HIGHBURY SOCIAL LIFE IN EMMA SOCIETY

HIGHBURY SOCIAL LIFE IN EMMA SOCIETY

It is debatable whether the society that Austen depicts in Highbury is a realistic portrait of the society which she lived in or whether it is an idealized portrait of society as it should or perhaps could be. What is undeniable is that Highbury society seems real; Austen has convincingly created a sense of its actuality. Austen shows the characters' relationships and interactions in the context of society, whose values give their behavior and activities meaning. One anonymous reviewer commented that Austen sees man "not as a solitary being completed in himself, but only as completed in society" (The North British Review, 1870).

SOCIAL CLASS

The class structure is basic in Emma, as it is in all Austen's novels. The responsibilities and behavior of each class are generally known and accepted . Some social mobility is possible, as is illustrated by the Coles, who "were of low origin, in trade, and only moderately genteel". With the increase of their income, the Coles changed their life style to imitate the classes above them; they employed more servants, enlarged their house, and gave dinner parties to which they invited the "regular and best families".
In a small community where there are only a few genteel families, there may also be more tolerance at some mixing of the classes than in London or a more populous town. The Highbury whist club, for example, is made up of "gentlemen and half-gentlemen".........................................

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