As you know, this module asks you to think about the text in terms of its textual integrity. By reading Emma you will discern how Jane Austen has constructed the text, the plot and her masterful use of language to create meaning over time. In this module, you will also look at what critics have said about the text and develop your own interpretation of the text.
Essentially, you will engage with the text in a critical manner. Enjoy!
Quotes to help you with your analysis:
"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings in existence..."
Chapter 1
Word choice
“The acquaintance she had already formed were unworthy of her. The friends, from whom she had just parted, though very good sort of people, must be doing her harm.”
Chapter 3
Narrator
"Emma remained in a state of vexation too; but there was more indistinctness in the causes of her's, than in his. She did not always feel so absolutely satisfied with herself, so entirely convinced that her opinions were right and her adversary's wrong, as Mr. Knightley"
Chapter 8
Relationships
"The Coles were very respectable in their way, but they ought to be taught that it was not for them to arrange the terms on which the superior families would visit them. This lesson, she very much feared, they would receive only from herself; she had little hope of Mr. Knightley, none of Mr. Weston. "
Chapter 25
Social class
“Insufferable woman!” was her immediate exclamation. “Worse than I had supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightley!—I could not have believed it. Knightley!—never seen him in her life before, and call him Knightley!—and discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart, vulgar being, with her Mr. E., and her caro sposo, and her resources, and all her airs of pert pretension and underbred finery. Actually to discover that Mr. Knightley is a gentleman! I doubt whether he will return the compliment, and discover her to be a lady. I could not have believed it!"
Chapter 32
"Harriet, necessarily drawn away by her engagements with the Martins, was less and less at Hartfield; which was not to be regretted.—The intimacy between her and Emma must sink; their friendship must change into a calmer sort of goodwill; and, fortunately, what ought to be, and must be, seemed already beginning, and in the most gradual, natural manner"
Chapter 55