Austen & Emma Woodhouse: Imagination, Pictures of Domestic Life, & Novels— Jane Austen EMMA analysis

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Jane Austen EMMA analysis | Emma Woodhouse calls herself “an imaginist”. How does Emma’s novelistic imagination align with Jane Austen’s? How do the two imaginists paint pictures of domestic life? Analysis of Jane Austen’s and Emma Woodhouse’s fictionalising imaginations (drawing on the novel ‘Emma’ and Jane Austen’s letters).

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Автор

Do you have your own examples of Emma Woodhouse being a novelistic “imaginist”?

DrOctaviaCox
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Could you talk more about Emma's father, and fathers in general, in Austen? Why are (almost) all fathers so inadequate and flawed - Mr. Bennet, Mr. Woodhouse, Sir Walter Elliot, even Henry Dashwood didn't manage to care properly for his daughters.

hope
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This is why I very much like the 2009 miniseries adaption of Emma. While it feels very modern, the quiet lingering shots of Emma in her house make her loneliness clear to the audience. The ending where Mr. Knightley brings Emma to the seaside for the first time in her life gives the audience an extra bit of closure and assurance that this is a good match as he is giving her something that expands her world, a new experience to expand her mind!

nr
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The idea of Emma as novelist is a wonderful clue to her character. The novel crosses genres: it’s a love story (or several love stories), a mystery and a comedy of manners, among other things. But Emma herself concentrates on the marriage plot.

In her zeal for matchmaking, she imagines herself responsible for Mr. Weston’s marrying Miss Taylor. That is so much fun that she tries to engineer a match between Mr. Elton and Harriet through various manipulations, such as pretending to have broken a shoelace and involving Mr. Elton with her portrait of Harriet. She also invents the idea that there is something going on between Jane Fairfax and Mr. Dixon, merely upon hearing about a dramatic incident where he saves her from falling off a boat — a very dramatic story, but only an “imaginist” would turn it into a love story. And her invented love story shifts around a bit; it’s still in draft form, because sometimes Mr. Dixon loves Jane, sometimes it’s the reverse, and sometimes it’s mutual.

At the same time, she is blind to the real romance around her: she misses the clues that Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax have a clandestine relationship, she does not see Mr. Knightly’s growing feelings for her, and indeed misunderstands her own feelings for Mr. Knightly until the very last minute. She is not a mystery novelist!

So Jane Austen is perforce a more skillful writer than Emma, but Emma ends up with Mr. Knightly anyway — proof that Jane did love her heroine!

ezb
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Emma is certainly bored, but she is also very lonely at the beginning of the novel, and, I think, had a lonely childhood and adolescence. Her only real companion, 'poor Miss Taylor, ' is just married; her mother is long dead; her somewhat older sister has been married for some years and lives in London, and it does not seem that Emma is able to visit her often, if at all. Whilst her father is a companion of sorts, he is also very needy and somewhat averse to Emma ever going anywhere and meeting anyone. Small wonder that she latches on to Harriet - whilst that friendship might seem to be entirely to Harriet's advantage, she (H) is not short of companionship at the school and one can see that Emma gains just as much, it not more, in having a new friend to assuage her loneliness. So, as a lonely child might do, and perhaps as she has always done since childhood, she retreats into her imagination.

jogibson
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Delightful video! Another example of Emma's imaginings is that she imagined that Harriet's unknown father might have been some sort of aristocrat who would one day acknowledge her and give her her rightful place in society. But he turned out to just be an ordinary middle class business person or something.

MySThomson
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To the age old question “If you could invite ten people in history to a dinner party, who would you invite? I’d have to include Jane Austen on my list. So many questions. Thank you for sharing your insights and knowledge.

painwisenurse
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Emma is one of my favorite characters because I feel like she is one of the most misunderstood.

Emma reminds me of a mix of Elizabeth Bennett (wit temperament and vivacity) and Catherine Moreland (imagination and fancy) but a much more isolated (physically, socially and economically) version.

Emma is often cast as a selfish, spoiled, and self-centered girl because it’s harder for modern people to understand her position in life was a cage (a guilded one but still a highly structured one with narrow scope for allowable relationships, behaviors, hobbies, etc.). I always saw her as incredibly lonely.

Her allowable social circle was tiny and even among them, not one person other than her Mr Knightly were on the same circle level. In her area. The novel really showed how “confined and unvarying” country life could. For example Mrs. Elton, one of the few women Emma’s age who might possibly be a companion (though we know from her reaction to Mr. Elton’s proposal that she was above them in rank) and Emma have little choice in their social circle no matter how much they dislike each other and neither has the freedom or ability to move away or disinclude each other due to their social positions (they would have been expected to invite each other to spend time together).

katdenning
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This was fascinating! The more I learn about Jane the more I love her. Thank you for making this video!!

effie
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What springs to mind is a modern take on imagining: a comic. A comedian always has a fresh take on ordinary life. What I think makes good comedy is to talk about the human condition, what makes similar and of course the contrasts, and the absurdities of it.
Who knows? Maybe Jane Austen in modern times could have been a comedy writer for TV? She surely has all the elements which make her a Rom Com genius.

carakellmeyer
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Your insight into Austen's work always amazes me! How many times have I read "Emma" (about 50) and never put together the idea that Emma's and Jane's imaginings are the same sort of mental exercise? Or ever really noticed Emma's imaginings in any other context than that of her being a matchmaker? The layers are there, and you are helping to reveal them! I am watching EVERY one of your videos, and recommending them to my local JASNA society. :-)

coloraturaElise
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We need a talk on Jane Fairfax, Dr. Cox! Would you consider doing one? Thank you 💝💝💝

realTLC
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I'm so glad I found your channel, Dr. Octavia! I love your analyses! Emma and Northanger Abby are my favorite Austen novels, because she pokes fun at her heroines. I've also noticed the most detail about daily life in Emma. I love Austen's little commentary when the Westons, Emma, and Frank Churchill go to inspect the Crown Inn as a possible site for the Weston's ball:

"Emma, " said [Mrs Weston], "This paper is worse than I expected. Look! In places you see it is dreadfully dirty; and the wainscot is more yellow and forlorn than any thing I could have imagined."
"My dear, you are too particular, " said her husband. "What does all that signify? You will see nothing of it by candlelight. It will be as clean as Randalls by candlelight. We never see anything of it on our club nights."
The ladies here probably exchanged looks which meant, "Men never know when things are dirty or not, " and the gentlemen perhaps each thought to himself, "Women will have their little nonsenses and needless cares."

Some things never change!

majugeo
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At the risk of being pelted with verbal tomatoes and eggs, I have declared Emma to be my favourite Austen novel, followed closely by Persuasion. I love the light and airy fairy nature of Emma herself, I love her flaws and total oblivion of the attachment between Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill and of course Mr. Knightley....swoon

owamuhmza
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I cited you in my final project! You express yourself so accurately... You are fantastic!

cristinaantequera
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Thanks for this wonderful explanation, i do think this is one aspect of Emma (in the book) that has not been adequately portrayed in any of the film versions, so far. Its really her absurdly lively imagination that does get her into trouble throughout the story. Im always a little disatisfied with the films because they usually portray Emma as simply a manipulative busybody, when really she is much more complex that just that. I feel Ramola Garai in the BBC series, did a little bit better job as portraying her as imaginative, but kindhearted and well meaning. She just wants to ‘fix’ her world and everybodys lives into the ideal she imagines it can be.

catherineserver
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Emma imagines herself in love with Frank in response to a few remarks rather than an examination of her response to those remarks. My disclaimer is that my Austen anthology is still boxed up from a move so I cannot reread the passages, but that is my recollection. She feels rather wan and distracted and interprets this as love whereas actual love is a profound realization which needs no interpretation.

rosezingleman
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Your insights into Emma's intellectual solitude are so helpful, Dr Octavia! I am happy i found your channel.

bellringer
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This makes me think of my literary-inclined friends, and how they novelize their lives. Also of people in general, including myself, and what our modes of understanding and sharing our experiences are in comparison.

rufescens
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I think this is my favorite video of yours. It’s yet another example of how Austen is timeless and always relevant to life.

Therika