Emma - Jane Austen - Episode 2 - Let The Match Making And Mayhem Begin! - a podcast by Christy and Garry Shriver

Emma - Jane Austen - Episode 2 - Let The Match Making And Mayhem Begin!

 

Episode 2

 

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.

 

I’m Garry Shriver and This is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our second episode discussing Jane Austen’s Masterpiece, Emma, and per our usual style, we barely got into the story itself last week.  We talked a little about Austen, although I know we’re going to do a little more of that next week, we learned what a Jane-ite was or rather is, something I was unfamiliar with. We explored Regency England, the age of improvement, the period in which this novel, or really all of Austen’s novels are set, and we learned what a bildingroman or a coming of age novel is- I’m not sure I can say that word correctly. .  In truth, we only got one page into the story- setting up for us this idea of who Emma is going to be in this book in contrast to what she is NOT- she’s not a Cinderella, not a victim in any way, but a strong heroine in many ways different than many female protagonists, even of even Jane Austen’s female characters.  Emma, unlike many women of the time, doesn’t have to find a husband- in fact, she doesn’t need a man at all and says so.  She has money, she has an adoring father, she has position- in fact according to the text, in Highbury, her world, she has no equal.  So, the question becomes, what’s in a story with no problems for the protagonist.  The first line of the book says it all- “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 21 years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”  As we see  Emma has no hardships; no anxiety, no internal angst- what could this book be about.  

 

I know.  It’s a ridiculous set up.  I want to read a section out of chapter 10 that shows us that even Emma is aware of her very pleasant reality.  In chapter 10, in the version that is not divided in different volumes, And this is a little confusing if you’re trying to follow along,  the chapters and numbered differently depending on if you’re reading the one divided in to volumes or not, but in straight through version in chapter 10, Emma is trying to set up her friend, Harriet with a man .  Harriet responds to Emma and asks her why she doesn’t try to set up herself to marry.  This is Emma’s response, “I have very little intention of ever marrying at all.  To which Harriet says she finds that very odd to hear in a woman and to which Emma response, “I have none of the inducements of women to marry.  Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing!  But I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.  And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine.  Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want; I believe few married women are half as much mistress of their husband’s house as I am of Hartfield and never never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important; so always first and always right in any man’s eyes as I am in my father’s.”

 

Well, now there you have it.  Here’s another great quote, ““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 . . . but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else” .(68–69)

 

That says it all.  She is truly a woman with no need of a many for anything-and not even the gossips will have anything to say about it- there’s no story here!!!

 

 HA!!  Or so it seems.  I told my father, who is our greatest fan and who listens to everything we produce and reads all the books we analyze had this to say…and I will read his text.  “We are watching Emma.  This will be a very boring book for me. If you can make Emma interesting y’all are a genius.”  So, daddy, Challenge accepted!!!  I believe we can make Emma interesting because Emma IS interesting, just in its own sort of way-  last week we discussed the angle of feminism as Austen wants to challenge the status quo of her day on what it means to be a woman, that is one way to see the book, but there is so so much more to it than just that.  So, let’s jump into the story.  This week, I’d like to get through chapters 1-16,  talk about narrative style and Austen’s incredibly innovative techniques when it comes to point of view, and revisit another cultural tidbid of the period that will make our cultural understanding of what’s going on slightly more insightful.

 

That’s quite ambitious, and you still think we can get through before the bell rings in 48 minutes?

 

We’ll try. So… the secret to enjoying Emma is to understand that this book is not about a plot.  If you’re looking for plot twists- it’s destined to be boring.  There’s a couple of parties with waltzing, Harriet gets knocked over by gypsies, but that’s as aggressive as things get. So, let me say up front- this is a book where basically nothing happens.  

 

 You’re not selling it, Christy.  if it’s not about the plot, what is it about.

 

It’s about people.  It’s the characters that are loveable.  It’s the characters that we identify with. And it’s by paying attention to the characters that Austen charms us.  She introduces us to new friends that are so well described and narrate in their own unique voices so believably before the end of the story they are old friends..  And of course, this is what makes lots of shows loveable.  Our good Paul Dooley  loves re-watching reruns of Andy Griffin and the Beverly Hillbillies.  He’s seen all the episodes.  He knows all the stories.  He’s memorized many of the lines.  One time I asked hm, Paul, why do you like watching those shows if you’ve already seen them?  And his answer is- it’s like visiting with old friends.  

 

We all have shows that feel like that.  

 

Oh, so do I.  I could watch Downton Abbey again and again and again and never tire of listening to the Dowager. 

 

Oh yeah, and I believe half of America feels that way about the characters on the sitcom Friends- and again that’s a show where not much happens..  But, isn’t that true about life in general. IT’s the characters in our world that make our lives interesting.  That is the genius of Austen, she draws these people in Regency England in such a way as they might as well have been people from Memphis.

 

That’s it exactly.  Austen’s characters are so realistic and relatable.  She builds a small community that could be any community- a little like Thornton Wilder. 

 

 We empathize with Mrs. Bates partly because we all have someone like that in our world, but even if we haven’t we wish we had because these characters are colorful- they’re nutty and we can laugh at them.

 

So true- and that leads us to where I want to go in discussion Austen’s narrative technique.  It’s unique in that she is going to craft for us a third person narrative style that brings us in as Highbury insiders.  We’re not time-travelers observing a group of people from the outside- we are insiders ourselves with opinions about the people we meet.  We find Mr. Woodhouse’s hypochondria and obsessions with gruel that in reality borders mental illness somehow loveable; we find Mr. and Mrs. Elston’s snobbery obnoxious, but we see Emma’s as forgiveable; and even though it should be creepy that Mr. Knightly has been in love with Emma since she was 13 and he’s 16 years older than her, somehow it doesn’t bother us.  So, how does she do it and why?  Emma is a book about the web of interconnectedness very much about friendship- Austen illustrates three different types of friendships.  She offers a perspective on what is important in each variation of friendship that she illustrates, she contrasts them and demonstrates how each kind  affects our human development. She illustrates their value by building for us a little stage called Highbury- and Emma is the lens through which we watch her show? 

 

Well, if we’re looking through Emma’s eyes, it seems Emma is particularly interested in marital friendship.

 

She really is.  And so is Austen, and of course, much of the plot is a contrivance of that very thing.    But, it’s not just that, as we traverse the stage, we Emma develop.  The people in her life contribute to her evolution as a human being, Emma becomes a better person- this is the self-discovery that we told you last week they call a bildingsroman.  Because Emma is so isolated and her life is so easy, she starts out very self-centered.  And her self-centeredness makes her absolutely unable to make good judgements.  She’s going to misjudge Mr. Martin, Mr. Elton, Mr. Churchhill and Mr. Knightley- and that’s just the men in her life.

 

True- and it seems to me it’s Emma’s constant mistakes that direct the plot.  

 

Very much so, so, let’s jump in.  When we left off with page 1, we learned that Emma lives with her father; and her governess, Mrs. Taylor but who will be Mrs. Weston for the rest of the book, has just gotten married.

 

And this is something that’s funny.  Emma’s father finds it distressing that Miss Taylor has moved out of his house and so therefore it must be distressing for Miss Taylor, he can’t imagine it being anything but a tragedy- he keeps saying “Poor Mrs. Taylor” as if she were condemned to be married and leave the perfection of life in his presence.

 

Exactly, it is funny- and part of that characterization that Austen is so good at- because he’s so totally unable to see anything from anyone else’s perspective at all- ever.  This will be consistent all the way through the book.  In fact at one point he argues with his son in law on where he should go for vacation on the basis of the preference of his apothecary which clearly makes no sense.  He would be a lot to handle in real life.  

 

Well, speaking of being hard to handle in real life, Emma’s sister, Isabella, is also as much of a hypochondriac as her father.

 

True, although her husband, a man named Mr. John Knightley, doesn’t seem too put out by it.  Mr. John Knightley’s brother, most often just called, Mr. Knightley is a very close family friend and resident of the stately mansion, Donwell Abbey.  He has basically raised Emma and is 16 years older than her.  

 

After setting up Emma’s primary relationships, we arrive at this line where the narrator tells us the problem that will follow Emma throughout the book.   The narrator is talking about Mrs. Weston moving out of the house after raising Emma And I quote, “How was she, being Emma, to bear the change?  It was true that her friend was going only half a mile from the house; but Emma was aware that great must be the difference between a Mrs. Weston only half a mile from them, and a Miss Taylor in the house; and with all her advantages, natural and domestic, she was now in danger of suffering from intellectual solitude.  She dearly loved her father, but he was no companion for her.  

 

  Austen is introducing our need as humans of finding intimacy in friendship, and her argument that this requires intellectual compatibility- I will say, and this is truly snobbish sounding, but it’s an idea Aristotle threw out there in his own book on friendship called Nichomachean Ethics. 

 

Oh my, and for those that thought Emma was slow- that book sounds infinitely more boring.  

 

So true.  But in it, Aristotle argues that without intellectual compatibility there is no equality in a relationship- and friendship without equality is difficult.  Austen will extend that idea both to same-sex friends as well as romantic partners.

 

Austen is very clear to highlights throughout the book which characters are Emma’s intellectual equals and which  are not- in fact Emma seems to understand this very clearly herself.

 

Of course she’s already said that her father was not her intellectual equal.  But then she brings up that Mr. Knightley IS.  And it isn’t too far into the story that it’s obvious Harriet is not

 

Mr. Knightley, in fact, is one of the few people who can see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever tells her of them; and though this is not particularly agreeable to Emma she accepts it.   Her father of course cannot imagine a scenario where she is not thought to be perfect by everybody.

 

HA!! Well, as a father, I have to admit, that is how most father’s view their daughters, which is no slight on his intellect, but even accounting for those natural biases, Austen does make it a point to point out Emma’s father just isn’t as smart as she is and this is an impediment in their relationship  

 

 Knightley even in chapter one- when he tells Emma who has decided she is a brilliant matchmaker, that she should let Mr. Elton pick his own wife, tips the readers that Emma may be a little more confident than she is competent.  And it is her arrogance that creates blindspots for her.  Austen also tips that reader, that Knightley is going to be a voice we can trust, as readers- unless jealousy gets in the way a fact, but we’ll talk more  in a different episode.  Knightley will be the closest thing to Austen’s opinion of the world as we get anywhere in the book.   But changing subjects just a little bit, Garry, as we’ve met all these characters, and when I first listen to them address each other especially in the beginning of the book, one of the oddities that always jumps out to me, is how formal everyone seems to talk to each other- all this Mr. and Mrs. Stuff.

 

I know, it’s one of the hardest parts of reading Austen novels for modern people, at least for modern Americans.  We just don’t understand the social class system, and it can really trip us up.  The class-related code words have meaning that were self-evident to Austen’s audience but not to us.  To us sometimes it’s funny, like when they refer to Mrs. Weston’s pregnancy as her “situation” that might result in “happiness increased by the arrival of a child.”  But otherwise it’s frustrating, so here are the rules of thumb, the use of first names is limited to family members and close same-sex friends of equal status. That’s why Emma always calls Harriet by her first name, but Harriet, you’ll notice calls Emma Mrs. Woodhouse.  This won’t come out in the first section, but later on when we meet the woman who will eventually marry Mr. Elton, she absolutely insults Emma by referring to her husband as Mr. E and referring to Jane Fairfax as Jane instead of Miss Fairfax.  It’s a slap in the face.  Another odd thing to our ear is that a first name is used formally with the last name when two people have the same last name.  You’ll notice that Mr. Knightley’s brother is referred to as Mr. John Knightley.  And Mr. Frank Churchill is also referred to by both of his names because his father would be Mr. Churchill.  And of course servants were obviously addressed by either last or first name depending on their job.  James is the coachman.  It’s just something to keep in mind as it lets you in to the social structure of the little world Austen is constructing.

 

Yes, and it makes it take so long to talk to anyone.  I can’t imagine saying four syllables just to address someone.  I’m so used to calling people by nicknames- Liz for Lizzy, AK for Anna Katherine,  But this little bit of cultural insight leads me into the discussion of Austen’s narrative techniques that most scholars consider to be one Austen’s great contributions to the English canon. 

 

 Jane Austen, the little girl with no formal education, literally invented new forms of narration that almost all novelists use now, and that we’re used to, but that didn’t exist before her.  It’s this technique called “Free indirect discourse” and the narrated monologue.  She also uses stream of consciousness, which we’ll talk about with different authors who made it famous.  But before you say Boring- snooze- this is not the kind of thing I am interested in hearing about,  bear with me because it’s interesting.  The phrase “free direct discourse” sounds technical and uninteresting- and it is technical- but..pay attention how little miss Jane Austen plays you.  As you read this book, ask yourself this question- who the heck is telling the story?  Why do I think this way about this character and this different way about that character?  What Austen is going to do is dip into and out of Emma’s head (she does this with a couple of the other characters too, but mostly it’s Emma).  She’s not being careless.  It’s absolutely intentional and thematically related.  She fuses Emma’s subjectivity to the narrators omniscience- so what does that mean, you think you’re listening to the voice of the omniscient narrator, but you’re actually hearing Emma’s perspective but you think it’s YOUR perspective- she crafts your opinion for you.  

 

Oh you mean- It's the way the old-fashioned stereotypical wife used to play her stereotypical brain dead husband when they wanted to do something but they had to make their husbands believe it’s what THEY wanted or they wouldn’t do it.

 

That’s it exactly.  But after a while, unlike the old-thick-headed men stereotype-  you as the reader figure out that that voice in your head- the narrators voice- isn’t reliable.  And then all of a sudden, and let me emphasize this is all going on in your brain in your subconscious, but let me put words to it. we, as readers become aware of the “multiple-voiced-ness”of the text-- if you want to use a word that doesn’t exist-.  We begin to realize that some of the voices in our head we can trust, and some of the voices in our head we can’t.

 

Very much like we do when we hear voices in the read world.  

 

 Yes, and speaking of the real world, to add a third layer- Austen adds a third perspective- so we are looking at Highbury through the eyes of an omniscient narrator- sometimes, we look at Highbury through Emma’s eyes- sometimes, but sometimes we are given the perspective of what community seems to think- 

 

The infamous- “what will people say”- the peanut gallery- the facebook crowd.

 

Exactly- we are always worried about what “people” will say- the gossip perspective.  

This book throws out three persectives of very small events in a small place and we’re meant to understand that all three are perspectives of the same thing, while the truth of the events are often far from the perspective of any of the characters.

 

That sounds very confusing.  

 

I know- and yet, she does it so well, most readers don’t notice it’s happening.  But we will.  Let’s notice how the story unfolds.  At the beginning everything feels very narrated.  We learn about all the family members and neighbors.  We learn about Mrs. Bates- that’s kind of a fun passage- read that one Garry.  (page 16)

 

We learn about Mrs. Goddard who runs a home for girls.  We learn about Harriet but watch how we are going to transition from dialogue to inner monologue. 

 

It’s through the conversation between Harriet and Emma we meet Robert Martin- but more than learning about Mr. Martin we learn about Emma and what we learn about her immediately makes us dislike her.  She’s such a snob.  She judges the Martins before even laying eyes on them.  And because she judges them, although we can tell Harriet is in love with Robert Martin by everything she says about him, Emma won’t allow Harriet to marry him.  To which any reader is to ask- who made you goddess, Emma?  We learn that as far as Emma is concerned Harriet’s purpose in the world is to be a playmate to Emma- first and foremost.  Emma is mean.  She says this after Harriet speaks of Robert in a way that every reader can tell she likes him Emma says, “I had no idea that he could be so very clownish, so totally without air.”  Later on she says this, “At Hartfield you have had very good specimens of well educated, well bred men.  I should be surprised if, after seeing them, you could be in company with Mr. Martin again without perceiving him to be a very inferior creature- and rather wondering at yourself for having ever thought of him t all agreeable before.  Do not you begin to feel that now?  Were not you struck?  I am sure you must have been struck by his awkward look and abrupt manner- and the uncouthness of voice which I heard to be wholly unmodulated as I stood here.”  

 

When we get to the end of the chapter, there is no more dialogue, we’ve transitioned into an inner monologue, this is not an unbiased narrator, this is Emma’s perspective of Mr. Elton.  

 

Read this Garry”

“Mr. Elton was the person fixed on by Emma for driving the young farmer out of Harriet’s head.  She thought it would be an excellent match; and only too palpably desirable, natural, and probable, for her to have much merit in planning it.  She feared it was what everybody else must think of and predict.  It was not likely, however, that anybody should have equaled her in the date of the plan, as it had entered her brain during the very first evening of Harriet's coming to Hartfield.  The longer she considered it, the greater was her sense of its expediency.  Mr. Elton’s situation was most suitable, quite the gentleman himself, and without low connections; at the time not of any family that could fairly object to the doubtful birth of Harriet.  He had a comfortable home for her, and Emma imagined a very sufficient income, for though the vicarage of Highbury was not large, he was known to have some independent property and she thought very highly of him as a good=humored, well-meaning, respectable young man, without any deficiency of useful understanding or knowledge of the world.  She had already satisfied herself that he thought Harriet a beautiful girl, which she trusted, with such frequent meetings at Hartfield, was foundation enough on his side, and on Harriet's. there could be little doubt that the ideas of being preferred by him would have all the usual weight and efficacy.  And he was really a well pleasing young man, a young man whom any woman not fastidious might like.  He was reckoned very handsome; his person must admired in general, though not by her, there being a want of elegance of feature which she could not dispense with- but the girl who could be gratified by a Robert Martin’s riding about the country to get walnuts for her, might very well be conquered by Mr. Elton’s admiration. “

 

Well- how do you feel about Emma at this point Garry? 

 

Emma is very much an unlikable snob.   

 

She is TOTALLY a SNOB- my dad called her a smart eleck- and we see her snobbery from the inside out- by looking at the world from her perspective, we see that her perspective is flawed.  This is her starting point in the story, but we get to watch her change.  She’s horrible here and really comes close to destroying Harriet’s life- although that’s not obvious in this early chapter.   

 

As the story progresses, by the way, the omniscient narrator leaves us more and more in the head of Emma.  It’s very bizarre, but as readers, we learn how to interpret her unreliable perspective. We learn what parts to throw out and what parts to trust-

 

 just like we do with people in real life.

 

I want to revisit the third voice- so we have the omniscient narrator.  We have Emma’s voice which we can already see is misguided.  But, there’s this third voice in this story- the community voice-and this one is misguided as well. 

 

 Indeed- we’re back to the peanut gallery, the town gossips

 

Yes, and even Emma, high and mighty Emma is influenced by how the peanut gallery will perceive her.  Notice why Emma likes Mr. Elton, it’s not because she finds him likeable.   She clearly finds him annoying, but she likes him because the community likes him.  There’s always this unnamed community voice, “Mr. Elton is reckoned handsome.”  And what we’re going to see, especially in the person of Mr. Elton, is that the community can often be wrong.

 

I would say in real life, the community is OFTEN wrong.  

 

 No doubt, And what I want to point out is that this is a point of humor for Jane Austen.  She’s kind of making fun of community standards and how the community is often trivial and wrong in its judgements of who people are, and their value to the community.

 

Chapter 6 is the chapter where Emma in her zeal to get Harriet and Mr. Elton together, contrives this activity where she paints Harriet’s portrait.  Mr. Elton is hanging out with them, Emma is certain he’s there for Harriet. The reader, by this time, understands that he’s there for her.  In the course of the narration the narrator says this, “She was not much deceived as to her own skill either as an artist or a musician, but she was not unwilling to have other deceived, or sorry to know her reputation for accomplishment often higher than it deserves.”  - and what we just had was Austen doing the thing where she takes us into the mind of Emma- and we might not notice we’re there.  And in this case, what we know that the outside world doesn’t know is that she knows she’s extremely mediocre at art and music, but she doesn’t mind the flattery.

 

What I find interesting in the character of Emma and how she becomes somebody we can empathize with is that she’s actually a very honest character.  And what I mean by that, how many people do we know in the real world that are completely deceived by their greatness.  They actually believe they are something quite opposite than what they are.  I could probably name off some self-aggrandizing celebrity examples, but we try to stay away from that sort of thing on this podcast.  But because Emma knows herself and doesn’t like to herself- we are kind of drawn to her for this.  

 

Exactly- she can be very honest about herself and at the same totally delusional about someone else.  in the very same chapter, let me read what Emma thinks while Mr. Elton is snooping over her shoulder while she draws Harriet.  Emma thinks, this is not what she says it’s what she thinks, “Mr.Elton was only too happy.  Harriet listened, and Emma drew in peace.  She must allow him to be still frequently coming to look; anything less would certainly have been too little in a lover. 

 

It’s the playing around with the points of view that Jane Austen creates all of the irony of the story.  All of the satire- all of the humor.  You barely notice it, but I think it’s one of those things that when someone points it out- it’s obvious and something that’s enjoyable to watch her do.  We know that Mr. Elton is coming around to be close by Emma, Emma doesn’t know this and the confusion is harmlessly funny.

 

It's harmless until we get to chapter 7, and Emma convinces Harriet to turn down Robert Martin’s marriage proposal because she convinces her that Mr. Elton likes her which we all know is not true.  We’re having the Greek tragedy experience called dramatic irony where the audience knows but the character doesn’t. 

 

Yes, and we can see through Emma’s own description of Mr. Martin’s proposal letter, that Robert Martin is nothing like the course brute Emma has made him  in her head soley based on the fact that he’s a farmer.  Austen in chapter 7 makes you mad at Emma to watch her manipulate the simple-minded Harriet.  Harriet is heartbroken at having to turn down Robert martin, but she’s too obsessed with everything Emma to advocate for herself.  At this point, she’s spending half her time at Emma’s house to the point that she even has a bedroom.  

 

And it is the narrative technique of being in and of Emma’s mind that makes us so mad at her and then glad when Mr. Knightley, who is the voice of Jane Austen herself, comes and scolds Emma soundly.  Garry this passage is worth reading for several reasons- but let’s read this= you read Mr. Knightley and I’ll read Emma’s lines. Page 55-

 

It’s quite the argument.  

 

Well, and Emma’s points are. Not ill-founded.  I love these lines- when Emma says, you underestimate your sex if you think they can’t be swayed by being pretty.  

 

I want to bring attention to what I was saying back at the beginning- this book is about friendships.  Because Emma illustrates the problem of friendships ,to use a Biblical phrase, that are “unequally yoked”- Emma and Harriet are not equal.  Harriet is adoring and awestruck of Emma.  Knightley is not.  And although Knightley is scolding Emma and is obviously right about Elton, Emma is not entirely wrong about men- nor is she wrong about Harriet who she defends as being a better person that Knightley claims her to be- Emma is his intellectual match.  Aristotle says there are three kinds of friendships- there is the utility kind- where you get something out of the relationship, there's the pleasure kind- sexual relationships can fall into this category, but there are obviously other times of pleasure relationships- your baseball buddies, fishing buddies, something like that, but then there are what Aristotle calls virtuous friendships.  In this kind of relationship friends love one another for their identity and not for what they are getting out of the relationship.  There’s this old saying that says, A friend will help you move, but a good friend will help you move a body- that’s switch from the second to the third kind.

 

Ha!  That’s cute.  Well, as you read these next chapters, we are going to see utilitarian relationships versus virtuous ones.  There is a lot to be said as Harriet and Emma move forward, and we will see that Emma isn’t all selfish and evil.  Harriet is clearly beautiful but she’s also clearly unrefined.  Emma helps her.  And Emma just doesn’t help just Harriet.  Emma has a heart for her community too.  Let me read another passage, and this is from the omniscient narrator perspective that has pulled out of Emma’s mind.  “They were not approaching the cottage, and all the idle topics were superseded.  Emma was very compassionate.  And the distresses of the poor were as sure of relief from her personal attention and kindness, her counsel and her patience as from her purse.  She understood their ways, could allow for their ignorance and their temptations ,had no romantic expectations of extraordinary virtue from those, for whom education had done so little; entered into their troubles with ready sympathy, and always gave her assistance with as much intelligence as good-will.  In the present instance, it was sickness and poverty together which she came to visit; and after remaining there as long as she could give comfort and advice, she quitted the cottage with such an impression of the scene as made her say to Harriet, as they walked away, “These are the sights, Harriet, to do one good.  How trifling make everything else appear!  I feel. Now as if I could think of nothing but these poor creatures all the rest of the day, and yet, who can say how soon it may all vanish from my mind?”

 

Again, this is amazingly honest.  First of all, I love how the narrator gives her credit for being generous for generosity’s sake, not for some self-serving reason.  We’ve all seen lots of people help others because of what it does for their ego, not for the help they extend to the person they’re helping.  But, even more honest, when Emma leaves the house, she looks at Harriet, and owns what we all know to be true- the troubles of other people bother us when we look at them, but we all so quiclkly to jump into our own lives the moment we walk away.  

 

And of course, we tell by Harriet’s response. “So true. One can think of nothing else.”  That she had no idea what Emma just said or the depth of it.  

 

I want to skip all the way to chapter 15, although there’s lots more to say and point out.  Time and time again, we are going to see Emma push hrriet into this relationship with Elton, Elton interested in Emma, Emma missing it, and so forth and so on- it goes on and on until we get to the infamous Christmas eve party at the Weston’s.   And of course, the whole set up for the evening is funny.  At least I hope you can find it funny.  There is the crazy Mr. Woodhouse who’se paranoid about the weasther, there’s Isabella, Emma’s sister, also a hypochondriac frightened by the weather.  Harriet was supposed to come to the party, but she’s sick and can’t make it.  Elton is there all the time pushing to be near Emma.  Emma the entire night trying to get away from him because she wants to hear about Frank Churchill- the character we’ll focus on in next week’s episode.  But, from Emma’s perspective, the perspective we get for the entire chapter, the night is miserable and to make matters worse, there were two carriages, She, her vbrother in law Mr. John Knightley and Mr. Elton were supposed ot be on one and her sister and dad were to be in the other one, but John Knightly forget and got in the wrong one leaving Emma and Elton to ride back together.  And of course, Mr. Elton who had been drinking just enough to be loose lipped takes this opportunity to do what Austen humorously calls to our modern ears “makes violent love to her.”

 

Ha!  There’s. phrase that has changed in its meaning over the years.

 

For real, hasn’t it.  Well, it’s worth reading this exchange and witness this violent love.

 

Garry, do you mind reading Elton’s lines (page 121)

 

Of course, I love that line- everyone has their level.  But isn’t that where we identify so much with this story.  That is so honest.  Even today- doesn’t everyone have their level?  Of course, in or progressive mindset, we try to say that we don’t judge by levels- but even by saying we’re not judging people by levels in some sense we really just switch the criteria and judge people by a different standard- just another way of creating levels.  

 

But yet again, Emma, in chapter 16, begins to get the big picture.

 

And we see it because this chapter is entirely inside of Emma’s head.  Emma realizes that she has brought pain and humiliation not on herself but on Harriet.  She realizes Elton doesn’t love Harriet, but he doesn’t love her either.  “He wanted to marry well, and having the arrogance to raise his eyes to her, pretended to be in love; but she was perfectly easy as to his not suffering any disappointment that need to cared for.  There had been no real affection either in his language or his manners.  Signs and fine words had been in abundance; tone of voice. Less alied with real love.  She need not trouble herself to pity him.  He only wanted to aggrandize and enrich himself; and if Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the heiress of 30,000 pounds, were not quite so easily obtained as he had fancied, he would try for Miss Somebody else with twenty or ten.  But- that he should talk of encouragement, should consider her as aware of his views, acception his attentions meaning (in short), to marry him!  Should suppose himself her equal in connection or mind! Look down upon her friend, so well understanding the gradations of rank below him, and be so blind, to what rose above, as to fancy himself shewing no presumption in addressing her!  It was most provoking!  Perhaps it was not fair to expect him to feel how very much he was her inferior in talent, and all the elegancies of mind.  The very want of such equality might prevent his perception of it; but he must know that in fortune and in consequences was was greatly his superior.   It’s a very interesting interior monologue.

 

Of course, I can’t read the entire chapter, but Emma begins this journey of self-awareness.  She has understood that she has been horrible to Harriet, something the reader has known since chapter 2.

 

Yes, and what we are all wanting to see is what is she going to do about it.  In the real world, most people are cowards and will act cowardly in this situation.  We’ve seen it hundreds of times, you’re caught hurting someone and your response is to double-down on demand that you’re right and the world is wrong.  We see this in the world of politics, in the office, in our homes.  

 

Exactly, and obnoxious spoiled Emma does not do that.  Her response is, I have to make this right.  “The first error and the worst lay at her door.  It was foolish, it was wrong, to take so actve a part in brigning any two people together.  It was adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light what of what ought to be serious, a trick of what out to be simple.  She was quite concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such things. No more. 

 

And yet, we see, if we finish the internal monologue, that she has a ways to go before she arrives at where, we as readers know she needs to be.  It will be a slow progression.

 

Well, that’s true.  But Emma, like the rest of us, is a work in progress.  And although she is quick to resolve not to meddle, and show to actually stop meddling, it’s still progress.  

 

And we will progress, I guess we will next week since I’m pretty sure we busted through our 45 minute mark.  

 

Yes, I think we have, but hopefully you’ve enjoyed the discussion.  We hope you’re enjoying Emma, and if you were in the camp that this story is boring, hopefully we’ve given you a different way to look at it.  Thanks for listening, and please come by to visit with us on our social media.  It’s how We do Highbury in the modern world.  Visit us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Linked in or Tik Tok. Good grief that’s a lot.  And please don’t forget, if you enjoy our work, please tell a friend, that’s the only way we grow.

 

Peace out!

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