Introduction
One of the central themes in Jane Austen's book 'Emma' is the developing relationship between Emma, the main protagonist; an attractive, pleasant, rich young lady, and her brother-in-law, Mr. George Knightley. The reason this relationship is interesting is due to the fact that throughout the story there is a significant transition in both of their attitudes towards marriage. Initially, they both appear to be apathetic to the idea of marriage, and even openly opposed to it. By the end of the book they are to be married. At this time, they both declare their love for each other, and the aim of this paper is to examine how this love came to be. More specifically, did they have feelings for each other that they hid even from themselves, or was there an actual change in their feelings towards the end of the story.
What I propose to demonstrate in this paper is that Emma and Mr. Knightley were in love from the very beginning of …show more content…
They appear to flirt with each other in a semi-humorous, self-deprecating manner: "Mr Knightley loves to find fault with me, you know – in a joke – it is all a joke. We always say what we like to one another" (p. 9). Neither of the two characters have similar interactions with anyone else throughout the book, indicating that their relationship is unique. It would appear that the more serious and contained interactions seen with others, are more appropriate of the time.
There are several instances throughout the story where their flirtatiousness comes to the front. This is particularly obvious in the film versions where eye contact and body language are more visible. For example, in "Clueless", Josh (Knightley) and Cher (Emma) repeatedly look deeply into each other's eyes in every conversation they have, while smiling flirtatiously. In the 1996 film version of Emma, they continually search each other out when they are in the same
One of the central themes in Jane Austen's book 'Emma' is the developing relationship between Emma, the main protagonist; an attractive, pleasant, rich young lady, and her brother-in-law, Mr. George Knightley. The reason this relationship is interesting is due to the fact that throughout the story there is a significant transition in both of their attitudes towards marriage. Initially, they both appear to be apathetic to the idea of marriage, and even openly opposed to it. By the end of the book they are to be married. At this time, they both declare their love for each other, and the aim of this paper is to examine how this love came to be. More specifically, did they have feelings for each other that they hid even from themselves, or was there an actual change in their feelings towards the end of the story.
What I propose to demonstrate in this paper is that Emma and Mr. Knightley were in love from the very beginning of …show more content…
They appear to flirt with each other in a semi-humorous, self-deprecating manner: "Mr Knightley loves to find fault with me, you know – in a joke – it is all a joke. We always say what we like to one another" (p. 9). Neither of the two characters have similar interactions with anyone else throughout the book, indicating that their relationship is unique. It would appear that the more serious and contained interactions seen with others, are more appropriate of the time.
There are several instances throughout the story where their flirtatiousness comes to the front. This is particularly obvious in the film versions where eye contact and body language are more visible. For example, in "Clueless", Josh (Knightley) and Cher (Emma) repeatedly look deeply into each other's eyes in every conversation they have, while smiling flirtatiously. In the 1996 film version of Emma, they continually search each other out when they are in the same