Jane Austen’s Emma is one of my favourite books but it did strike me recently that there is one element of it that I find unbelievable, or maybe unrealistic is a better choice of word. Not that an unrealistic plot would stop me reading a well-written book and Jane Austen writes so beautifully she could make a story about a puddle of mud a good read! And it is fiction after all. So, I want to make it clear straight away that I do thoroughly enjoy Emma but must ask myself: If Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightley were real people would they get married? And they are not the only couple in Emma. There is also Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax and I have to ask myself the same question about them. Why do I find these couple so unbelievable?
For starters there is a large age difference between Emma and Mr Knightley. I know that a large age difference is not that unbelievable as my own family is full of examples of happily married couples with more than ten years between them. A large age gap does seem to close as one gets older but there is a huge age difference in maturity between one who is about twenty like Emma and one who is in his late thirties like Mr Knightley and I think this is actually very evident in Jane Austen’s Emma. Another issue I have with the age difference is Mr Knightley knew Emma when she was born and at the same time he was nearly an adult. I find that anyone I know who was born when I was in my teens or older always seem to remain a child in my eyes and I am shocked when they start doing things like learning how to drive. Would Mr Knightley be able to easily stop seeing Emma as a child and start seeing her as a desirable woman? From the way he often corrects Emma, which she does not like at all and therefore is not endeared to him, could be a sign that he does still view her as a child at times. Mr Knightley does not speak to any other woman in this manner. From the other point of few I think I will always view people who were a good deal older than me when I was born as much older than me and have never considered any of them as a possible marriage partner for myself due to this fact. There are ten years between my boyfriend and myself and we can laugh about the fact that when I was starting primary school he was about to leave high school but I think we would have a completely different relationship had we known each other all those years ago. I do know a very happily married couple who have known each other their whole lives but they are only a year apart whereas Emma, for a long time probably viewed Mr Knightley as an older brother, she even uses this term at the ball at the Crown when she says to him, “You have shown that you can dance, and you know we are not really so much brother and sister as to make it at all improper.”. Emma herself, as she tells Harriet Smith, has no intention of marrying and only feels she loves Mr Knightley when Harriet confesses that she is in love with him. I think Emma may confuse her fear of losing Mr Knightley’s friendship with love for him. As she said to Mr Knightley earlier in the novel when he accuses her and Mrs Weston of trying to plan a match between himself and Jane Fairfax, “You would not come in and sit with us in this comfortable was, if you were married.” Emma knows if she agrees to marry Mr Knightley she will never lose him.
Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill are the other couple I mentioned. It is not so much that they are a couple that I find hard to believe but rather the fact that they remain a couple after all that happens during the course of the story. I do however, have some problems with Jane Fairfax agreeing to the secret engagement. It is secret because Frank Churchill’s aunt would not approve. She does claim to be very ill but has done for years which is why Frank has never been able to visit his father and she may go on living for many more years. So Jane Fairfax agreed to an engagement with no telling how long it would be before it could be made public. When the two of them are in Highbury it is understandable that they do not mention the engagement to anyone in case Frank Churchill’s aunt hears of it. Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax could have just paid each other very little attention to ensure that no one suspects anything but Frank Churchill’s behaviour is appalling. He flirts with Emma Woodhouse in front of Jane Fairfax and everyone is convinced that he is in love with Emma. He also criticises Jane Fairfax when he talks to Emma either insulting the way she wears her hair or saying that her complexion is too pale. He sends Jane Fairfax a pianoforte as an anonymous gift as she loves to play and has no pianoforte to play while she is staying in Highbury. Though Jane Fairfax is slightly embarrassed by the gift, this act could almost redeem Frank Churchill from his bad behaviour if he did not encourage Emma Woodhouse to believe that the piano forte is in fact from Mr Dixon – the husband of Jane Fairfax’s oldest friend and that he has made the gift anonymous because he is a married man but in love with Jane Fairfax. Frank also embarrasses Jane Fairfax with this theory later on in the story when many of them are playing an alphabet game. I find the fact that this couple did eventually marry unbelievable because I don’t believe any woman would have put up with Frank Churchill’s behaviour. I do understand that in Regency England women were not in the same position they are today but Jane Fairfax did have the power to break the engagement. I find it hard to believe she just silently let Frank Churchill do as he please and did not once question his behaviour. Even though she is quiet and timid I still believe she would have had something to say to him. The only two possible reasons she does not is that she really is as spineless as Emma believes she is or that marrying well is too important to her to jeopardise the engagement by getting angry with Frank Churchill. But though she lacks a bit of character she is a very accomplished young woman and I am sure she could have married elsewhere. I do not know any woman, now or then who would have put up with their fiancé behaving like Frank Churchill did in Highbury. Emma Woodhouse or Lizzy Bennet certainly would not.
These are the reasons that I believe Jane Austen’s Emma is somewhat of a fairytale. Nevertheless, it does not have to be believable to be enjoyable and fairytales sometimes make the best stories!
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