|
Austen, in all her novels, is concerned
about what
happens to single women who are either financially dependent or
socially insecure. In Emma, Miss Bates, Jane Fairfax, and
Harriet Smith all faced uncertain
fates because of financial or social vulnerability.
Miss Bates, middle-aged, unattractive,
and
poor, faced a grim future as a decayed gentlewoman (as her
contemporaries
might have called her). Mr. Knightley referred to her bleak prospects
in rebuking Emma, "She is poor; she has sunk from the comforts she was
born
to, and if she live to old age, must probably sink more" (p. 324). The
occupations open to a lady who wished to retain some semblance of
status
were few, very few, the primary one being a governess or a teacher.
Jane Fairfax was horrified by the
inevitaility of becoming
a governess and thought life as a governess would not be worth living,
"With
the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had resolved at
one-and-twenty
to complete the sacrifice and retire from all the pleasures of life, of
rational
intercourse, equal society, peace, and hope, to penance and
mortification
forever" (p. 156). The metaphor of becoming a nun and renouncing life
changed
to a slavery metaphor in a conversation with Mrs. Elton. Jane bitterly
asserted, "There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon
produce
something–offices for the sale not quite of human flesh, but of human
intellect"
(p. 264). She was not sure whether governesses or slaves were more
miserable.
On hearing that Jane had accepted a
governess
position, Emma reflected, "The contrast between Mrs. Churchill's
importance
in the world and Jane Fairfax's struck her; one was everything, the
other
nothing" (p. 331). Jane's situation so moved Emma's pity that it nearly
justified, for her, Jane's secret engagement. Though neither Emma nor
Mrs. Weston condoned the secrecy and consequent deceptions practiced by
Frank,
and Jane, they agreed that Jane's situation mitigated her behavior.
Mrs. Weston acknowledged Jane had deviated
"from the strict rule of
right. And how much may be said, in her situation, for even that error!"
"Much, indeed!" cried Emma, feelingly. "If
a woman can ever be excused for thinking only of herself, it is in a
situation
like Jane Fairfax's. Of such, one may also say that 'The world is not
theirs,
nor the world's law.'" (p. 345)
Their response indicated the hardships
governesses faced. Though Mrs. Weston, as Miss Taylor, had been a
governess, her position
was exceptionally advantageous and not at all what Jane was likely to
encounter;
Miss Taylor had become part of the Woodhouse family, was treated with
courtesy
and consideration by Mr. Woodhouse, and became Emma's surrogate mother
and
friend.
Marriage or having her own fortune were
a woman's best
options. Emma was fortunate in being an heiress whose lack of paternal
control
or direction had given her control over her life (or did she have only
apparent
control?). For Emma, marriage was a question of love, not financial
pressures. In explaining to Harriet why she would not marry, Emma
enumerated the advantages
of her life—her freedom, her active life, her fortune, her status, and
her father's love. She repudiated the idea that she would be an old
maid,
like Miss Bates:
it is poverty only which
makes
celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman with a very
narrow
income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! the proper sport
of
boys and girls; but a single woman of good fortune is always
respectable,
and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else. (p. 93)
Is there irony in this passage, in the
phrases "a generous
public" or "the proper sport of boys and girls" and in Emma's
acceptance
of the public's abusive treatment of a poor unmarried woman? If so, is
the
irony directed at Emma, society, or both? and whose is the irony,
Emma's
or the narrator's or both?
Whatever the reader may think of
the
irony in this passage, Emma's underlying view of marriage as
financially
and socially advantageous for women was confirmed by Mr. Knightley. He
saw Miss Taylor's marriage as a "question of dependence or
independence!" (p. 31), and her social status obviously rose with her
marriage. The same
considerations entered into Emma's thoughts on Harriet's marriage to
Mr. Martin:
Emma had no doubt of
Harriet's
happiness with any good-tempered man; but with him, and in the home he
offered,
there would be the hope of more–of security, stability, and
improvement. She would be placed in the midst of those who loved her
and who had better
sense than herself; retired enough for safety and occupied enough for
cheerfulness. She would be never led into temptation nor left for it to
find her out. She would be respectable and happy. (p. 410-11)
Additionally, marriage offered Harriet
protection against
dangers, and living with people more sensible than she was would
improve
her.
Does the idea of marriage to
someone
more sensible improving an individual apply to Emma? Has she been
improved
in any way by her impending marriage to Mr. Knightley? Is there any
reason
to think that marriage to Mr. Knightley will change her for the better?
Does this possibility of marriage apply to Jane Fairfax and Frank
Churchill? Will marriage improve Jane, who is emotionally and morally
superior to Frank? Is Frank likely to change, and is marriage to an
unchanged Frank likely
to produce a happy marriage in the long run?
January
26,, 2009
|
