(Blog 7) Why is Emma the way she is?

      

Emma is certainly clueless at times (whether unintentionally or willfully so), but she is also clever, confident, condescending, and exhibits a great deal of power. Whether that power is real or perceived is up for debate and may change from situation to situation throughout the novel. So how did Emma get to this point? What was it in her childhood that led to her intense sense of self worth and her denial to perceive herself as part of the marriage market? I think Emma’s parents or lack thereof play a great deal.

Emma’s mother died before she truly got a chance to meet her or learn from her. While she has other female figures (her sister Isabella and her governess Miss Taylor), they do not necessarily provide her with an example of a motherly figure who might encourage the normative gender roles of wifehood and motherhood. Therefore, Emma values time spent with the people around her (her family and friends), but she values their attention in a selfish way. She is not concerned with starting a family of her own. She enjoys being the center of attention with the people she already has.

Not only did her mother die early, but her father is a needy and sickly person who needs caretaking and looking after from his daughter. Whenever he begins to panic about some illness or situation, Emma is there to calm him down and to remind him of the logical solutions to dispel his concerns. “His spirits required support.” And Emma supports him in many ways. She organizes dinner parties for him so that he does not get lonely or bored, she calms him down when he is worried about safety concerns, and she deals with his hypochondriac tendencies. Because of this, Emma and her father switch the traditional parent (caretaker)/child (cared for) roles. Having to take care of her father forces her to be the adult of the house from an early age which gives her power (at least within her family and household) and encourages her “in charge” personality. Emma believes that things should go her way because things went her way growing up. At one point Knightley says that “ever since she was twelve, Emma has been mistress of the house and of you all.”

Knightley also mentions that Emma “is spoiled by being the cleverest of her family. At ten years old, she had the misfortune of being able to answer questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen.” Emma’s intelligence and cleverness in relation to her family has also contributed to her personality. Emma is very bright, smarter even than her immediate relatives; growing up she had no one to challenge her. Her opinions and her words were therefore always right. Over time, this developed into her manipulative behaviors, because she believes that her ideas and decisions are incontestably the best ones.  

Emma’s view of herself in relation to the marriage market is also indicative of her father’s influence. Chapter 1 describes Mr. Woodhouse: “He was a nervous man, easily depressed; fond of every body that he was used to, and hating to part with them; hating change of every kind. Matrimony, as the origin of change, was always disagreeable.” Mr. Woodhouse is easily depressed and enjoys the company of others. He is particularly soothed and contented by Emma’s company. He does not look favorably on the thought of his daughters’ marriage as other Austen parents might. Instead, he loathes the idea of change and the thought that he will not get to see his daughters anymore. This is a possible factor in Emma’s decision to not be part of the marriage market; she does not want to leave her father depressed and lonely. Emma cares deeply for her father and wishes for him to be happy. If her presence is the thing keeping him happy, then she will have to remain at Hartfield.

(Blog 6) Mary Wollstonecraft Letter Comparisons

          In her July 1^st letter Wollstonecraft says: “I labour in vain to calm my mind- my soul has been overwhelmed by sorrow and disappointment. Everything fatigues me- this is a life that cannot last long.” This shows a mental state that is depressive to the point of suicide. In the other letters, she includes various complaints and hardships but always with an air of strength and overcoming them. Here she presents a figure who finds herself at rock bottom. She writes with a sense of hopelessness; the statements are not qualified by some show of power or achievement. Instead, she goes on and on about the negative state of her mind, physicality, and the place she visits. In the edited letters, we see that she often leaves out these passages into her mental state. She will talk about her desire to be in solitude or her various contemplations on the difficult aspects of life but she does not reveal the truly suicidal level at which she sometimes finds herself while communicating with Imlay.

In her first few letters to Imlay, words like ‘suffer’ and ‘fatigue’ are frequent. They are used to express the beaten down and exhausted state of both mind and body. In the edited letters she describes the hardship of riding on a cargo ship but she does not ruminate on the effects it has on her. By leaving this part to the imagination, one can envision a strong, determined, and independent woman. This is not to say that women cannot be strong and independent by suffering through fatigue and hardship. However, displays of vulnerability are often conflated with weakness, specifically a feminine weakness.

She also states in the July 1^st letter: “You can only contribute to my comfort.” She not only addresses Imlay directly (which is rarer in the edited letters), but she also gives him a lot of power in this sentence. She is telling him that she needs him; he is the only person who can contribute to her comfort. Whereas, in her edited letters she shows that she can do things without a man to help her. She also shows that she sees herself on an equal level of power and importance as the men. For example, when the captain tells her they cannot take a boat to shore, she ignores his opinion and continues to ask the sailors if they can take a boat to shore.

In the edited letters Wollstonecraft uses ‘you’ more ambiguously, often referring to the audience ‘you.’ In her letters to Imlay it is clear that she addressed him more directly and more intimately on several occasions. In her July 4^th letter she says: “I cannot tear my affections from you.” The word ‘affections’ reveals a level of intimacy between Wollstonecraft and Imlay which she is hesitant to display in the other letters. To maintain her independence and respectability she edits out passages in which she exposes her romantic or sexual nature. Again, it is possible to be independent and respectable while engaging in a romantic relationship. However, the time period has a great value on propriety and regulations on what is and is not acceptable for a relationship. Wollstonecraft had an illegitimate child at the time and was not actually married to Imlay but using his name. Because she published the edited letters after she found him living with another woman, it makes sense that she would want to inhibit readers from the former relationship.  

Wollstonecraft signs the Imlay letters with phrases such as ‘yours truly,’ yours most affectionately,’ yours sincerely,’ and ‘yours affectionately.’ In the edited letters she generally sticks with a more neutral sign off such as ‘good night!’ or ‘adieu.’ Once again she limits the focus on their relationship and de-emphasizes the level of affection between them at the time. She also reduces her use of the word ‘your’ in the edited letters which strengthens her self concept of independence.

(Blog 5) Primary Documents

To attend a ball (particularly public assembly balls), one would have to pay for tickets or for a subscription of tickets for the entire season. This is a document from the 1811-1812 dance season at the Bath Upper Rooms. It shows the stipulations for purchasing a year’s subscription and how one can pay a little extra to have tea at each dance. Someone might purchase these if they were staying in bath for several weeks or months and planned on attending many of the dances. 

The next document is an invitation to Almack’s Assembly Rooms in London. Almack’s was a social club open between 1765 and 1871 on King Street, St. James in London. It was one of the first social clubs to admit both men and women. Eventually the rooms would host a variety of social events, including English country dances. Almack’s was the place to be in Regency London and so a voucher like this was a highly sought after invitation to society’s elite. This particular invitation was for Anna Elizabeth Grenville, Marchioness of Buckingham in 1817.