Passage Two Prose

In the world of high maintenance ladies at the beginning of the 20th century, conniving silently and judgmental attitudes are bound to arise. Not only were women being pressured into a certain role to society by the men that they associated themselves with, but they were pushing fellow ladies into those roles as well, all whilst judging others for complying. In Jane Austen’s Emma, the main character Emma fancies herself to be the epitome of an elite debutante, yet seems to find great trouble in accepting her fellow lady Jane Fairfax’s demure and unassuming personality. As Emma struggles to come to terms with Jane, the reader finds Emma mocking Jane for being so polite to the point that it is verging on fakery in Emma’s eyes. A passage from page 152 of Emma accurately depicts this struggle, as well as helping the reader to understand the role that the woman was forced into playing during this time period. This passage is key to the novel’s plot as well as one of the main themes in the novel. As far as the plot goes, this passage depicts Emma’s views of Jane, and how “tiresome” she finds her whole family to be (Austen). Emma does not think highly of Jane, nor does she respect her. The passage makes this out to be because of Jane’s reserved nature, which Emma seems to see as transparent and fake. Emma’s judgment of this personality type helps to explain one of the main themes of the novel. Austen is constantly poking at the way people, specifically women, act during the time period of Emma. Everyone feels that it is their duty to hide behind “a cloak of politeness”. The fake personality and unassuming nature is used in order to appear polite and worthy of marrying into a high class family. The women of Emma are set on being the perfect bride, and this perfect bride is made out to be quiet, reserved, and carry a grace that can only come from not speaking out. This oppression is made a mockery through Emma, who Austen carefully uses to expose the true nature of women during that time, in order for the reader to get a clearer picture of what women actually were like, and how they wanted to portray themselves to society.