The Internal Plot, not the Marriage Plot
*Emma* Reading Challenge Bonus, Volume Three, Part Two
Here is the long-delayed continuation of our chapter-by-chapter analysis of Emma. I write this as I am gearing up to teach the novel again, starting next week. The process of writing these pieces has added a new level of insight and interest in this novel that I thought I knew so well. Thanks to the PCF community for your warm reception of this series.
Volume 3, Chapter 10
And here is the novel’s big reveal, as Mr. Weston arrives at Hartfield to tell Emma that there is some important and concerning news, but that she must wait to hear it from Mrs. Weston. During her walk to Randall’s, Emma contemplates the possibilities; perhaps most alarmingly, she imagines that Frank may have “half a dozen natural children, perhaps” (272). Such a revelation would elevate Frank to the level of villainy of Willoughby (Sense and Sensibility) or Wickham (Pride and Prejudice), but he is not quite so bad.
A mere ten days after the offstage death of Mrs. Churchill, we discover that Frank has been secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. Gasp!
While Emma no longer feels an attachment to Frank, she is appalled at his behavior: “So unlike what a man should be!—None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that disdain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life” (274).
We have seen secret engagements before in Austen, and we might consider the difference, for example, between this one and Edward’s to Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility. In the earlier novel, Edward bears the wrath of his overbearing mother and risks his fortune for the sake of keeping his promise to a woman he no longer loves. In the present case, however, Frank has been, apparently, waiting for the death of his aunt, and so has been unwilling to risk his fortune for the sake of the woman he loves.
According to the rules of romance narrative, Frank must be condemned, since he has not sacrificed all for love, and yet these sorts of calculations often play into the decisions of otherwise honorable people in real life. Mrs. Weston jumps to his defense, pointing out that the couple “must both have suffered a great deal under such a system of secrecy and concealment” (275). This may be true, though the precarity of Jane’s situation has doubtless made her suffering much greater than Frank’s.
Volume 3, Chapter 11
The big reveal is followed by Emma’s final major misreading—this time of Harriet. She is afraid that once again she will have disappointed her with false hopes, that the most recent object of her affection has been Frank Churchill. Emma believes that Frank “rescuing” Harriet from a band of “gipsies” was the inciting incident that made her fall in love with him. (See Volume 3, Chapter 3.)
When Harriet tells her that she has no feelings for Frank, Emma protests and recalls the incident, the “service” for which Harriet had expressed so much gratitude and obligation.
Harriet gets her best line in the novel: “Oh! Miss Woodhouse, how you do forget!” (280).
This was not the service for which she was so grateful; rather, it happened the night before this rescue, when Mr. Knightley asked Harriet to dance after Elton had very publicly snubbed her. Emma had witnessed the whole thing, and yet the more typically melodramatic event of the following day has distracted her from this earlier moment, which was much more important to Harriet. Yes, Harriet is in love with Mr. Knightley, and, furthermore, she believes that she has perceived signs that he returns her affection.
And this revelation unveils Emma’s own feelings to herself at last: “It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!” (281). This also releases a wave of self-understanding and self-accusation:
With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody’s feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everybody’s destiny. She was proved to have been universally mistaken.” (285)
She is, however, mistaken in one final instance—in her assumption that Harriet has correctly assessed Mr. Knightley’s feelings for her.
And this is the last obstacle in the unfolding of the marriage plot—for this is where we have been tending for three-hundred pages, yes?
Volume 3, Chapter 12
But as I have claimed repeatedly, the real plot of this novel is not the marriage plot, but rather the internal plot that has been unfolding inside Emma’s head. Once again, this is the only one of Austen’s six major novels that is named for its heroine, and for good reason.
This chapter brings about Emma’s recognition of her previous lack of empathy for Jane, which is why it is through Mrs. Weston that she discovers the details of Jane’s suffering. Emma has not earned Miss Fairfax’s confidence, and she knows it: “I am afraid [. . .] that I must often have contributed to make her unhappy” (289).
There is, of course, Emma’s one final misunderstanding to unravel to bring about the resolution of the marriage plot, but for my money, the heart of the novel concludes right here, in this chapter’s final paragraph, which I quote in full:
When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a few seconds—and the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone. (291)
Yes, that’s the stuff: “more acquainted with herself.” We are often strangers to ourselves. It takes a lifetime of self-reflection to discover who we are, if we ever really do.
I’ll let that paragraph sit with us for a couple of days, and we will discuss the novel’s denouement on Thursday.
Thanks for reading, from my fancy internet typewriter to yours.
Great piece, thanks!
My mind immediately went to a similar moment in my own life.