An early scene in Jane Fairfax depicts how two elements of their relationship are intertwined where the narrative shows residents of Highbury comparing Emma and Jane from an early age. This comment exemplifies how women perpetuate the system of comparing women to each other in the early stages of girlhood. You must take to growing a little quicker; indeed you must!
Why, I can remember that Isabella wore that pelisse when she was but four years old, and here you are turned six and it still fits you well enough! Such scenes not only evidence how early on women are set up to perceive themselves in competition to each other and to derive praise from comparison, but also provide a background for the sense of competition and threat between Jane and Emma.
Knightley insinuates and thus she poses a threat in the marriage market. This anxiety that Jane seems to produce in Emma reflects the unilateral vulnerability to homosocial competition experienced by women. Despite having status and wealth as well as professing not to be interested in marriage, Emma is ultimately subject to the same pressures and insecurities as other women in the same patriarchal value system. Jane provokes a sense of competition in Emma which exposes this shared experience and prevents her from forming a friendship with Jane.
In the original novel, one of the ways that Emma tries to neutralize this competition with other women seems to be by befriending a woman inferior to her in class and intelligence as seen with her relationship with Harriet Smith.
Essentially, despite being described as pretty and amiable in her own right, Harriet offers no real comparative threat to Emma or her vanity as she is of a lower class and has a malleable mind— a perfect plaything. As much as she expresses love for her, Emma effectively views Harriet as a doll to play house with in the all-consuming marriage plot that Perry describes.
Knightley and question of his reciprocal interest so distressing for Emma. Knightley in response to this revelation, allow her to gain awareness of the currency of female beauty and accomplishment without regard to class. Although she does not dabble in the same manipulative behaviors as Emma or display the same wealthy petulance, the Jane that Aiken paints does not seem immune from the compulsion that Emma has to form relationships of inequality.
In fact, none of the female relationships in either novel model true equality in terms of social status or assessed desirability. Despite their similarity, Emma and Jane never befriend one another. The patriarchal pressures felt by women socialized to view themselves as competitors in the marriage market is too tall a hurdle to overcome.
Emma and Mr. Knightley become engaged as well and each romantic plot is neatly tied up. Both women are settled and the need to compete for male attention is removed. However, as Aiken knows well, Austen still does not allow readers the satisfaction of a clear resolution between these two tacit competitors. At the end of Emma, even though both women inhabit the space of the final scene, their distance from each other is felt as there is not a word exchanged between them while Emma speaks directly only with Frank and looks periodically at Jane from across the room Even while the cause of their relational —and spatial— distancing has been resolved by each of their successes in the marriage market and the stability that provides, the women will be separated by the demands that marriage entails.
Aiken grapples with this question throughout Jane Fairfax , but her answer is most clearly articulated in the last scene of her own novel as she fills the gap that Austen left with a direct conversation between the two rivals.
In this conversation, they recount and regret their early and prevailing antipathy for each other. By examining this relationship, however, we can see that this kind of marriage is not necessarily a reward. Austen wraps up each of her novels with neat marriages, and readers might assume she was supportive of the status quo.
Her depiction of marriage in general, however, shows that she does not see it as a panacea for women. Women of means, such as Emma, could choose a partner or even choose not to marry, but the majority of women needed to peddle their accomplishments and whatever income they had to the few potential mates they found in a limited society.
Rushworth to secure her house in town but later finds herself divorced and banished from her home. By providing examples of convenient marriages that end with varying states of unhappiness, Austen reveals that this marital pattern was something to resist. Evidence from the novel, however, suggests otherwise.
Marriage to Frank Churchill is only a good because it is better than the alternative—paid servitude as a governess. Once her secret engagement to Frank is made public, Jane confesses to Mrs. Conducting a love affair without the sanction of the community would have been considered an egregious wrong.
Yes, both parties are blamed for the improper engagement, but the greater part of the responsibility is placed on Frank. Frank is clearly the aggressor; Jane is passive and reserved. Frank teases her with the gift of the piano—a public display that Jane has a difficult time explaining. He taunts Jane by flirting with Emma. He is unwilling to relinquish his potential fortune for the woman he loves, but he is also unwilling to give her up even as the strain of their secret relationship is a clear burden on her health and reputation.
Knightley, though clearly speaking through his self-interest where Emma is concerned, seems to be the voice of the author in his late assessment of the would-be rake:. Every thing turns out for his good. Unlike the rakes in the other novels, Frank is rewarded with a woman who might possibly improve him.
He is not saddled with a Lydia Bennet or Maria Rushworth. He keeps his Jane and his fortune too. In a novel where all the other couples are matched according to rank, demeanor, and amiability, Jane and Frank are mismatched. Has Jane chosen Frank because she loves him or because a life with him is better than a life with Mrs.
Smallridge and her ilk? Since Austen shows that Frank Churchill is not a good choice for a woman who can choose, she may also be showing that choosing such a man is really the last resort for a woman who has few choices—and that this lack of choice is a social problem.
Jane has made her choice. Can Jane improve Frank, as Mr. Knightley hopes? We know enough about human behavior to understand that such a plan for marriage rarely works. It is likely that Frank will continue to flaunt decorum, lie, tease, and find excitement in intrigue.
The Campbells did not have the money to provide for Jane beyond that, though, and as the Bateses were poor, it was decided early on that Jane would become a governess and provide for herself. Jane paid only occasional visits to her grandmother and aunt after she went to live with the Campbells at age nine, but they continued to adore her from afar.
They were always excited to hear of her accomplishments, and they read each of her letters many times—forty times according to Emma, although that is assumed to be an exaggeration—at tea with Henry and Emma Woodhouse. As such, the idea of Jane Fairfax tired Emma to death. Jane is an orphan whose only family consists of an aunt, Miss Bates , and a grandmother, Mrs.
Bates , is regarded as a very beautiful, clever, and elegant woman, with the best of manners, and is also very well-educated and exceptionally talented at singing and playing the piano; in fact, she is the sole person whom Emma envies. She has little fortune, however, and seems destined to become a governess — a prospect she dislikes. Mrs Elton, to the surprise of others, takes it upon herself to dote on Jane, viewing her a poor creature due to her prospects.
Mrs Elton persistently attempts to find Jane a governess posting, and Jane accepts this 'charitable' friendship with little choice. Throughout the novel she is often viewed as cold and sickly, her mood poor upon Frank Churchill growing close with Emma Woodhouse despite him being attached to Jane. In many social scenes she is quite glum and reticent.
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