Yes, Austen’s heroines are generally innocent victims who rise above unfair treatment or relatives. But Emma stands out a a daughter of privilege who inadvertently causes more trouble for those around her than she encounters. Jane Austen herself is reported to have said that she had created “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.”
In reviewing Austen adaptations, I was surprised to discover that Emma has even more adaptations than Pride and Prejudice. I suspect that Emma represents a special kind of challenge. After all, Elizabeth only has to remain charming, snarky, smart, and sympathetic throughout P&P, while anyone playing Emma has to keep the character dislikeable enough to grate on the audiences nerves, without making her so hated that her emotional climax toward the end fails to redeem her in the audience’s eyes.
Here are some notes – avoiding major spoilers – that may help you have a bit more understanding of the story and of its place in the Austen library before you get neck deep into social mores and other issues that make little sense to many 21st century readers.
A Smaller Scale
Emma is especially notable for having a fairly small scope, including a limited “cast of characters.” While the Bennetts “dine with four and twenty families,” Emma’s social circle involves only four small families and three singles (who eventually expand to five).
Families are:
- The Woodhouses (Emma and her father),
- The Knightleys (who are joined by marriage and adjacent property lines),
- The Westons (including Emma’s governess and longtime companion),
- The Bates (consisting of the former vicar’s widow and her spinster daughter)
(There are two other families which Emma considers beneath her notice: that of the tenant farmer Robert Martin, and the Coles, who earn Emma’s disdain because they made their money in business instead of inheriting it like the Woodhouses and Knightleys.)
The singles who are introduced early are:
- Mr. Elton, the vicar, who is always glad to show up for meals and parties,
- Harriet Smith, an illegitimate young woman whose unknown relations are paying for her to live at the boarding school, and
- Mrs. Goddard, the boarding school headmistress, who is mostly invited to Hartfield to have an even number for card games.
During the course of the book, two other singles who are discussed long before they appear seem to arrive on the scene abruptly. Both are related to the families we already know – Jane Fairfax is part of the Bates family, and Frank Churchill is part of the Weston family.
Only Harriet Smith is unattached to anyone else in the town, which leaves her entirely at the mercy of the well-meaning but “too clever by half” heroine.
Even the geography in the story is constrained, compared to the other novels in which heroines travel to Bath, to the ocean, to the “Lake District,” to “Town” (London), and any number of other places. Everyone lives within easy walking distance of each other, of the town, and of Fords, the fabric shop where meetings often occur. Carriages are called only for grand events like private balls and Christmas celebrations. The one excursion beyond Highbury is to a picnic on Box Hill, an easy journey by carriage.
Emma’s Fixation on Class
Our heroine, the 21-year-old heiress of the town’s major estate, considers it important to maintain class boundaries. As mentioned before, she considers the Martins and the Coles beneath her (for different reasons). She justifies her friendship with Harriet by imagining that Harriet’s invisible father is a gentleman. She wishes her former governess’ husband Weston was not so ready to mix socially with the “lower classes.” She rightfully views one suitor who is below her socially as a social climber (though he has worse faults as well).
Ironically, though, there are places where Emma’s view of rigid class structure break down.
Elton is welcome at Hartfield and the Westons’ home because regency-era vicars were considered community leaders.
This might apply to the Bates, as the widow and daughter of a former vicar, who were often around when Emma was growing up. But by the time the story begins, the Bates are descending into poverty. They would definitely be beneath Emma’s notice if she hadn’t known them from childhood. As it is, Emma has little patience for Miss Bates, though they still are among Mr. Woodhouse’s “old family friends.”
Weston, like Cole, made his money in business, but he is welcomed into Hartfield’s “family” because he has married Emma’s closest female friend, and besides, he doesn’t work for a living any more and can afford a nice house near Hartfield. If only he would stop being friendly toward people Emma considered beneath her.
Emma’s hesitation to treat the nouveau-riche Coles as equal members of society weakens when all of her friends are invited to a party except – apparently – her. Though it will still likely be a while before they dine regularly at Hartfield.
Orphans in Emma.
There are four more-or-less orphans in Emma. Emma, Jane Fairfax, and Frank Churchill are all about the same age, while Harriet is a few years younger.
Emma and Frank have both lost their mothers, but are financially sound – Emma because her father is wealthy and devoted, Frank because a demanding, but wealthy aunt has taken him in. Both have been, essentially, coddled, allowed to grow up without attaining any worthwhile achievements, or any sense that they need to work on their character flaws. Since they both expect to inherit their family estates, there are few expectations that they would do otherwise.
Jane has lost both parents, but has survived to adulthood because a wealthy family has chosen to raise her as a companion to their own daughter. In contrast to Jane and Frank, Jane will not inherit a fortune, or – apparently – any kind of living, and she has worked hard to learn music and other skills on the assumption that her best prospect for survival is a future as a governess.
As far as we know, Harriet’s father is alive, but chooses to be anonymous, paying for her to stay at Mrs. Goddard’s boarding school after she has graduated. It’s possible that many of Mrs. Goddard’s boarders are in similar circumstances. Certainly, there seems to be more effort devoted to keeping them safe and warm than to teaching them useful knowledge, much less the “finer” things in life. As a result, Harriet comes to Hartfield with even less “achievement” than Emma – she is almost a blank canvas for Emma to enhance and alter as she sees fit. (And no, the use of an actual canvas is not lost on me.)
Emma may be implying that indulgent parents enable indolence and arrogance (though in our heroine, they are usually tempered by propriety and some level of kindness). Absent parents like Harriet’s father, enable a sweet-tempered, well-meaning girl to grow up ignorant of any useful skills or knowledge.
Only Jane, whose orphan state cast her into abject poverty dependent on generous friends, is motivated to self-improvement. Unlike clueless Harriet, Jane’s sense of self-preservation demands it.
Emma’s Pride and Prejudice
Emma has met Jane in the past, but is prone to resent her aunt’s raving about Jane’s (very real) accomplishments. In a sense, she has chosen to dislike Jane – or at least the idea of Jane, before ever getting to know her.
In contrast, she has chosen to like Frank – or at least the idea of Frank – before ever getting to know him.
Both choices are entirely arbitrary and unjustified, but because Emma has no stern hand to guide her attitudes in such matters, Emma coasts in those opinions until it is apparent that she is hurting others, and even herself, by treating Jane as if she is not worthy of Emma’s attention and Frank as if he is.
What to Know Before You Read (or Watch) Emma.
The relatively abrupt appearance of Jane and Frank in Highbury catches many Emma first-timers off-guard. The backstory just doesn’t seem to make sense.
Some adaptions try to start out with an explanation of their situations, and why they can – as it were – just appear in Highbury as established members of families we have come to know without them.
So here are the backstories that have made these characters what they are.
Jane is the orphan granddaughter of Mrs. Bates, a vicar’s widow. Mrs. Bates and her unmarried daughter Miss Bates had tried to take her in, but the Bates’ stipend doesn’t provide for the best circumstances. Young Jane was a good-tempered and well-mannered child, however, and was virtually adopted by a relatively wealthy family as a live-in companion for their daughter. Recognizing at an early age that she will only be “useful” in that capacity until that daughter is married, Jane strives much harder to attain useful accomplishments than her employer’s daughter. With no dowry or noble connections, employment as a governess is likely the only occupation that will keep her from literal homelessness.
We hear much about how accomplished Jane is before we ever see her, but early on, Jane’s companion has been married, and Jane determines to return to her aunt’s home for the summer, before actively seeking employment. Emma, of course, has no sense of Janes’ desperate straits. She doesn’t realize that the accomplishments Miss Bates raves about are the only things Jane may have to live on in the very near future.
Frank Churchill’s backstory is every bit as convoluted. His father Mr. Weston had made enough money in business to rub shoulders with people “above him” in station. Weston had married a young woman from a wealthy family that was outraged at the connection. However, his wife died after giving him a son. Weston became so dissolute that his business was failing and he was no sort of parent to young Frank. His in-laws offered to raise Frank on the condition that he take their family name – Churchill. Since then, Frank has grown to adulthood without ever returning to Highbury. His aunt has supposedly been at death’s door most of Frank’s life and they can never “spare him.” He even misses his father’s wedding to Emma’s beloved former governess, though Emma finds out later he was vacationing with friends at the time.
In the meantime, Weston has rebuilt his business and become successful enough to retire, buy a very nice home near Hartfield, and earn Emma’s approval to marry her former governess and best friend. Weston constantly makes excuses for Franks absences, which Emma eagerly accepts (and which Knightley rejects out of hand). When Frank does arrive in Highbury, Emma welcome as the person she and Weston imagine him to be, though Knightley sees frequent evidences that Frank is exactly the person Knightley has always imagined him to be.
Side bits about the Regency era that most readers don’t realize, but which contribute to the background of the story.
- New laws that allowed estates to restrict access to most of their property are driving the “working poor” into bankruptcy and homelessness, which may have contributed to the rise of chicken thieves
- The new fences also force wanderers (like the “Gypsies”) to camp along the roadside instead of in the quieter fens and glades they preferred.
- Rapid inflation is making the Bates’ stipend worth less every year, by ten to fifteen percent.