walking home by herself, and wanted to walk with
her, but she would not suffer it. She absolutely refused to allow me… While I,
to blind the world to our engagement, was behaving one hour with objectionable
particularity to another woman, was she to be consenting the next to a proposal
which might have made every previous caution useless?” Emma chapter 50
Of course, this year we are celebrating the 200th
anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Emma. This is the last of Jane Austen’s novels to be published in
her lifetime.
Emma is often described as Jane Austen’s best novel. It is
also one of her most complex. Nothing is as it seems. However, we will have an
opportunity to straighten it all out at our next JASNA CWNY meeting where Celia
Easton will lead a discussion of Emma.
Event: JASNA CWNY September Meeting.
Topic: A rousing discussion of Emma
When: September 17, 2016, 1 pm
Where: Pittsford Barnes and Noble Community Room
On the surface, Emma
is a beautiful description of life in a small English country village.
Underneath, of course, Emma is a story full of misrepresentations,
misperceptions, and riddles. Emma completely misunderstands Harriet’s
background. She totally misjudges Mr. Elton. Frank Churchill totally misrepresents
his relationships with Jane Fairfax and with Emma. After blundering through several attempts to make a match for Harriet and totally misunderstanding Frank Churchill, Emma, in a moment of
startling clarity, realizes the depth of her misunderstandings.
“It darted through her, with the speed
of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!
Her own conduct, as well as her own
heart, was before her in the same few minutes. She saw it all with a clearness
which had never blessed her before. How improperly had she been acting by
Harriet! How inconsiderate, how indelicate, how irrational, how unfeeling had
been her conduct! What blindness, what madness, had led her on! It struck her
with dreadful force, and she was ready to give it every bad name in the world.”
Emma chapter 47
Jane Austen’s characters often experience moments of self-revelation
as they move through the novels, although not always with the “speed of an
arrow”. Consider Elizabeth’s Bennett’s reaction as she reads and re-reads
Darcy’s letter.
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“In this perturbed state of mind, with
thoughts that could rest on nothing, she walked on; but it would not do; in
half a minute the letter was unfolded again, and collecting herself as well as
she could, she again began the mortifying perusal of all that related to
Wickham, and commanded herself so far as to examine the meaning of every sentence.”
Pride and Prejudice chapter 36
She goes on to carefully analyze the letter, dissecting
every sentence and comparing everything in it to her recollections of Wickham.
It is a rather remarkable bit of analysis that leads her to a startling
conclusion.
“She grew absolutely ashamed of
herself. -- Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that
she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.
"How despicably have I
acted!" she cried. -- "I, who have prided myself on my discernment!
-- I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the
generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity, in useless or blameable
distrust. -- How humiliating is this discovery! -- Yet, how just a humiliation!
-- Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity,
not love, has been my folly. -- Pleased with the preference of one, and
offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our
acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason
away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew
myself."” Pride and Prejudice chapter 36
Emma and Elizabeth both come to realize something very important
about themselves, one with the speed of an arrow, the other after some very careful
analysis.
Representation, misrepresentation, discernment, and self-awareness. Jane Austen’s novels are full of riddles and revelations, perhaps none more so
than Emma.
Join us for a discussion of Emma lead by Celia Easton. The
conversation is bound to be lively and enlightening. Anne Elliot would love it.
