Emma's Significance
~Blog post #1~
Topic J
April 17, 2015
by Grace Morabito
In Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, the significance of the title
reveals a lot about who the main character is as a person. Emma is the main
character of the novel as a young woman in her twenties. One can describe her
as being “handsome, clever, and rich” as if living the perfect life (3). She is
not humble about it either. She is very proud of who she is and is not afraid
to show it. The title represents her name because it focuses on her life story.
If the fictional character is to choose the title for the book, it would be her
name because that is how her personality is. She is always thinking about
herself. Emma is upset that her nanny is resigning due to getting married, but
is happy in the case that she brings the two to fall in love. This is significant
because it shows how great of a person and helpful she can be. Mr. Knightley is
the only man that tells her of her flaws and makes her feel insecure. She tries
to pass them away as them come though. She befriends a girl named Harriet because she
has potential of the same social class. Mr. Knightley says, “neither of them
will do the other any good” (31). This is most likely true as they are so
different, but Emma will stop at nothing to prove him wrong. Although Emma is a
person that seems to be very self-conscious, she doesn’t show her shallowness
at all. She in turn tries to help everyone else with his or her problems
through manipulation, which she is best at. The significance of the title
reveals to the readers that the book title shows exactly who the book is going
to be about and what kind of person she is.
I agree with the observation made above by Grace. I think the title does represent a main theme in the book so far, which is selfishness/social status. We cannot be sure the author did this on purpose, as the name of a main character is a common title for books, but I think in this case it does show some insight into the qualities of the main character, Emma. As stated above, Emma is very proud of who she is and is not afraid to flaunt her successes. Throughout the book, I think the author tries to point out this fact with comments by other characters or indirectly stating it. For example, Mr. Knightley says to Miss Taylor, “Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest of her family” (32). Emma is aware of her knowledge and takes up the hobby of match making, in order to show off her talents and brag about her success. The title of this book could be analyzed to reveal the personality of the main character, Emma.
ReplyDeleteGrace, I give you an A for this blog post. I think you analyized the beginning of the book very well, and greatly related it to the title. You backed up your thesis with content and evidence from the book. In addition, your grammar and spelling was correct throughout the post, and the post was submitted on time. The only thing I would suggest would be to make sure you stay on topic throughout the post.
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