Jane Austens Emma Essay -- Jane Austen Emma Essays

Jane Austen's Emma Jane Austen does indeed present a picture of a community who look to each other for entertainment as well as support, and are content with their limited outlook. The story never leaves the close surroundings of Highbury and there is no desire to do so. When the party goes to Box Hill, away from Highbury, there is tension and the trip is not enjoyed. It is interesting to note that the three characters that come into Highbury, are those which have the potential to ruin the tight community; Mrs Elton and her ‘vulgar†¦self-important, presuming, familiar†¦ manner’, and the deception of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill’s secret engagement. The community in Highbury are very close and everyone knows each other’s business. This is represented through the amount of gossiping that occurs throughout Austen’s novel. Even small matters, for example the mystery of Perry’s carriage is discussed with great enthusiasm, ‘†¦and she mentioned it to her in confidence, she had no objection to her telling us, of course†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Gossiping demonstrates the topics that enthral the community in Highbury are certainly limited in outlook. They are interested in the happenings of their world, and this is the most important thing. With gossip being spread quickly, it is clear why neither Jane Fairfax nor Frank Churchill told anyone of their engagement, which they wanted to remain private. To a modern reader, this is trivial, but a reader in the eighteenth century would understand the harm that this deception could have caused, had it not been in a satirical novel. The society that Austen has created depends on trust and functions interdependently, which fits in with the view of an inward-looking community. This is w... ... very pretty young man to be sure, and a very good young man†¦great regard for him’. Here, Austen reflects one of the many good attributes that knightly has; that he can see past status. I think that in Emma Jane Austen does present an inward looking community, limited in outlook to a certain extent. If you look at Emma’s society as a microcosm of eighteenth Century society as a whole, which had a strict class etiquette, then this opinion is true. However it also represents hope for the ignorance of this etiquette because the reader sees Emma on her journey of self discovery and realisation of man’s worth. Nonetheless, the community are not all inward looking as they regard others of a lower class with respect. With this respect comes a close community, who believes Highbury to be the beginning and end of their lives which makes them limited in outlook.