Interpretations of Emma using Woolf as a Basis

Virginia Woolf, an early twentieth century novelist had a different perspective on good character development than many of her predecessors. She was well known for her essay on the topic, “Character in Fiction” in which she describes the changes in character development throughout the previous couple of generations of writers. She described these generations by reigning English royalty. The Victorians were described as relying on describing possessions and surroundings to develop their characters. The Edwardians were criticized for using their works as a social commentary. Woolf believed that the members of her group, the Georgians, were striving for increased realism in their characters from the basis of reflecting the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

I would now like to take a look at Emma by Jane Austen in these circumstances. Overall the novel has a very Victorian feel, but elements of the other groups of writers can be extracted from the work. The Victorian feel comes from the descriptions of surroundings and the importance of appearances and the detail to the physical descriptions. This is to be expected as and the detail to the physical descriptions. This is to be expected as Emma was written nearly one hundred years before Woolf wrote her essay.

There are also elements of social criticism in Emma. I feel that there is critique of how important class and status matter to the characters. It seems that all Emma is driven by is the proper maintenance of status as befitting one of her station. This may just be me projecting my thoughts onto the work, a habit that I find annoying at the least. Unfortunately it is difficult for a work of literature to remain unshaded by the perceptions and thoughts of the reader. Still there could be said that there is a critique on Emma and her notions of class are overly detrimental to society of the time, yet even now nearly two hundred years later class still matters, not nearly as much as the past, but enough to make it noticeable. This kind of commentary of society was one of the main criticisms of the Edwardian style of writing.

Emma has very little of the Georgian style of character development. I would argue that the only character that could fit that general method of character development. Georgian writing mainly emphasizes realistic character development through looking at the characters actions, reactions, and thoughts. The only character whose thoughts are apparent to the reader in Emma are Emma’s. The reader can get a good sense of the characters ‘education’ as her preconceived notions are slowly questioned. All the other characters feel flat or unknown in comparison. Harriet just feels like a pale shadow of Emma herself. Many of the side characters are very blunt and have little to no real impact on the feel of the other characters. Some of the situations created by them can lead to insight into how Emma’s view on the world is changing throughout the novel which is similar to “Miss Brill”. None of the other characters were impactful, but Miss Brill’s reactions to them provided a lot of insight into her feelings and produced empathy from the reader for the character. I have yet to feel that way in regards to Emma. Hopefully further readings will shed further insight on the character and her education.

~Matthew McKenna