Posted by Sylvia on July 17, 1997 at 13:46:43:

In reply to Re: Emma Woodhouse... posted by Kathy F. on July 17, 1997 at 12:46:46

] ]...is the novel about the difference between "seeming" and actually accomplishing something?

] ] Laraine

]

] ]To me, the novel seems to be about the things which occur to Emma that do distress and vex her. At first, the things that vex her are mostly based on her misperceptions of others.... At the end, she realizes that she was wrong, and her vexations become based on her own past actions (based on the former misperceptions). So the opening of the novel seems to set in place that what was true before the novel began is going to change dramatically before the end.

] Kathy :-)

________

JA set up the "heroine that no one but myself will much like" in that very first line--the tipoff to me was that Emma "seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence. JA was hinting that not all will be as it seems in this heroine (because if it were, would there even be a story?) While Emma on the surface seems to have it all (handsomeness, cleverness and riches), she vexes and distresses herself and those around her by her own presumptions, misconceptions and actions (as you pointed out, Kathy). That Emma causes her own distress and vexations is JA's irony here.