Jane Austen when writing her novel Emma, famously said “I’m going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”. The titular character Emma Woodhouse is smart, privileged, manipulative, and vain. However, throughout the novel she experiences a growth in herself, gaining self-awareness for her actions and empathy for those around her. The novel at the time was highly experimental, centering a warm hearted but deeply flawed female protagonist rather than a traditional ingenue. The book was also monumental in its form, as John Mullen from the Guardian describes, Emma follows a “bent narration through the distorting lens of its protagonist’s mind”. This format exposes readers to Emma’s warped perceptions of the other characters, adding interest to the interpersonal drama of the town. Although at the time contentious, these elements of Austen’s writing make Emma Woodhouse sympathetic in modern day context. With the rise of the anti heroine archetype in media, multifaceted female characters are in demand more than ever. Along with the most recent adaptation of Emma in 2020 starring Anya Taylor Joy and directed by Autumn de Wilde, Emma has experienced a major surge in popularity for its nuanced protagonist.
Emma begins with a description of Emma Woodhouse as “handsome, clever, and rich” with “very little to distress or vex her”. She is witty and intelligent with an affinity for meddling in the love lives of the English town Highbury. Her primary matchmaking target at time is Harriet Smith who is a sweet and pretty young girl parlour-border for Mr. Goddard’s school for girls. However, Harriet is of unknown parentage and has significantly lower social class than Emma. Ignoring Harriet’s lower status, Emma misguidedly resolves to matching her with the town bishop Mr. Elton. However, Harriet instead has great admirer in the neighbor farmer, Mr. Robert Martin.
Despite knowing that Harriet has feelings for Mr. Robert Martin, she insists that Harriet continue to pursue Mr. Elton in hopes of maintaining Harriet’s potential for an unsubstantiated social class. This is one of the central conflicts of the story, where despite having good intentions, Emma’s stubbornness eventually leads to both Harriet and Mr. Martin unnecessarily heartbroken, and Mr. Elton married to a different woman. Emma does care about her friend, and she feels immense guilt after seeing the direct harm from her manipulations; this is what prompts her growth as a character. By the end of the novel Emma takes accountability for her wrongdoings and works to make amends between Harriet and Mr. Martin. Emma lies and is at times outright cruel, however, her imperfections and growth into a more compassionate person make her a sympathetic and interesting character.
Unlike previous adaptations, Emma 2020 rather than mask Emma’s worse qualities, nearly emphasizes them. The majority of the dialogue of the movie is pulled directly from the novel itself, and coupled with the vibrant environment and Wes Andersonesque cinematography, the film creates a colorful immersion for the viewer into the world of lords and ladies from Jane Austen’s works. Emma feels snobby and self centered at the start of the film, however, rather than make her less sympathetic, it serves to make her character arc more meaningful. It is important to note that this characterization was not a result of modernizing the story, rather, as Eleanor Catton, the film’s screenwriter puts, the novel is “so lively and so intimate, and it feels so fresh,” and added that reappraising it through a contemporary lens felt unnecessary: “It doesn’t at all feel like a book that’s 200 years old”. The director, Autumn de Wilde also agrees, saying “my goal was never to modernize, but only to humanize”. Emma’s character feels authentically modern. As the film takes the viewer through her cruelest, strongest, and most fragile moments, it feels as if we are growing with her.
Jane Austen’s Emma was groundbreaking for its time, featuring a flawed female protagonist and using Emma’s unique narrative to explore the social dynamics and nuances of the story. Through its authenticity to the original work, Emma 2020 has brought renewed attention to the novel and its snobbish but well meaning central character. The modern day popularity of Emma speaks to the continued relevance of Austen’s work and the ongoing necessity for complex female characters in literature and media.
[Cover image] Emma at the strawberry outing at Donwell Abbey, Autumn de Wilde, Emma, 2020
[1] Barker, Andrew. “‘Emma.’: Film Review.” Variety, 3 Feb. 2020, variety.com/2020/film/reviews/emma-film-review-jane-austen-1203490614/.
[2] Bracken, Haley. “Emma novel by Austen.” Britannica, 5 Dec. 2021, http://www.britannica.com/topic/Emma-novel-by-Austen.
[3] Leszkiewicz, Anna. “This Millennial ‘Emma’ Respects Its Elders.” The New York Times, 14 Feb. 2020, http://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/movies/emma-jane-austen.html.
[4] Mullan, John. “How Jane Austen’s Emma Changed the Face of Fiction.” The Guardian, 5 Dec. 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/05/jane-austen-emma-changed-face-fiction#comments.
[5] De Wilde, Autumn, director. Emma. Focus Features, 2020.
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