The status of the women discribed in the novel "emma" by jane austen

Chapter II. Austen’s ideas about women
2.1. Woman's Life In Jane Austen’s Novel Emma
After the analysis of these female characters, we can say that Austen does not promote a radical social change in Emma. In line with the conventional ideas of the time, while men rule society, women in Emma are always dependent beings relegated to the domestic sphere. The study of Emma, Mrs Elton and Mrs Churchill prove that, even though Austen gives these characters a certain amount of power, she does not question the patriarchal order and she does not make them economically independent. On the contrary, her characters are economically dependent and therefore they always need a man to make their decisions. Even Mrs Churchill, who seems to enjoy a higher degree of freedom, is able to make her own choices only because her husband lets her. She is not the one that has the economic power to decide. Austen does not promote women’s right to achieve economic independence and hence their possibility to avoid marriage – and the subordination it entailed – as women’s only means to reach financial security. Instead, in line with the patriarchal ideas of the time, the only way that the women in the novel have to make a living is marriage, which makes them dependent on men. Thus, Smith (1983) and Monaghan (1981) correctly claim that Austen shows little interest in the feminist defence of women’s access to professions, the only way to their self-assertion and independence from men (see section 3.3). Against Kirkham’s idea (see section 3.3), the analysis of Emma proves that Austen is not as fierce a defender of women’s rights as Wollstonecraft was and that she does not defend complete equality between the sexes as Wollstonecraft did. The author of Emma’s works within the limits of the patriarchal 36 society in which she lives and does not question its basic tenets – men’s rule over women and the restriction of women to the domestic sphere as well as to their roles of mothers and wives. However, it is important to highlight that Austen defends the basis of the “early feminist movement” or the “Enlightenment feminism”: the idea that women are as rational and morally autonomous as men. Reason is our essence, what makes us humans, and Austen rejects the patriarchal idea that women are not rational creatures (Monaghan, 1981; Smith, 1983) (see section 3.3). This links Emma’s author with Burney and Edgeworth, two of the women writers read by Austen who also vindicated women’s intellectual powers. In Emma, both men and women are rational beings and, as the study of Mrs Churchill shows, intelligence and culture in women are something valued in the community of the novel – even above economic power. Austen affirms that women and men are equal as to their rational powers and promotes the development of their intellectual capacities. She even challenges the patriarchal idea that women’s virtue was related to meekness or kindness and defends that it is the moral standards that they can reach that make women worthy of respect. In Emma, the means to obtain virtue is for both sexes the same: intellectual development, which is an idea already defended by Wollstonecraft (see section 2.3). This can be seen in Emma and Mrs Elton. On the one hand, Emma abandons vanity by developing her reasoning powers, which enables her to acquire moral seriousness and intellectual independence and makes others – especially Mr Knightley – to see her as an equal. On the other hand, Mrs Elton never develops her rational powers and cannot therefore abandon superficiality and reach moral seriousness. For this reason, she does not deserve the true respect of the rest of the characters. Nevertheless, even though Austen praises women’s intellectual and moral development, her female characters do not use reason to question reality. Both Emma and Mrs Elton question society and its conventions when they see the world through their fantasy of independence and power. Emma is able to perceive marriage’s oppression and how it limits women; and Mrs Elton questions the fact that husbands are the ones that make all the decisions and criticizes women’s obligation to leave their home for their husbands’ houses. Mrs Elton never abandons superficiality, but when Emma abandons fantasy and starts to use her reasoning powers, she stops questioning reality. Instead, she ends up accepting her society’s conventions and becomes a married woman. As a realistic writer, Austen does not question the basis of social organisation; rather, she criticizes it by measuring it against the ideals of her time. She knows that the feminist ideas that emerge in the fantasy of Emma or Mrs Elton would not be possible in the society of the eighteenth century and, therefore, she makes her characters embrace the institutions of their society. One should not forget, though, that, even though Emma submits to social rules, her marriage is not conventional. As Monaghan (1981) points out, Austen supports marriages based on mutual respect, not on relations of submission and dominance (see section 3.3). Consequently, although not questioning society’s organisation or promoting women’s independence, Austen introduces changes within the possibilities her society offers. In sum, taking into account Emma’s analysis, Austen cannot be seen as a supporter of complete equality between the sexes, like Wollstonecraft. As explained in chapter 2, in Austen’s time some women writers started to fight for women’s rights, for the improvement of their position in society. Even though Austen was aware of what was going on, a close reading Emma’s shows that she did not go far in this feminist fight. Knowing how the patriarchal society of her time worked, Austen only advocates feminist 38 ideas in her characters’ fantasies and introduces slight changes such as the need of marriages to be based on mutual respect; but this does not make her a feminist writer who questions society and promotes women’s independence. Therefore, after focusing on Emma’s female characters, it can be asserted that Austen only defends the natural equality between men and women.
Jane Austen loved writing and she wrote a lot of short stories called the Juvenilia. In 1795 she wrote a novel she called Elinor and Marianne. And then her writing skill are seen from the other great novels like Pride and Prejudice, Emma, First Impression, Sense and Sensibility, etc.
EMMA is one of Austen’s novels about a girl named Emma Woodhouse, who is described as a person who is lucky with facial beauty, wealth, and good education. He has a jovial nature but sometimes he feels that something is wrong with his family. He is the youngest of three children, he has 2 female kaka whose name is Isabelle. Her female Kaka was married, so she lived in a luxurious wooden house with her father, namely Mr. Woodhouse. His birth mother has died since he was a child.
Emma has a hobby that is matchmaking people, she got this new hobby after she managed to make one of the couples successfully advance to marriage. Emma felt that she was an expert in this field, so she would be very excited and confident when she began pairing lovers. Mr. Woodhouse did not like and oppose Emma’s hobby, but he continued. Everything went as usual before a misunderstanding took place. His best friend Harriet was paired with a man who he said was good and right for Harriet but it turned out that this man was the one who made a difference in social status. He is named Mr. Elton, he thought that Emma liked him and he spared Emma. Emma was very surprised and Harriet was surprised. Mr. Elton refused Harriet because he was not from the top like Emma. Soon he married a rich and arrogant woman. Because of this Emma chose to go to a village called Highbury, she chose not to take care of other people’s lives for a while. Emma’s departure was considered a form of heartache because of Mr. Elton by Harriet.
In Highbury, Emma was surrounded by many good people who were like their own family. Soon, there was a character named Frank who was a dream in the village. Emma also tried to like it too and they wanted. But it turns out Frank has been engaged since a year ago with a girl named Jane. Suddenly this again shocked Emma.
In the end, he found true love for Mr. Knightley, at first they often debated long about their thoughts and comments on Churchill, who was always different. Lots of humor but also epic when this plot happens. After married Emma and Mr.Knightley, they decided to stay together while accompanying Emma’s father at Hartfield.
However, from the exciting journey of Emma’s love story and also her charismatic character Emma described the researchers found that in this novel there is a clear picture of how women lived at that time, and this will be examined in the discussion section of this paper.
The first problem statement already answer based on her biography and also in the Women in the 1800s part. It explained how the life of a woman living in that era. They can only be at home, waiting somebody ask her to get married.
In this part we will discuss how Austen uses a feminist perspective and how the novel entitled ‘EMMA’ is themed feminism. In some part mr Harriet said it to Emma when they are together in a small village,
‘It is so odd to hear a woman talk so!’
This proves at that time women were limited even in terms of speaking. And Emma’s response that did not approve it illustrates her nature that does not accept if a woman is always prohibited from doing something she likes. Emma is indeed portrayed as an independent, brave person. With his attitude like this, Austen shows Emma as role of a feminist who puts equality between genders. Perspectives of people in that era to women who dared to express what was felt to be very bad, women like that are considered impolite and disrespectful to men who incidentally are considered more.Another thing that proves how Emma has different thoughts about how women should get married is in the section:
‘I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing!’ The dialogue shows how Emma refused marriage if it was not for love, she did not agree if women must always accept what was offered to her. She thinks that women and humans who have the right to choose are just like men. She refused the man who proposed to her because she did not love him. Until she met Mr. Knightly and fall in love and then get married. After marriage, Emma wanted to stay in her village to accompany her father, this also proved that Austen insisted that women could choose and be able to argue.
“The woman was better off; she might have the assistance of fine clothes, and privilege of bashfulness, but the man had only his own good sense to depend on;..”
The above snippet explains how Jane Austen shares the situation of women who are seen as good only with beautiful clothes and shyness, but men are seen from how they think. Jane criticizes how women cannot be seen from how they think and what they want. Gender really influences the space of people in the past, because with the view of women only as goods and doing things that have been determined then the space for movement is limited. How Austen adds ‘good sense’ in the men’s section describes it is not important if a woman has ‘good sense’ because that is not her space.