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Suitable Marriage and Social Mobiliy in Emma

Jordan Alexander, 12-7-15

The Eltons

The Westons

  • Miss Augusta Hawkins' £10,000
  • lack of “elegance” (Austen 189)
  • “pert pretention and underbred finery” (191)
  • presumptuous suggestions of introducing Emma at Bath
  • coquettish nicknaming of “Knightley” (191)
  • marrying for money without manners
  • most successfully example of class mobility in Emma
  • Mr. Weston married above his station: resulted in the elevation of his social status through his connections.
  • Miss Taylor then married into status and money
  • education and manners
  • class mobility for Miss Taylor/Mrs. Weston
  • a lesson learned for Mr. Weston: “a great deal better… to excite gratitude than to feel it” (Austen 13)

Thesis

The Churchills

  • secret engagement to Frank Churchill
  • though Jane is extremely accomplished and well mannered, she is poor
  • Frank does rather too good a job
  • a timely death
  • “neatly and obviously unites the one who most needs a lesson in the serious work of manners with the one most accomplished to provide it, portending either [Frank’s] reformation or Jane’s misery” (Grossman 157).
  • a neutralizing result

In Conclusion

  • Emma is Austen's most class-conscious novel
  • the most weddings
  • the novel and the romances both defy and preserve Regency-era class distinctions
  • view of social mobility is decidedly lopsided
  • the happiest situation is a marriage that keeps them within their class

Emma & Knightley

Mr. Elton

  • conclusion to Emma’s growth of character
  • happy marriage to Mr. Knightley
  • the novel’s most fulfilled comedic ending
  • best-suited couple in terms of intelligence, wealth, and social standing, and manners

  • Mr. Elton is involved in two other schemes for social mobility:
  • Emma’s intentions for Harriet
  • his intentions for Emma
  • intentional social mobility is a fool’s errand and an evil to be avoided

The Martins

A Matter of Class

  • Where there is no education or dignity of breeding poverty is harder to overlook
  • Emma failed to raise Harriet's station
  • Marrying above her station:
  • “the advantage of the match [is] all on her side” (Austen 45). “respectable, intelligent gentleman farmer” (Austen 45)
  • "Emma respects them for what they are. False values have been succeeded by genuine goodwill” (Shannon 648).

  • Jane Austen resolves the marriage plots as well as Emma’s evolution
  • the best marriages are those of practicality as well as love
  • the restoration of every character to their proper sphere promises the most happiness for everyone.

  • the identity of every character is at least partially defined by their  socio-economic class
  • the complex character of these classes themselves is a recurring theme:
  • old money and no profession
  • new money and some profession
  • no money and low profession
  • manners and class
  • social mobility and marriage

Bibliography

Austen, Jane, and George Justice. Emma: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.

 

Grossman, Jonathan H.. “The Labor of the Leisured in Emma: Class, Manners, and Austen”. Nineteenth-Century Literature 54.2 (1999): 143–164. Web.

 

 

Shannon, Edgar F.. “Emma: Character and Construction”. PMLA 71.4 (1956): 637–650. Web.

 

Stewart, Maaja A. Domestic Realities and Imperial Fictions: Jane Austen's Novels in Eighteenth-century Contexts. Athens: U of Georgia, 1993. Print.

Images Cited

Jane and Frank, movie still. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

The Eltons, movie still. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

The Westons' Wedding, movie still. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

The Martins' Wedding, movie still. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Emma and Mr. Knightley, promotion material. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Knightly Approves, gif. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Manor for a Woodhouse, meme. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Knightley Unimpressed, meme. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

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