Ferghana state university faculty of foreign languages department of philology and teaching languages

Highbury as a character

The British critic Robert Irvine wrote that unlike the situation in Austen's previous novels, the town of Highbury in Surrey emerges as a character in its own right. Irvine wrote that: "In Emma, we find something much closer to a genuinely communal voice, a point of view at work in the narrative that cannot be reduced to the subjectivity of any one character. This point of view appears both as something perceived by Emma, an external perspective on events and characters that the reader encounters as and when Emma recognises it; and as an independent discourse appearing in the text alongside the discourse of the narrator and characters”. Irvine used as an example the following passage: "The charming Augusta Hawkins, in addition to all the usual advantages of perfect beauty and merit, was in possession of as many thousands as would always be called ten; a point of some dignity, as well as some convenience: the story told well; he had not thrown himself away-he had gained a woman of £10,000 or therebouts; and he had gained with delightful rapidity-the first hour of introduction he had been so very soon followed by distinguishing notice; the history which he had to give Mrs. Cole of the rise and progress of the affair was so glorious”. Irvine points out the adjective "charming" appears to the narrator speaking, but notes the sentence goes on to associate "perfect" with "usual", which he pointed out was an incongruity. Irvine suggested the next sentence "would always be called ten" is in fact the voice of the community of Highbury, which wants the fiancée of Mr. Elton to be "perfect", whom the narrator sarcastically calls the "usual" sort of community gossip is about a new arrival in Highbury, whom everyone thinks is "charming”. Since the character of Mrs. Elton is in fact far from "charming", the use of the term "charming" to describe her is either the gossip of Highbury and/or the narrator being sarcastic.
Likewise, the Australian scholar John Wiltshire wrote that one of Austen's achievements was to "give depth" to the "Highbury world”. Wiltshire noted that Austen put the population of Highbury as 352 people, and said that athough clearly most of these people don't appear as characters - or at best as minor characters - Austen created the impression of Highbury as a "social commonwealth. Wiltshire used as an example of Mr. Perry, the town apothgecary who is frequently mentioned in the town gossip, but never appears in the book, having a "kind of familiarity by proxy”. Wiltshire also notes the scene where Emma and Harriet visit a poor cottage on the outskirts of Highbury; during their walk, it is made clear from Emma's remarks that this part of Highbury is not her Highbury.
The character of Frank is a member of the "discursive community" of Highbury long before he actually appears, as his father tells everyone in Highbury about him. Emma forms her judgement of Frank based on what she hears about him in Highbury before she meets him. Irvine wrote that Austen's use of three different voices in Emma—the voice of Highbury, the narrator's voice, and Emma's voice, can at times make it very confusing to the reader about just who is actually speaking. However, Irvine wrote that one accepts that the voice of Highbury is often speaking, then much of the book makes sense, as Emma believes she has a power that she does not, to make Frank either love or not via her interest or indifference, which is explained as the result of the gossip of Highbury, which attributes Emma this power.
This is especially the case as Emma is born into the elite of Highbury, which is portrayed as a female-dominated world. Irvine wrote that Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Fanny Price in Mansfield Park enjoy the moral authority of being good women, but must marry a well-off man to have the necessary social influence to fully use this moral authority whereas Emma is born with this authority. Emma herself acknowledges this when she says to Harriet that she possesses: "none of the usual inducements to marry...Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want”. However, political power still resides with men in the patriarchal society of Regency England as the book notes that Mr. Knightley is not only a member of the gentry, but also serves as the magistrate of Highbury. Emma clashes with Knightley at the beginning of the novel over the all-important "distinctions of rank", namely does Harriet Smith belong with the yeoman class together with Robert Martin, or the gentry class that Emma and Knightley are both part of Knightley declares his respect for both Smith and Martin, but argues that as part of the yeomen class, neither belongs with the gentry, while Emma insists on including her best friend/protegee in with the gentry. In Regency England and in Emma, the term friendship describes a power relationship where one higher party can do favors for the lower party while the term "claim intimacy" is a relationship of equals Mrs. Elton has "friendship" with Jane Fairfax while she "claims intimacy" with Mr. Knightley. The use of these terms "friendship" and "claim intimacy" refers to the question of who belongs to the local elite. Neither Emma nor Mr. Knightley question the right of the elite to dominate society, but rather their power struggle is over who belongs to the elite, and who has the authority to make the decision about whom to include and whom to exclude, which shows that in a certain sense that Emma is just as powerful socially as is Mr. Knightley Further complicating this power struggle is the arrival of Mrs. Elton, who attempts to elevate Jane Fairfax into the elite. This is cruel as Jane is not rich enough to properly belong to the elite, and Mrs. Elton is showing Jane a world to which she can never really belong, no matter how many parties and balls she attends. In addition to her annoyance at Mrs. Elton's relationship with Jane, Emma finds Mrs. Elton an "upstart", "under-bred" and "vulgar", which adds venom to the dispute between the two women. Mrs. Elton is only a first generation gentry, as her father bought the land that she grew up on with money he had raised in trade. Her snobbery is therefore that of a nouveau riche, desperately insecure about her status. When Mrs. Elton boasted that her family had owned their estate for a number of years, Emma responds that a true English gentry family would count ownership of their estate in generations, not years.
Of Emma's two rivals for social authority, one shares a common class while the other a common sex.The marriage of Emma to Mr. Knightley consolidates her social authority by linking herself to the dominant male of Highbury and pushes Mrs. Elton's claims aside. Irvine wrote: "On this view, and in contrast to Austen's two previous novels, Emma works to legitimate established gentry power defined in opposition to an autonomous feminine authority over the regulation of social relations, and not through the vindication of such autonomous authority”.However, as the novel goes, such a reading is countered by the way that Emma begins to take in the previously excluded into the realm of the elite, such as visiting the poor Miss Bates and her mother, and the Coles, whose wealth stems from trade.Likewise, Jane Fairfax, who is too poor to live off her wealth and must work as a governess, which excludes her from the female social elite of Highbury, does marry well after all, which makes her story the only one of real feminine worth triumphing over the lack of wealth in Emma.