The Ironic Vision in Emma

Emma of all the novels of Jane Austen is very much remarka­ble for irony, which has become an organic part of the novel both intrinsically and extrinsically. The author carefully chooses a theme which is largely pregnant with ironic implications. She builds her novels exclusively on the theme of self-deception of the heroine and her gradual realization. Emma, the heroine, living in a world of illusion for a long time, commits grave blunders which have serious repurcussions. Graham Hough says, “Emma’s attempts at match-making are her most serious mistakes”.¹ But for quite a long period she is unaware of her limitations and lives long in self-deception.

Though Miss Austen had dealt upon these themes in the earlier novels like Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, there the theme of self-deception is not principal one and it is treated with equal importance with other themes, while in this novel it has the central and pivotal role, and it is both thematically and structurally the basis on which the entire super­structure of the novel is built. Even in Northanger Abbey the heroine is a victim of one type of deception which comes to her mainly on account of inexperience and the reading of unhealthy fiction like Radciffean novels. Lack of proper education makes her personality incomplete and with the association of Henry Tilney, the proper man, she comes to realise the affairs of the world in a right per­spective.

In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne who always feeds her brain with a strong dose of romantic imagination, gets disillusioned with her existing mental set-up by the nauseating duplicity of her long admired hero Willoughby and finally comes into terms with the hard realities of the world. Her marriage with Col. Brandon is a powerful testimonial of the vast change, which she is subject to. In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth becomes a victim of self­deception mainly on account of the complicated situations as well as her strong prejudice she develops in the beginning of the novel itself against Darcy who has accidentally passed a remark totally unaware of its consequences. The theme is built more on the strong citadel of misunderstanding and less on self-deception.

But Marvin Mudrick makes a sweeping generalization which is vague as well as misleading without going deep into the impli­cation, when he says “Emma, like Pride and Prejudice, is a story of self-deception, and the problem of each heroine is to undeceive herself”. ² It is true with Emma, butit is not so with Pride and Prejudice: a careful analysis of the theme of the latter reveals the distinction between the two is glaring enough. Emma is entirely a victim of self-deception and willingly she lets herself live in her own world of incorrect thinking and inaccurate conclusions, while Elizabeth Bennet is deceived into erroneous judgements by situations which are dramatically potential enough to lead her to wrong conclusions. The ground work for Elizabeth’s deception is carefully prepared through various dramatic strokes and it has its strong foundation laid on her prejudice which has its lush growth on reasonable grounds. Technically there is a lot of difference between self-deception and misunderstanding; the former involves a type of ignorance to which the character surrenders, while the latter involves a partial ignorance to which the person accidentally be­comes a prey. Prof. Mudrick, in his enthusiasm to write elaborately on “Irony as Form: Emma”,fails to understand the subtle dif­ference and hastily makes an equation of Emma and Pride and Prejudice on vague and ill-conceived premises.

A discussion of Jane Austen’s use of irony automatically leads us to a discussion of Emma, where irony is seen in its bulwark. It is in this novel where irony is seen in all its implications spreading its shade on all the pages by extending its sovereignty over all the personae without any exception whatsoever. In the very opening page of the novel, Miss Emma Woodhouse, the heroine, is presented as a character who suffers from a real evil of “the power of having rather too much her own way”. While it seems to be a general and casual remark without any undertone of meaning, it is full of dramatic irony which makes a penetrating insight into the character. Emma is always cocksure of being right, when she is actually wrong and extremely erroneous. She wholly devotes herself to “match-making”, as though she has kind of supernatural talent to determine the destinies of the people. Emma’s excessive self-confidence leads to deceptions. She chooses the amiable, soft and equally stupid Harriet Smith as the favourite object of her experiment. As soon as she thinks about Mr. Elton, she rushes to the speedy conclusion that he would be the suitable partner for Harriet and dissuades her to accept the reasonable and proper proposal of Robert Martin. Jane Austen satirizes the snobbish nature of Emma. There is a kind of steady running commentary on the behaviour and the manners of the characters, which un­doubtedly lends intensity to irony.

The strength of Jane Austen’s irony lies in the gradual process in which realization is brought in the character. As D.D. Devlin says, “Her irony is awareness and insight”.³ Snobbery and over­confidence on her innate talents are the ruling motives in Emma, which have ironical significance throughout the novel. Jane Austen satirizes such snobbish qualities present in the society. Emma criticizes Mr. Knightley of masculine understanding, “one of the few people who ever told her of them”. When her first project fails, now she imagines that Frank Churchill is the proper person for Harriet. Anything is possible for Emma’s imagination. Frank Churchill leads her completely into wrong path in estimating the character of Jane Fairfax. Emma is the last person to understand the cunning character of Frank. Her relationship with Frank is one of the major ironies of the book.

Emma is so stubborn that she even ignores John Knightley, when he warns her that Mr. Elton “seems to have a great deal of goodwill towards you”. Instantly Emma replies, “I thank you; but I assure you that you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends and nothing more”. (EM, p. 112) Emma fails to take the cue from him who is more of a mentor than a mere friend or casual visitor. She takes this warning in an amused way and talks to her well-wisher in her light-hearted tone. A.H. Wright says, “This is a marvellous piece of anticipatory dramatic irony”.⁴ The irony in the character of Emma gives rise to laughter and humour. Her stubbornness in prizing her own’ insight into men and matters, her own confidence and her snobbery all these create comic effect in the novel. The study of her character, by itself, gives us any amount of amusement and she leads the irony in the novel and sets it agoing. Harriet Smith is a foolish and ignorant girl; mentally immature, she is one who always needs advice. She is an undeveloped priggish creature without individuality, relishing to have her shelter under the wings of Emma. She is a plaything in the hands of Emma. When Harriet gives Emma the letter of proposal by Martin, Emma talks for a long time in such a fashion that Harriet is not able to understand the meaning and when Harriet finally rushes to the conclusion that Emma is advising her to accept it, then Emma says that she is thinking in which manner the letter is to be rejected, assuming the refusal as granted. This episode is entirely comic and ironical with its undertones of meaning.

Jane Austen also satirizes persons like Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill who do not seem to be fully dependable people. The former is too reserved, while the latter is too talkative and hypocri­tical. Even Mr. Knightley, who sees in Jane a finely accomplished young woman, cannot but remark to Emma in his conversation that she is too reserved in nature. Though she is sensitive, she is ineffective. In spite of her longstanding engagement with Frank Churchill, she passively suffers at the excursions to Donwell and Box-hill. She comes from the Box Hill party with painful feelings not merely at Emma’s outrageous flirting with the man of her choice but with Emma’s unkind and even brutal treatment of Miss Bates. Of course, later, she is deeply touched at her cruel behaviour, when Mr. Knightley strongly and sternly admonishes her. The total change in her heart is the result of the mortification: “Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circum­stance in her life. She was most forcibly struck. The truth of his representation there was no denying”.⁵ (E.M. p. 376) with real tenderness of heart she tries to make amends for her past cruelty, by calling on Miss Bates. But Jane Fairfax does not easily forget it and forgive her. She doesn’t disclose her heart to anyone in the novel and what is more astonishing in her character is that she prefers to be a silent sufferer even in the teeth of dis­tressing circumstances, which must really be heart-breaking to her. Her silence adds to the mystery of Frank, the young and fashionable man with a dashing temperament and a touch of flair. At every stage he is contrasted to Knightley, whom as Dr. Champman says, “all must agree that he is a perfect English gentleman”.⁶

Jane Austen makes a perfect aim of her shaft of satire when she makes him go to London with the only purpose of getting his hair cut. This shows his frivolous nature and wanton lightness. It is so silly that even Emma observes. “There was an air of foppery and nonsense in it which she could not approve”. Still she is fond of this man whose ways and means of doing things are dubious and morally repulsive. She doesn’t so easily sever her connections with this man of doubtful character. It is quite ironical to see her deliberately flirting, to an outrageous degree, with the man, who uses her as a decoy and who is already engaged to Jane Fairfax who is in no way inferior to Emma either in accom­plishments or in delicacy of feeling.

Jane Austen’s powers as an inimitable ironist reach their acme in Emma forming a powerful undercurrent beneath the basic theme of the novel the theme of deception. In a awy Emma is the delightful story of a spoiled wealthy girl whose defects are rectified by defeat and love, who learns humility through humiliation and who is rewarded in the end with a happy married life.

REFERENCES

¹ Narrative and Dialogue in Jane Austen, Critical Quarterly, Autumn 1979, p. 201.
² Jane Austen: Irony as Defense and Discovery, p. 181.
³ Jane Austen and Education: (Macmillan: London, 1975) p. 48.
⁴ Jane Austen’s Novels: A Study in Structure, p. 141
⁵ A. C. Bradley choosing this situation remarks: “She has a generous nature. She is self-confident, and she likes to be first: but she is not vain. She is faultless in her relations with her father and though she will not take advice from Knightley, her readiness to take reproof and to make amends for her errors is more than magnanimous” “Jane Austen”, in Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, II (1911), 23.
⁶ Jane Austen: Facts and Problems, p. 201.