Emma as an Establishment Figure

Jane Austen’s: Emma is a novel that utilizes feminist language and instances of gender equity as vehicles to reinforce societal conformity and deference to a social pecking order that transcended life itself during the Victorian era. Throughout Emma, Austen depicts daily life, customs, and relationships of the power elite. As the daughter of Mr. Woodhouse, Emma is endowed with rights women of her era and social station failed to receive. Free of the societal restraints placed upon her, Emma is able to cultivate and act upon an imaginative personality that would have otherwise been snuffed out by rules of propriety imposed her society. Social moirés of Emma’s time considered women the extensions/ property of their fathers and husbands. By writing Emma Woodhouse as a character that has the extra-ordinary means and opportunity to transcend her gender role (i.e. marrying/ producing a male offspring), Austen attempted to transcend the traditional marriage plot and cultivate a story where marriage became a choice- not the looming inevitability it is depicted to be in her other novel: Pride and Prejudice. Although rooted in feminist language, this novel still carries the Victorian era “establishment” messages of paternalism, and marriage being a greater good. Despite Emma’s confidence, wit, imagination, monetary means, and atypical household role, her relationships with other characters exude a lack of confidence and a latent desire to conform.

The relationship between Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley (her future husband) is deeply rooted in a paternalistic agenda that oversteps the societal expectations of a suitor. Throughout the course of this novel, Knightley anoints himself the moral compass and judge for all of Emma’s behaviors, actions, and beliefs. As Emma’s brother in law, this duty/ role could be considered an act of impropriety. His criticisms of Emma are rooted in his desire to cultivate a spouse from the ground up (after all her did know her from birth). Despite Emma’s initial desire to remain a single-landed female, there is an aspect of her character that seeks out fatherly approval and acceptance. Being the “lady” of her family estate while enjoying intellectual approval/ equity from her father is Emma’s initial reasoning behind the decision not to marry.

Upon reading Mr. Woodhouse’s radical stance on marriage, the reader must believe there is some aspect of Emma’s psyche that aims to appease male authority figures in her life. As the story progresses and it becomes increasingly clear she holds the council/ condemnations of Knightley in the same esteem as fatherly advice. Knightley seems to fulfill Emma’s subconscious and sometimes overt need for prudent fatherly guidance, security, and in many cases censorship. Modern psychological benchmarks seem to indicate that Emma’s relationship with “father figures” can be construed as some form of Electra complex. I am more inclined to believe that the “paternal marriage” between Emma and Knightley is intended represent a return to the Victorian norms regarding marital and gender relations. Marriage concepts of this era were centered upon the husband replacing a woman’s father as the judge of her behaviors and actions. By marrying Emma, Knightley merely formalized the relationship he held with Emma at the onset of the novel.

Jane Austen wrote Emma as a heroine that had the intelligence, resources, and imagination needed to transcend the visible walls of gender that shaped the Victorian era. At the onset of the novel, Austen utilized speeches that were rooted in radical feminist language to successfully paint Emma as an anti-establishment figure that symbolized independence. Austen provided Emma with all of the tools needed to free her of the “dreaded” Victorian female gender role of marriage. These tools fail to completely eradicate Emma’s character flaw of insecurity. This insecurity is typified by her touchy relationship with Jane Fairfax. Emma’s equal or better in every possible way (aside from wealth), Jane provided Emma with a glimpse of reality in a world where marriage was a necessity. Witnessing an individual that is essentially a mirror image of herself pursue marriage must have been a disturbing and thought evoking moment for Emma. Though Emma isn’t centered upon an overt marriage plot, Austen still decided to marry Emma off to Knightley. Throughout the course of the novel, Knightley assumed the role of a censorship/ establishment figure that sought to restore societal normalcy. The match between Knightley and Emma symbolized the interchangeability between Victorian era husbands and father figures. Although rooted in feminist language, this novel still carries the Victorian era “establishment” messages of paternalism, and marriage being a greater good. Despite Emma’s confidence, wit, imagination, monetary means, and atypical household role, her relationships with other characters exude a lack of confidence and a latent desire to conform. Austen ended this novel with a marriage to Knightley as a means of appeasing the Victorian reader while injecting feminist views and beliefs into the dialogue of its characters. This novel was groundbreaking because of the manner in which Austen was able to balance the overall message of her story on the Victorian tightrope of acceptability.