Monday, April 23, 2007

Everything's Jane, or The Two Janes: Spencer & Austen and Women Writers

Jane Spencer argues in her article that women writers of the eighteenth-century moved toward a mode of writing that conflated the domestic, private world of women with the outward, public sphere of men by establishing their fiction in the emerging public sphere - a sphere that comprised private groups in public interaction. In doing so, women writers were able to meet the heretofore masculine tradition of political writing in the genre of romance and domesticity they had been more or less confined in.

Jane Austen deftly fits Spencer's model, and in several ways exemplifies it. Austen weaves her Emma in an environment of domestic middle-class English countryside life, following the meddling of Emma Woodhouse in the romantic affairs of others. Part of what makes the story so significant and engrossing is the terrible impact that such meddling can have. In nineteenth-century life, the social mobility of a woman or a man depended greatly on his or her marital match. The social and political weight of a man could be increased or decreased according to marriage - certainly it could make or break a woman. Emma's interference in the lives of others and the ensuing conflict that arises over it not only provides positive support for Spencer's thesis concerning the moral authority of women writers, but also illustrates her conception of the negative influence of the political and social authority of men. Emma's obsession with the act of marriage, and indeed her own disinclination for it, demonstrates the problems inherent in the masculine obsession over social class due to marriage. She tries to force poor Ms. Smith and poor Mr. Elton into naturally awkward social positions, and at the possible detriment of Harriet and herself. Emma is aware of the social danger of marriage and is personally unwilling to gamble with it (unless, as she admits, "were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing!"), but her willingness to interfere with the social standings of others emphasizes the blatant faults of the impersonal manipulation of social marriage over romantic marriage (82). Emma's progression in the novel reflects Austen's intentions for the reader - toward an understanding of the importance of proper action in domestic matters due to its reflection in social and political matters, and its reflection in the personal happiness or grief of individuals.

1 comment:

thowe said...

Just a brief comment, but Kris' post ties in very nicely with the chapter in Ian Watt's Rise of the Novel on love and marriage in Pamela--we had a good discussion that day on the changing nature of marriage for middle class women in the 18th century.