Resumo de Emma - Jane Austen

Emma is perhaps the only character in mtion in
the delightful novel by Jane austen. They do not change. Rather, they
are likely to
be simply confirmed in their views, for they live in and accept a
stable if static society. Nonetheless, the type of characters portrayed
is varied and so is the degree of their realistic development.

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Among the lesser developed but important ones,
we may note Mr. Woodhouse, John Knightley, and Augusta Elton. They
appear to be one-dimensional because they consistently show their one
dominant coloring, and so far as treatment of them in the novel is
concerned, they are one-dimensional. Mr. Woodhouse, in his gentle
selfishness, is the petty arch-conservative, wanting absolutely nothing
to change and constantly being apprehensive about matters of health.
John is similar but in domestic terms; he is rather nonsocial because
he wants to rest content with his family in his domestic comforts.
Augusta is always seen as the talkative busybody who preens herself on
her supposed social importance. They serve their purposes in the novel
best by being one-sided, and they come very close to being caricatures.

Miss Bates deserves a bit of special attention.
She is like an archetype of the boring non-stop talker. But she takes
on added dimension by the very fact that her gush of words encompasses
everything around

her?so much so, in fact, that the small and the
important apparently have equal significance for her. A thwarted woman
(though she would never recognize herself as such), she has a driving
need to express herself, though her expression is never egocentric. She
is, indeed, one of the most kindhearted and thankful persons
imaginable; but she is also capable of being hurt and of forgiving. She
undergoes no observable change in the novel, but hers is possibly the
most fully rounded characterization among the minor ones.

Though one of the more important characters,
Harriet Smith is mostly a counter to be moved about by Emma and the
plot of the novel. She is a simple but pretty girl who, once in love,
will always be in love and who evinces one very interesting though
momentary development when she decides that she is after all perhaps
worthy of George Knightley.

Jane Fairfax is a skillfully employed foil for
Emma, but we do not get to know her in dramatic detail because she is
involved in a mystery and much about her must remain unknown until it
is revealed in summary. On the other hand, Frank Churchill, though he
too is involved in the mystery, comes through with better delineation.
He has admirable abilities but is too frivolous to be truly admirable;
his mainstay is social charm and wit. He is important partly because in
many respects he is the male counterpart of Emma: Both get a certain
enjoyment out of seeing others labor under misapprehensions, and it is
significant that Emma recognizes this lively similarity near the end of
the story.

George Knightley is one of the most important
figures in the book, though during much of the time he is rather in the
background of events. He is a man of benevolence. He is the only one
strong enough to impress Emma with critical good sense, and he is thus
the only logical one that she can marry. He is particularly significant
to the novel, however, because he is the raisonneur, the
spokesman character for Miss Austen. His reasoning and comment upon
events are pretty much those of the author, and he constitutes a
rational thread of cohesiveness running through the novel.

Emma Woodhouse is the main character and hers is
the most fully rounded, three-dimensional characterization. Her
dominant trait is willful imagination, but she also has the elements of
goodwill, rationality, and proportion when her willfulness does not
lead her into seeption. She is the fundamental changing character
in the book, for she goes through a slow and bumpy growth from
self-deception to self-knowledge. She is the book's aberration from the
static social norm, and at the end she has developed to the point of
fitting properly into her social milieu. Her characterization has been
so well done that one cannot be absolutely sure that she will never
scheme again, but one can feel that she has a good chance of remaining
on terms with herself and her environment because of her growth and
because she now has George Knightley beside her.

In considering the characters of the book, one
should remind himself that, no matter how well they are developed for
their individuality, they also serve for purposes of satirical contrast
and comparison. The distancing that Austen achieves through point of
view (see above) effects a kind of balance between the individual as
such and his place in a satirically social context.

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