THE ROLE
OF MR. KNIGHTLEY IN BRINGING ABOUT CHANGE IN EMMA’S WAY OF THINKING. / CRITICALLY
COMMENT ON THE ROLE OF MR. KNIGHTLEY IN EMMA./ EMMA-KNIGHTLEY
RELATIONSHIP/JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA IS A NOVEL OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE/
SELF-DISCOVERY/ DO YOU AGREE? JUSTIFY WILL SUITABLE TEXTUAL ILLUSTRATIONS. /
EVOLUTION OF EMMA/ EDUCATION OF EMMA/ EMMA AS A NOVEL OF GROWTH OR
BILDUNGSROMAN / CHARACTER OF EMMA
Jane Austen’s Emma is
about the psychological growth of the character Emma in particular. Emma is
depicted as a ‘handsome, clever, and rich’ girl of about
twenty-one years old. She resides with her father Mr. Woodhouse, who had no
contribution in her upbringing. As he, himself behaves like a child, and
instead of him caring Emma, Emma used to care about him. Her mother died early
in her childhood. Too early, that she only have ‘an indistinct remembrance
of her caresses’. Miss Taylor, Emma’s governess was also depicted as more
like her friend than as her governess. So, from the very beginning of her life
she missed the governing figure, an authoritative person. Who can guide her,
points out her mistakes, and has psychological influence on her. Therefore, as
a result she became independent. As we were told in ch1, pg. 5:
“Emma doing just what
she liked, highly esteeming Miss Taylor’s judgment, but directed chiefly by her
own.”
And thus Emma had some
flaws in her character, which mainly depends upon flaws in her thinking
patterns.
Since Emma lacks a
governing figure in her own home, Mr. Knightley (Emma’s sister, Isabella’s
brother-in-law, and Emma’s neighbour) acted as Emma’s mentor and moral guide.
He was introduced to us as ‘a sensible man’, an objective and a foresighted
person. The only person who was critical of Emma, when everyone around Emma
were so influenced by her wit and charming personality, was also Mr. Knightley.
As Mr. Knightley once pointed out:
“Emma is spoiled by
being the cleverest of her family. At ten years old, she had misfortune of
being able to answer a questions….Emma has been mistress of the house and of
you all.” (ch. 5, pg. 29)
Mr. Knightley acted as
a sensable, thoughtful, and judging sort of a person. Therefore, he is
considered as a voice of reason, and has a prominent contribution in bringing
about change in Emma.
Despite of the good
qualities of Emma’s character, like her loving nature, her being witty, social,
and conversationalist, she had some flaws in her character, which hinders her
being a perfect person. And the main reasons behind these flaws were that there
is no one to point them out. So, initially in the novel, when Mr. Knightley
point out her mistakes, she doesn’t take it seriously. She thinks that he ‘loves
to find fault in her’, and ‘it’s all a joke’ (ch 1, pg. 9). And as a
result she never tried to rectify her mistakes.
Emma’s main problems,
that hinders her psychological growth are, her being idealistic and
over-confident. Emma once talking with Mrs. Weston said:
“You take up an idea,
and run away with it; as you have many a time reproached me with doing.” (ch
26, pg 171)
She doesn’t realize
the honesty of her own words. That actually, she is the one who comeup with an
idea, and imaginations; and then because of her thick headedness, she stick to
it, despite the fact that someone (i.e. Mr. Knightley) always points them out right
at the beginning. Forexample, in the case of Harriet Smith, she had this wild
imagination that Harriet does belong to a noble family, and therefore, she is
needed to be detached from “her bad acquaintance” and should be
introduced into a “good society” (ch 3, pg. 19). On-the-contrary, the
truth was that “Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody” (ch
3, pg. 18), which probably means that she was an illegitimate child. And
illegitimate children at Jane Austen’s time were looked down upon, and usually
left to live in isolation. But Emma was over-confident by her idea of Harriet
Smith belonging to a noble family. Therefore, she tries to mould Harriet
according to her own social class. And also tries to make her match with Mr.
Elton (a village vicar)................................................................
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