Love and self-expression: Develop empathy through Austen’s Emma
By PHOENIX CARLISLE | Cover courtesy of CHARTWELL BOOKS
As the weather finally warms our hearts and dramas begin to melt, the sun begins to shine and so do our feelings. Diving into the curated time frame of Emma will leave you saying “Ugh, as if” to a hilarious plot with serious status importance undertones. Emma by Jane Austen is a display of self-understanding and the development of empathy through warm weather and new relationships.
Classics are hard to get through, I completely understand. I had trouble with tons of classics, long-winded words that don’t make sense, but Jane Austen is different. She writes for the girls, her books have a general plot that is easy to understand, mixed in with words that maybe we aren’t familiar with. That’s when SparkNotes comes in handy because, while the reader is able to pick up on what is going on, the connection of relationships, intertwining dramas, and just overall fluffed language is sometimes hard to digest.
Austin curates a novel that is for the girls – it has the romance in the conflict of interest that we deserve. It’s a beautiful novel that not only explores relationships, both platonic and romantic, but also relationships within ourselves and within our class system. More than ever we need to be educating ourselves on how different societies function and at different levels. The best way to learn the modern era is to look at history. Austin curates Emma by allowing that societal class to flourish and how we can break down those barriers by interacting and helping one another.
Emma is a fantastic novel that is a great foundation to dive into the classics while also exploring those similar themes in adjacent media.
There are several beautiful film adaptations for this novel that have the complete spring atmosphere we all need while staying true to what the novel is trying to give readers. Even the movie Clueless gains a deeper meaning after you read the Austen novel, as you are able to gain character thoughts and background that you may not be able to fully dissect from the movie the book inspired.
Although classics may not be your go-to genre, consider Emma more of an intrinsic novel of society’s expectations told through the drama of different relationships. If you need to watch a movie version first or just tap into Clueless, it’s perfectly fine to get an idea of the plot progression as long as you explore the themes within the novel.
Happy spring and happy reading!
