The Image Of Emma Shaped By Irony

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is a distinguished woman novelist at the end of the 18^th century and the early of the 19^th century. She takes the lead in making the voice of feminism in her novel writing. For a long time, women have been deprived of the rights and opportunities to develop themselves in mentality and civilization. As a result, according to traditional prejudice, women have no capability to make correct choices and fulfill their purposes freely either in individuality or in domesticity. But Austen creates a series of images of young women in all her six novels and displays them firstly to the view of readership. Jane Austen establishes the status of women by creating the brand-new images of female. Similarly, Austen shapes a young, pretty, bright and pleasing heroine Emma in the work Emma. Since 1816 when it was published, Emma has been deeply loved by researchers. They mainly concentrate on the study of the art of irony and figural shapes and others of the work but ignore the feminist consciousness of Austen by analyzing the image of Emma from the perspective of irony. On the basis of feminist critic theory, this paper tends to reveal the connotations of Jane Austen's feminist consciousness by analyzing how Jane Austen shapes the image of Emma by adopting the tool of irony. Furthermore, this paper anatomizes the meanings of Jane Austen's feminist consciousness by analyzing the image of Emma.This paper consists of three parts:In the first part, the formation of Jane Austen's ironical perspective is explored. In the cultural tradition dominated by patriarchy of the 18^th century, women are almost deprived of the right of writing due to being viewed as inferior in intelligence. A woman's choosing writing means to be tortured physically and psychologically. To her luck, Jane Austen grows in fairly free family and receives good education. Austen gradually forms her humorous and satirical style of writing due to her reading and writing experience as well as the influence of her family circumstances. And irony is the very, the most suitable key that Austen finds to the door of the style. Irony is just like a veil that Austen covers on her works and helps her to express publicly her feminist consciousness which is not permitted at that time.The second part analyzes how the author shapes the flawed heroine Emma by adopting structural irony. By using irony skillfully, Emma is made to make mistakes again and again but be ignorant of them. By uncovering the veil of irony put on the image of Emma, can readers know the real connotations of the image of Emma.The third part, the hard core of the paper, profoundly analyzes the feminist consciousness of Jane Austen embodied in the image of Emma.First, the image of Emma reflects the consciousness of freedom. Emma is far away from the astriction of the male world. This reflects Austen's free consciousness of overthrowing the oppression of patriarchy. Emma is also wealthy, and the independence of economic status is without doubt the guarantee of her selfhood. .Second, the image of Emma challenges marriage. Women's status of subjection and adherence are almost always caused and fulfilled by marriage. Emma bravely claims that she doesn't and needn't marry, which reveals Austen's feminist consciousness. Jane Austen keeps unmarried all her life and she proves her feminist standpoint by her own action.Third, the image of Emma embodies the consciousness of being a housemaster. Emma manages all the businesses of Hartfield and shows the reader an image of capable mistress. Emma is the image of the backbone of the family but not the "Angel in the house". And Emma's consciousness of being a housemaster extends to the whole Highbury which reflects that she is eager to realize her value in a broader stage.Fourth, the image of Emma protests to "the eternal feminine virtues". In patriarchal society, women must obey the feminine virtues, such as: obedience, taciturnity, modesty etc. Actually, these feminine virtues astrict the development and healthiness of women's personality and force women to be far away from the power of dominating society. They are the tools to oppress women in moral, psychological and spiritual ways. But the image of Emma just reveals her antipathetic aspect to these "eternal feminine virtues" and shows her protest to the dominating patriarchal culture, which shows the feminist consciousness of Austen.Fifth, the image of Emma questions the accomplished female mode. In 18^th century, accomplishment is of extremely importance to women. They do their utmost to obtain these accomplishments in order to add the chip in the marriage market. However, Emma is not accomplished; she prefers to pursue healthy personality. She embodies a kind of yearning personality because of her honesty, confidence, generosity and imagination but not a dull mode of accomplishments. Again, Emma defies and challenges the patriarchy system.Based on the above analysis, the paper finally concludes that Austen successfully transmits her own feminist consciousness through the image of Emma who is shaped by adopting the structural irony which is served as the veil. To better know the connotations of Austen's feminist consciousness would help readers to understand more objectively and more generally Jane Austen's being a mouthpiece of women at that time.