Free Indirect Style in Chapters 1-4 of Emma by Jane Austen PDF

Preview

Summary

Free Indirect Style in Chapters 1-4 of Emma by Jane Austen. This short essay uses the idea of FIS to portray how Austen portrays her main characters through their own thoughts and actions....

Description

ESSAYSUBMI SSI ONFORM DI SCI PLI NEOFENGLI SH

Thi sf or m mustbefil l edoutandat t ached t oyouressay . Essayswi l lnotbe accept edwi t houtt hef or m at t ached.

IHEREBYCONFI RM THAT: 

THI SESSAYI SMYOWNUNASSI STEDWORK



I THASNEVER BEEN SUBMI TTED FOR PUBLI CATI ON OR ASSESSMENT ELSEWHERE



ALL SOURCES USED I NI TS COMPOSI TI ON HAVE BEEN CLEARLY CI TED*

MODULECODE:EN410 ESSAY TI TLE:Wr i t t en Assi gnment2–Fr eeI ndi r ectSt yl ei n Chapt er s14of Emma WORDCOUNT:802

* Pl agi ar i sm i s a ser i ous academi c offence. St udent s shoul d consul tt he Uni ver si t ycodeofpr act i cef ordeal i ngwi t hpl agi ar i sm at : ht t p: / / www. nui gal way . i e/ pl agi ar i s m/

Emma by Jane Austen is filled with narrative techniques that enhance the relationship that the audience has with the character of Emma Woodhouse. This relationship is developed due to Austen’s use of free indirect style (FIS). Emma’s popularity with its audience can be drawn up to the way in which FIS allows the audience to experience a character’s thoughts and their emotions and motive behind them without only seeing that character’s point of view throughout the novel. Emma Woodhouse is a controversial character that people often love to dislike and undercut; this response to her characterisation can be chalked up to the way in which FIS is used to portray her throughout the novel, often showing her own reasoning for her actions which often counters their negative impact. This is seen primarily in the first four chapters which sets up our initial understanding of Emma, and therefore sets the tone for our perspective of her character for the rest of the novel. As she is the main character and one of the more complex and contentious heroines of Austen’s, it seems fit to focus more on FIS based on Emma and the scenes in which she dominates. The parts in which this essay will focus on while analysing Austen’s use of free indirect style are the opening scenes in Chapter 1, and Emma’s encounter with Harriet Smith in Chapter 3. Jane Austen, as one of the first authors to implement FIS in her novel, wastes no time in using the style to introduce Emma Woodhouse to us. She uses third person speech combined with the thoughts of the character being presented to us. This gives us the sense that Austen is stripping back a layer so that we can become attune to Emma and gain insight into her motivations and opinions. The narrator’s descriptive wording of Emma sets up the narrator’s vision of the character and Emma’s thoughts of herself and therefore colours our view of her. Her description is stated as a fact. Austen immediately sets Emma’s character apart from her other heroines, who, for the most part of their arcs, lacked the same initial ideas of grandeur of themselves. However this opening paragraph has an ironic tone which casts doubt on whether the narrator and Emma are in agreeance of her character, showing her as more multi-dimensional. This use of FIS, coupled with the narrator’s irony and the quote ‘the real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power…and a disposition to think a little too well of herself’ (Austen, 55) provides foreshadowing that Emma may not be as clever as she thinks. FIS, by giving us insight to Emma’s inner thoughts and opinions, makes us somewhat blind to what is at play in the plot. We often don’t know what Emma doesn’t. This proves to make Emma (Austen) an interesting read despite the fact that it can be considered to be missing the usual excitement and drama of the likes of Mansfield Park (Austen).

The narrator doesn’t use FIS continuously throughout the novel which is evident in the beginning chapters. When Emma receives the request from Mrs. Goddard the narration is in the third person but it swiftly moves into FIS as Emma contemplates Harriet’s character. There is an obvious lack of ‘Emma thought’ or ‘Emma could see’, and we are presented with what seems to be an inner monologue that happens as Emma takes the teen into her consideration. Through this monologue Emma’s personality comes through and her perception of Harriet, while positive, is based on the girl’s looks. Despite Harriet not saying anything ‘remarkably clever’ (Austen, 69) she does, as Emma goes on, project a sense of awe in the Hartfield home. Through Emma’s thought process and the narrator’s control of the plot it is inferred that Emma likes Harriet based on Harriet’s appreciation of the young Woodhouse. Emma as a character here starts to seem quite fickle and self-centred but also generous in her reach out to Harriet, she starts to become more problematic and realistic which is what Emma is acclaimed for. The use of free indirect style offers the readers to gain a depth of knowledge of Emma’s mind that wouldn’t be achieved through simple third person narrative. As Emma’s character starts to develop in these early scenes, especially in relation to Harriet, we begin to see negative qualities in her. The flawed persona of Emma Woodhouse sets her apart from Austen’s other heroines, she does however redeem herself occasionally. While being vital to the plot of Emma, the use of free indirect style would cause the novel utterly unreadable if the reader disliked Emma entirely. Her actions would be clearly backed up by her inner most thoughts and the consequences would be, and are, played out in the plot through free indirect style....