Emma Plot and Analysis

Emma: A Review of Jane Austen’s Most Voluminous Novel

Emma is the most voluminous novel by the famous English writer Jane Austen. The plot tells us about the following: a change has taken place in the life of Emma Woodhouse; her governess, Miss Taylor, married Mr. Weston. Emma had long noticed the feelings that these people had for each other and imagined that she could “read in the hearts” and foresee marriages, in order to diversify everyday life, Emma undertakes to arrange the fate of a certain Miss Harriet Smith. The language of Jane Austen’s works is very figurative and colorful, although the dialogues of the characters can be tiring because of the volume. In general, Emma is a classic, but not boring, which teaches the most important thing, reasonable, kind, and eternal.

The Plot and Analysis

The novel Emma clearly shows that even work with an unhurried development of action and an almost complete absence of events can be written in such a way that one cannot tear oneself away from it. There are few events here, someone arrived, someone left, and then they staged a ball once, only aristocratic life is displayed, although the action takes place in the countryside, no one talks about everyday problems and does not care. And if one of the characters has difficulties in life, the writer uses the main way to solve them, a happy marriage with a wealthy person. If a child in childhood had to lose his mother or both parents, he will be immediately adopted by wealthy relatives or just family friends (Shalihah 53). In this regard, this device Austen uses throughout the novel can serve as a satire for the contemporary English society where solutions to the problems were not diverse and the society was not as flexible.

The ideal man in the book is present, this is a laconic and insightful Mr. Knightley. Jane Austen knew women’s characters too well to embellish them even on the pages of a book. Emma often resembles a grumbling matron who imposes her opinion on everyone and everyone, and other ladies, with their merits, also have no fewer flaws (Shalihah 57). At the same time, Austen made Emma just as human as other characters by letting her fall in love with Mr. Knightley in the end, after all.

The film Emma. (2020) is a new film adaptation based on the novel by the writer Jane Austen, based on the novels of the English writer, who was born in the 18th century, 67 film adaptations have already been shot. Anya Taylor-Joy made a visually effective performance. With amazing whiskey-colored eyes, delicate but mobile facial expressions, and charming twitching of the shoulders, she is more daring and wayward than her book prototype, but still, her image is overflowing with special charm. She played excellently, and yet by birth she was not even an Englishwoman, but an American (Kermode). It is evident that Taylor-Joy was largely familiar with the source material, thus, being able to replicate all of her character’s mannerisms in great detail.

The duet with Johnny Flynn’s George Knightley is excellent, there is chemistry between them, and the film is developing. In the book, George is noticeably older, because the girls were supposed to connect fate with already established experienced gentlemen, and not youngsters. True, in the film, George is mentally more experienced, and everything runs after Emma with moralizing. The action of the film develops slowly, this is a story about provincial life. Wonderful beautiful dresses, costumes, unusual shoes for us, funny hair styling, wonderful views, English lawns, rich estates. Of course, many manners and habits are shown with a fair amount of humor, however, rather subtle (Kermode). The film largely replicates the style of Jane Austen, which involves pointing out important social aspects with a slightly satirical, albeit subtle sense of humor.

Conclusion

In the novel Emma produced by Austen, the story leaves a very pleasant, the main character, in the end, was still punished for self-confidence, high conceit, and reckless delusion that she can read people’s hearts and even interfere in other people’s affairs. Of course, everything ended well, but Emma turned out to be an ordinary girl for her circle, very lively, smart, a little proud, and slightly presumptuous in her desire to influence the fate of people (albeit out of good intentions).

Works Cited

Kermode, Mark. ”Emma Review – Austen’s Sweet Satire Gets a Multiplex Makeover”. The Guardian, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/16/emma-review-autumn-de-wilde-anya-taylor-joy-bill-nighy-johnny-flynn.

Shalihah, Miftahush. ”A Pragmatic Analysis on The Types and The Purposes Of Address Terms Used By The Main Character In Jane Austen’s “EMMA”. EnJourMe (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, And Teaching of English, vol. 3, no. 2, 2018, pp. 52-60. Semantic Scholar, https://doi.org/10.26905/enjourme.v2i2.2747. Accessed 26 June 2022.