GETTING READY TO TOMORROW'S MEETING

Tomorrow is Emma's day so I'm putting  order among my several notes and materials and wanted to share some other bits with you.

1. SIR WALTER SCOTT ON EMMA

Reviewing Emma for the Quarterly Review (1816), Sir Walter Scott characterized its strengths and weaknesses:

The author's knowledge of the world, and the peculiar tact with which she presents characters that the reader cannot fail to recognize, reminds us something of the merits of the Flemish school of painting. The subjects are not often elegant, and certainly never grand; but they are finished to nature, and with a precision which delights the reader....

Her merits consist much in the force of a narrative conducted with much neatness and point, and a quiet yet comic dialogue, in which the characters of the speakers evolve themselves with dramatic effect. The faults arise from the minute detail which the author's plan comprephends. Characters of folly or simplicity, such as those of old Woodhouse and Miss Bates, are ridiculous when first presented, but if too often brought forward or too long dwelt upon, their prosing is apt to become as tiresome in fiction as in real society.

2. SOME QUESTIONS FOR THE DISCUSSION OF THE NOVEL

1. Emma is clever but continually mistaken, kindhearted but capable of callous behavior. Austen commented that Emma is a heroine “no one but myself will much like.” Do you find Emma likable? Why or why not? How can a character as intelligent as Emma be wrong so often?

2. Emma experiences several major revelations in the novel that fundamentally change her understanding of herself and those around her. Which revelation do you think is most important to Emma’s development, and why?

3.Emma is filled with dialogue in which characters misunderstand each other. How does humor work in the novel?

4. Emma both questions and upholds traditional class distinctions. What message do you think the novel ultimately conveys about class?

5. In what ways, if at all, might Emma be considered a feminist novel?

6. Frank Churchill and Mr. Knightley represent two different sets of values and two different embodiment of manhood. What values  does each of them represent? How does the novel judge these values?

7. Is Mr Knightley a father figure to Emma? Are they a perfect match?

8. In Emma we have - just hinted at - the stories of two children separated from their families for financial difficulties, Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill. Then Emma and her father's relationship, Miss Bates and her mother's. How are family ties depicted in this novel?

9. Love courtship and marriage are among the main themes in this novel too. After reading 4 novels, what else do we get about these issues in the 5th, Emma?

10. If compared to the disappointing quick ( or skipped)   final declarations and proposals in the other novels, Mr Knightley's eventual revelation of his feelings is really detailed and touching . What do you think about these scene which can be considered rather unusual in Austen so far? Is the ending as genuinely happy as it is presented to be, or does Austen subtly inject a note of subversive irony into it?

3. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT EMMA ( 11-25)

1/11 What do we deduce from the fact that, in twenty-one years Emma has not met the Martin family?
The Martins live in the adjoining Donwell village/parish, not Highbury, hence Emma is likely to see them on a daily basis. And, as she explains to  Harriet, they are prosperous farmers, neither poor nor gentry. So on the one hand there is no reason for her to think of them as possible recipients of her charity, and on the other hand she cannot know them as social equals. They, of course, know her by sight.

1/12 Who did Miss Nash's sister marry (very advantageously)?
A linen-draper.

1/13 Who is the best whist player in Highbury?
Mr Elton. He is not, we deduce, 'high church'.


1/14 How large a contingent of servants and cattle does it take to get the five-strong Woodhouse party three-quarters of a mile to Randalls, on Christmas Eve?
Four servants and four horses.


1/15 What piece of land separates Randalls from Hartfield?
The  'common field', symbolically enough.


1/16 How long is it since Jane Fairfax was in Highbury?
Two years—about the same time that Mr Elton came and, presumably, the old vicar died.

1/17 Who was Jane Fairfax's father?
Lieutenant Fairfax, an infantry officer, who married Mrs Bates's youngest daughter. He subsequently died in action abroad. She followed with a consumption.


1/18 How much money did Miss Campbell bring to her marriage, by way of dowry? And how much are the other eligible ladies in the novel worth?
Miss Campbell brought her lucky husband £12,000. Augusta Hawkins (later Elton) is worth £10,000 and Emma, most desirable of all, £30,000. These sums can be multiplied fifty-fold to reach approximate modern-day values.

1/19 What is Mr Elton's first name? And Mr Knightley's? And Mrs Weston's? And Mr Woodhouse's?  Philip, George, Anne, Henry

1/20 What does Mr Knightley do with his last stored apples of the year?
He gives them to the Bateses—more particularly to the visibly ailing Jane. Vitamin deficiency was known, if not by name, then by the sufferer's pallid complexion (the blemish in Jane which the duplicitous Frank points out to Emma). The apples furnish the only lie we catch Mr Knightley in when he reassures the Bateses he has plenty of the fruit left—something later indignantly contradicted by his steward, William Larkins, who evidently disapproves of Donwell's bounty being given away.


1/21 With whom did Augusta Hawkins principally reside at Bath?
Mrs Partridge—chaperone and (genteel) boarding-house keeper. The name suggests hunting: not, of course, for game, but marriage partners.


1/22 What is the name of Mrs Elton's cook?
Wright. Mrs Elton is assiduous in collecting 'receipts' (that is, recipes) for Wright from the Highbury families. She intends to entertain in style. One assumes that when she served the bachelor vicar, life was easier for Wright.

1/23 Who is whose caro sposo and who is whose caro sposa?
Mr Elton—his wife (or possibly Jane Austen, or possibly some proofreader at John Murray's) is not sure about Italian gender.


1/24 What is Mrs Weston doing when she breaks the news of Frank's duplicity to Emma?
She is at 'her work'—seven months pregnant, she is sewing in preparation, we may assume, for her soon-to-be-born child. Knitting was considered somewhat low class and would have been less likely for someone of Mrs Weston's station. Specifically, she is sewing her 'broad hems', that
is, dresses for the baby with a large turn-up at the hem, so that it can be let down as the child grows. She has also, we learn, made a first set of caps.
 
1/25 How long has Mr Knightley been in love with Emma?
'Since you were thirteen at least'. Presumably he found Isabella toostupid (and like her father) for his taste and let John take her.