Analyzing Emma Again

This week in AP lit class we are analyzing Emma, once again. For this reading we were assigned to read volume two of Jane Austen’s Emma A lot of stuff happens within this volume, we meet Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, and they both bring in a lot of drama to Highbury. Jane Fairfax is Emma’s foil, Jane brings out the worst in Jane and Jane brings out the worst Emma. Jane is Emma’s “friendemy” Emma acts friendly toward Jane but behind her back she exploits all of Jane’s flaws. Especially when everybody takes a liking to Jane, Emma gets jealous of the attention that Jane gets. Then on the other hand Jane brings out the un lady likeness in Emma. Behind Jane’s back Emma is deceitful. Especially when she is with Mr. Churchill, Emma reveals her beliefs about Jane and Mr. Dixon, which makes her looks very unlady like.  With Mr. Churchill Emma is deceived by his charming looks and his gracious manners, she takes a very fund liking to him and even sees herself having an affair with him, but he is only interested in Jane.

            This volume is all about the social structure, every issue the Emma runs into in this volume is created by her inability to respect the rules of the social structure and her enforcing the rules to much. First is Emma’s jealousy of Jane, she really doesn’t have any competition with Jane, but her insecurity leads to her down grading herself and making a fool out herself in front of Mr. Churchill. The other social contradiction is Mr. Churchill’s affection for Jane. In chapter seven he says that he is going to London “for a haircut” but he is really going to buy Jane a new Piano. He tells Emma this lie so that no one will suspect that he is “crushing” on someone that is in a lower class then him. Mrs. Elton is the major social rule breaker, she thinks a little too highly of herself. Mrs. Elton chooses to make Jane her new project, she wants to bring Jane out into society and it is also a way to get under Emma’s skin. Mrs. Elton comes in a stirs up the mix in Highbury, she is very disrespectful toward her companions in the higher classes. It is a huge deal when she calls Mr. Knightly, Knightly, she is too familiar with her upperclassmen.

            My favorite part of the whole volume was the rumor that was started about Mr. Knightly having affections for Jane. I love that Emma has little burst of jealousy about this rumor. She clearly has some sort feelings toward Mr. Knightly, or else she wouldn’t have defended the truth so thoroughly. Emma is also looking at the social suicide that Mr. Knightly would be committing if he did make a proposal to Jane. Emma is all for protecting the social structure, ironically she doesn’t really follow her own rules, she is the one that is choosing to against the social norm to marry.

Emma Blog #2

For the past week we have been analyzing Jane Austen’s Emma, and the regency era. Personally Jane Austen is my favorite author and I absolutely love the time period that she is trying to present through her writings. I love reading about the elegant parties and the romantic life that the people lived (of course only the people of wealth lived this way). There are many aspects about Emma’s life that intrigues me. She is very different from many of the women at this time; one of the debates that we had in class during our seminar was about whether or not Emma was an activist ahead of her time or if she chooses to act the way she does just for personal gain. Emma is also very open about her wealth, meaning that she isn’t afraid to flaunt it and she doesn’t have any fear of losing it. She differs in what she wants out of life as well, most ladies in this time were looking for a husband so they could fulfill their societal needs and hopefully makes some money for their families when they married, but Emma she doesn’t want anything to do with finding a partner for herself. She doesn’t really have any goals for herself as well, she only plays matchmaker because she is either bored, or she doesn’t have any inclination of what she wants to do with her life.

One take on Emma is that she is an activist way ahead of her time, the way she acts makes her seems like an independent woman who is interested in herself in the present rather than the uncertainty of what her future brings. Emma seems a lot like a feminist, she is all about herself being free willing and self empowering, but in order to do this she makes other people, especially her lady friends, feel powerless and encourages them to take the easy way out by marrying and taking the social expectations. Emma obviously doesn’t want to settle with married life, she wants to amused with her childish games and hopes of becoming a widower. Emma I think just wants to stay a child forever and doesn’t want to live in a world where she will have to give up her freedom, her voice, her immaturity, and her innocence. This is a power struggle between Emma and the social expectations on that time, because she wants to be one thing, but her society wants her to fulfill the gender roles of what is expected of her. Emma though is very different in respects to Harriet and the other women who she is involved with, because she has money, not her family has money, and she is going to be guaranteed $30000 dollars when her father dies. So Emma is trying to decide whether she feels obliged to meet the social expectations because her friends tell her she should or should she flaunt her right to be free and not conform to the social standard.

Hamlet Debreif

Since we are now ending our Hamlet unit for this blog I think I just want to debrief on all my ideas and theories that used to analyze the “To be or not to be” soliloquy for our timed writing today.  In my opinion “To be or not to be” are the most important words said in the book, because they unravel so many more themes. The whole “umbrella theme” that I believe that these words could be alluding to would be Hamlet’s internal conflict of having to decide on whether to take action or be passive and let life trample all over him. This is where “To be or not to be” expands into a huge web of connections because action versus inaction can mean almost anything in the book. For this particular scene I think Hamlet is making a judgment on whether or not his fate is worth changing, because morally every option that he has ends up with him being damned after he dies. Pretty much through this soliloquy Hamlet is questioning life, which is infinite, and this is why I believe there are so many connecting themes that this soliloquy addresses. Most simply seen in this soliloquy is that Hamlet is questioning whether or not it is better to live and suffer through life or die which will free him from a life of responsibility and hardship. If Hamlet chooses to live he has two options; he can kill Claudius, avenge his father’s death and maintain his dignity, but he is committing a sin which morally is disappointing. The other options are for Hamlet to wimp and suffer through the pain created by his shame for not avenging his father’s death. If he chooses to commit suicide he is tempting with the power of God and he won’t die a Christian death. Hamlet compares death to sleep and thinks to end the suffering and pain is to end it completely. At the end of the soliloquy Hamlet decides that the uncertainty of death is to frightening than the worst the life can throw at him. “’Tis nobler in the mind to suffer” in life than deal with the uncertainty that death brings.

In addition to its crucial thematic content, this speech is also important for what it reveals about Hamlet’s mental health. He is totally not in a state of madness because everything he says is still accurate and makes sense. His deeply passionate nature is paired with his keen logical judgment, to come up with a way to satisfy his life. He has turned to religion and found it inadequate to help him either kill himself or solution to kill Claudius. Here, he turns to a logical philosophical dilemma and finds it equally frustrating. Hamlet takes his morality a little far when he begins to judge everyone else on their sins, because he is in no state to be judging other people morally. This soliloquy is the moral key to the entire play and meaning of the play.

Emma blog #1

This week for our blog we were assigned to discuss and analyze Jane Austen’s Emma. So far I have read the first seven chapters and Emma is in my mind a very interesting character. She has grown up without a mother, her father is spoils her and gives into her every whim, and when she was very young she was given the prestigious title of mistress of the estate. So in many ways she hasn’t really gotten to experience childhood, but in other ways she still lacks maturity and responsibility. Her lack of maturity and responsibility may stem from the lack of a motherly figure in her life; she grew up with a governess that was more of a friend then an authoritative figure to her. I have also noticed that status is very important in this book. Each of the characters introduced in each of the chapters were describe with some aspect of their social status within the community. Also another themeish idea that I also noticed was the difference between what is outside of Emma’s estate and what is inside. It said that her father Mr. Woodhouse rarely ventured out to go see his friends; he is much fonder of them coming to visit him. Inside at the moment is looking like a way for the Mr. Woodhouse to show off his possessions and to show off Emma, in other words another way for him to promote his social status.

Emma is really starting to get on my nerves right now, she seems like a selfish, meddling, snob. She is very one sided, especially when the reader is first introduced to Harriet Smith, “she is not only the friend Emma had wanted,-- but exactly something that her home required.” Everything right now is about the social aspect of her life, Emma right now really doesn’t have any goals for herself she is driven merely by the thought of getting ahead in society, which I  guess was the life of a woman back then. Emma in my opinion is also a little to full of herself, especially with the time period that this book is based in I think her huge ego is going to get her into some sort of trouble, and maybe even double trouble  when you combine her naivety and willing to meddle into anything with her self confidence.  

Harriet is also an interesting character, she doesn’t really have the qualities in a socially satisfying friendship that the reader would expect Emma to be drawn to. I think Harriet is more of a project for Emma, she sees Harriet as something that she can work her meddling skills with to pass the time. I know that Emma has good intentions for Harriet, but is she really making the right call dismissing her from Mr. Martin? It is hard to judge Emma’s reasoning’s because they are all driven by social expectations, but what are Emma’s needs and why does she require so much attention and so much meddling activity?