Book #8: Emma by Jane Austen

Emma has always been one of my least favorite Jane Austen novels, although every time I finish reading it, I'm not quite sure why. I always love it once I do read it. Maybe it's because I hate the shame of the several bad mistakes that Emma makes throughout the novel--because they're not horrible sins or anything, but they are real-life person mistakes that anyone could or would be tempted to make in her same situation. The shame and the regret she feels after she's impatient to Miss Bates is real, and I feel it just as much as she does, and it reminds me of how awful it feels to do that same thing. So I suppose that's a sign of how well-written a novel it is, that it makes me so uncomfortable that I don't like it--even in such a little matter as that.

Emma Woodhouse is also one of the most complicated heroines that Jane Austen writes, I think. Fanny and Anne are not exactly anyone too exciting--they're quiet and well-mannered and GOOD girls; Elinor and Marianne are kind of character types of themselves (one's sensible, one's sensitive); Elizabeth Bennet is witty and beautiful and altogether very sure of herself but very aware of her faults (to a point, I guess). But Emma Woodhouse ("handsome, clever, and rich") is a good person--she does charity work for the poor, she is kind to the people in her father's circle, even those that annoy her, etc.--but she really is insufferable and spoiled because she knows that she's a good person (and that she's handsome, clever, and rich, like the first line says). Mr. Knightley is the only person who sees any faults in her and tells her so, and he is, of course, right all along. I love how she evolves as a character over the course of the book--she humbles herself to take Mr. Knightley's advice and rebuke after how she offends Miss Bates. She also recognizes the mistakes her pride has made her make with regard to Harriet at the end of the book, and wishes she'd listened to Mr. Knightley's advice about her all along. I think that's the key to her character change all along--she learned to humble herself and recognize her faults and mistakes more honestly. She grows up, really.

The one thing that drives me CRAZY about this book is Mr. Woodhouse. Why is he so annoying? And why is everyone else so nice to him about it? Why are they always talking about draughts and catching cold if you get a little bit rained on? He's obviously a hypochondriac (or something of the sort) but they're always so nice to him--the only person who ever responds to him in a logical, rational manner is Mr. John Knightley, Emma's sister's husband, who offends Emma so badly when he tells Mr. Woodhouse to stop talking about that. But oh, well. It's a little thing, and it's part of the humor of the book (and it's also very telling about Emma's character that she's so devoted to her father anyways).