Summary of Emma

Emma Woodhouse is a twenty-one year old eligible bachelorette living alone with her father, Mr. Woodhouse, in their cozy estate of Hartfield.  Emma often plays "matchmaker" with her friends; her latest conquest is finding a mate for the sixteen year old school orphan, Harriet Smith.  After forcing Harriet to refuse an offer of marriage from Mr. Martin, a lowly farmer, Emma matches Harriet up with Mr. Elton, the town vicar; however, she misreads his feelings for Harriet, when in fact, he has feelings toward her! Mr Elton proposes to Emma; however, she promptly refuses claiming to "never marry."  All the while, the Woodhouses are friends with their lonely neighbor, Mr. Knightley, whom Emma has known since her birth.  Mr. Knightley is the oldest of his siblings and heir to the estate of Donwell Abbey.  Mr. Knightley's younger brother, George, is married to Emma's older sister Isabel; together they have four children.  A mysterious Mr. Churchill comes to town, the son of Emma's former governess' husband, Mr. Weston.  Mr Churchill plays off that he has feelings toward Emma, and Emma happily flirts back.  However, her feelings confuse her.  The timid Jane Fairfax is also always in the picture--Emma mistakes Mr. Knightley's kindness toward her as feelings of love.  Emma soon begins to questions her true feelings toward Mr. Knightley after so many perceived women hold feelings toward him.  In the end, Emma, along with the others, all end up with their true loves; however, not their original interests, making the story a "misconstrued romance."

Details About the Author: Jane Austen

 A short biography about the famous Regency author:

Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775, to Rev. George Austen and the former Cassandra Leigh in Steventon, Hampshire, the seventh of eight children. Like the central characters in most of her novels, the Austens were a large family of respectable lineage but no fortune; her father supplemented his "living" — his clergyman's income — by farming. This lively and cheerful family frequently passed their evenings in novel-reading, charades and amateur theatrics. Among her siblings, her sister Cassandra, three years older, was her lifelong friend and confidant.

Her large family supplied material for the kind of novels popular when she wrote, but she chose not to draw upon any of it: her mother, for example, was related to a Duke who was master of Balliol College, Oxford; one aunt married an admiral; another, Mrs. Leigh Perrot, was falsely imprisoned for petty theft in 1799; a cousin, the Comtesse de Feuillide, fled the Reign of Terror after the execution of her husband, came to live with the Austens at Steventon, later fell in love with and married Jane's handsome and cheerful brother Henry (a particular favorite of Jane's), who later went bankrupt and then went into the (Anglican) priesthood; her eldest brother James married a duke's granddaughter; her brothers Frank (a friend of Nelson) and Charles (who married the daughter of the Attorney-General of Bermuda) became naval officers, saw action in the Napoleonic wars, and eventually wound up admirals; and her charming and amiable brother Edward was adopted by the first family of Steventon, the Thomas Knights, a wealthy and childless couple. They educated him, sent him on the grand tour, married him to the daughter of a baronet, and made him their heir. 

In 1801, Rev. Austen retired and the family moved to Bath (much to Jane's dismay), probably so that the still-unmarried Jane and Cassandra might have a better chance of meeting marriageable men. Although she never married, Jane had several romantic liasons, the most serious with a Rev. Blackall who died suddenly, just before they were to become formally engaged.After her father's death in 1805 the family moved to Southampton, and in 1809 her wealthy brother Edward was able to install Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in a "pretty cottage" back in Hampshire.

During the eight years she lived away from Hampshire, Austen did not write very much (apparently — biographical information is sketchy), doing little more than revising Northanger Abbey. As the timeline shows, she was a writer from her teens until her death, although hardly anyone outside her immediate family knew it, since all her novels were published anonymously. Indeed, when she was living with relatives after her father's death and writing in the family parlor, she asked that a squeaky hinge on the room's swinging door not be oiled so that she would have time to hide her manuscripts when her nephews and nieces ran into the room. Gilbert and Gubar point out in The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1979) that "authorship for Austen is an escape from the very restraints she imposes on her female characters. And in this respect she seems typical, for women may have contributed so significantly to narrative fiction precisely because it effectively objectifies, even as it sustains and hides, the subjectivity of the author" (168). Test this assertion by your experience of the novel. Incidentally, Austen's identity finally became known in 1814, after Pride and Prejudice.

From 1809 on Austen lived happily with her mother and sister, her time employed in writing. Her fatal illness, then thought to be consumption, now known to be Addison's disease, first appeared in 1816. She died the following year.

Jane Austen wrote the following works, some of which were published after her death: 

• Emma
• Sense and Sensibility
• Mansfield Park
• Northanger Abbey
• Pride and Prejudice
• Persuasion

 

Anne Hathaway played the role of Jane Austen in the recent bio about her life, Becoming Jane, which was released in 2007.

 

A link to the trailer for the movie:

http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/austen/bio.html

Fan Posting

Using the 2009 version of Emma, a fan of the story posted this video on Youtube, describing the relationship between Mr. Knightley and Emma Woodhouse.  The clips were matched to the lyrics of "Love Story" by Taylor Swift.

Locations in Emma

In Jane Austen's Emma, the main characters travel throughout the County of Surrey in England. Though Emma Woodhouse's abode is located in the small town of Highbury, the town actually exists in the County of Greater London. Generally, architecture in England during the early 1800's resembled the Georgian architecture that had been present in the 18th century.


Emma Woodhouse and her father, Mr. Woodhouse, lived in a large home named Highbury. The house is not described in much detail in the book; however, Mrs. Elton, a secondary character, describes it when she first visits the home:


"The grounds of Hartfield were small, but neat and pretty; and the house was modern and well built. Mrs Elton seemed most favourably impressed by the size of the room, the entrance, and all she could see or imagine...So extremely like Maple Grove! And it is not merely the house - the grounds, I assure you, as far as I could observe, are strikingly like. The laurels at Maple Grove are in the same profusion as here, and stand very much in the same way - just across the lawn; and I had a glimpse of a fine large tree, with a bench round it, which put me so exactly in mind! My brother and sister will be enchanted with this place. People who have extensive grounds themselves are always pleased with any thing in the same style."


In movie adaptations, Hartfield is generally represented with houses similar to the one pictured below.

Another of the main characters, Mr. Knightley, lives in same County of Surrey; however, his home is named Donwell Abbey.  The "abbey" represents both the house and Mr. Knightley's character.  An abbey is a place of worship and community aid; Mr. Knightley represents these aspects in his kind and generous nature.


Donwell Abbey was a large estate.  Mr. Knightley gained the property through hereditary rights as the oldest son.  The home was described by Emma when she approached the estate on a strawberry-picking outing.


"as she viewed the respectable size and style of the building, its suitable, becoming characteristic situation, low and sheltered - its ample gardens stretching down to the meadows washed by a stream, of which the Abbey, with its old neglect of prospect, had scarcely a sight...It was a sweet view - sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive."


The house was represented as this in the BBC version of Emma in 2009:

Emma's former governess, Miss Taylor, now Mrs. Weston, lived with her new husband, Mr. Weston, at a smaller estate named Randalls. No true description of Randall's is given; however, the house was not nearly as large as Hartfield or Donwell Abbey.  It was located one half of a mile from Hartfield to the East; Emma visited the Westons often everyday. Randall's was large enough for a grand Christmas dinner party which occured in the novel. It is often depicted such as this:

Box Hill is another site the characters of Emma travel to in the story. Box Hill is an actual place located in the County of Surrey in England.  The Woodhouses travelled seven miles to reach the beautiful look out, along with Mr. Knightley, Mr. and Mrs. Elton, Miss Bates and her mother, Jane Fairfax, Frank Churchill, and Mr. Weston. At Box Hill, Emma and Frank Churchill outrageously flirt in front of the entire party, embarrassing Mr. Knightley and enraging Jane Fairfax.  After the commotion, Emma describes the scenery:

"Emma had never been to Box Hill ... she wished to see what everybody found so much worth seeing...But the outing is not a success, being marred from the start by 'a languor, a want of spirits, a want of union, which could not be got over.... even Emma grew tired at last of flattery and merriment, and wished herself rather walking quietly about with any of the others, or sitting almost alone, and quite unattended to, in tranquil observation of the beautiful views beneath her."

The actual site of Box Hill currently looks like this:



Emma 2009 BBC Miniseries

Links to the 2009 version of Emma by BBC.

Episode 1: http://www.watchseries-online.com/2009/10/emma-1x1-episode-1.html

Episode 2: http://www.watchseries-online.com/2009/10/emma-1x2-episode-2.html

Episode 3: http://www.watchseries-online.com/2009/10/emma-1x3-episode-3.html

Episode 4: http://www.watchseries-online.com/2009/10/emma-1x4-episode-4.html

Emma Woodhouse in Film

Doran Godwin (1972): Godwin's performance displays a "snobbishness" beyond all the other Emma Woodhouses.  Her performance delves deep in the personality of the often "hated" Jane Austen character.

 

Alicia Silverstone (1995): Silverstone starred in "Clueless," a contemporary version of Jane Austens, Emma. She reigns queen as the "dumb blond" version of Emma Woodhouse.

Gwyneth Paltrow (1996): In the year of the "Emma" adaptations, Paltrow stars as the blond version. This edition is often hailed as the most accurate in terms of props and costumes. This version of "Emma" follows the script closely.

Kate Beckinsale (1996): The very young Kate Beckinsale takes on the brunette version of Emma Woodhouse. She is brutally honest and prideful, similar to Pride and Prejudice's, Elizabeth Bennett.  However, this Emma promotes rigid class structure.

Romola Garai (2009): The BBC finally attempted a mini-series of Jane Austen's Emma in 2009. The Pride and Prejudice mini-series was widely popular and followed the novel closely; however, this one was a slightly loose interpretation. The characters were cast perfectly, though.