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Individuality In Jane Austen's Emma

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Being the paragon of the romantic era of the 18th century, Jane Austen’s zealous novel Emma does more than highlight the faults and first-world problems of the English genteel. Emma detours from the romanticism to subtly tease the overall social mechanics of the changing Georgian/Imperial era, challenging the social decorum that overencumbered the freedom of the individuals locked in this rigid, elitist society tuned towards the refined aristocracy through significant highlights in social rules and the extolling of certain virtues.
The most obvious topic both in romantic literature and superb gossip is marriage. In Emma, marriage is characterized sharply different in contrast to Austen’s other novels by omitting a fundamental principle of old-world …show more content…

The biased traditional historicism lays out the base structure of Romanticism, the dull stereotypes of what many alike Jane Austen used as their fundamental foundation for their infamous stories, such as Emma. But, Austen garnished this cold steel hull with the strategic layering of realistic human ideas, motives, feelings, and intentions. The most evident character of this vivid behavior is, of course, Emma Woodhouse herself. Her brash personality with rapid wit and fierce independence has earned her the renegade trait of individuality, especially for one being caressed by the aura of the overbearing aristocracy. Oh, but why does Jane Austen not follow the stereotypical heroine? Change: unearthing a more vivid world than the statistical social obligations and flat-faced notes common today in public knowledge pertaining to this now-ancient world, reverbing the transition of power from country to country and from people to people occuring during the 18th century. Jane Austen molded this “beyond-the-page” character to extol one of the many things that was consistently muted within their society: women. According to base traditional facts, women were nothing but demure inferiors. Austen defies this overarching idea by bringing to light the realistic side of people, specifically of Emma. She shows the passion and fire of …show more content…

The poised sophistication, the daily tea of nonsense, the complete absurdity of bland extravagance attributed to the aristocracy were ideas misinterpreted by the human eye, one blinded by ignorance on the ancient subject. We today subconsciously allow our biases to take precedence over facts, hence the formation of negative connotation around the word “ignorant,” as well as its widespread use. Therefor, this is why the dull and seemingly boring era of the regal genteel turn so many off, especially readers. They [the readers] view these eloquent novels as sappy love stories with a bit too much light-hearted comedy. What they don’t see is what is between the lines or beyond the page. There is much more to Romanticism than just some historical tradition of misinterpreted facts. As clearly seen in Emma, the world back then, the people that made up the world, a the people that were the world were much like us than we believe. This vivid, life-like connection is what new historicism is about, being a lens that not only recognizes the ambiguity of time, but the realistic nature of humans and our inner nature to not conform. This simple perspective allows us to not only see, but feel the emotions surrounding the change: the change of women 's status, the change in the aristocracy, the change

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