Emma

[Madelaine]

After reading 'Emma' 3 times consecutively, i would have to say that i feel fully acquainted with Austen's style, satire and irony-all prominent and distinct within the novel. The important factor to understand is that Austen was writing at a time of great change (prevailing middle-classes as a result of the Industrial Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Battle of Waterloo) and these events all inflicted and altered the lives of the Augustan society. Although Jane Austen does not present these events obtrusively they are still achknowledged mainly in the social chnages they brought about and the way they shaped the characters lives. Emma develops an understanding towards Robert Martin and becomes less condascending-this reflects the attitudes held by the higher classes towards the middle-classes in 1816! Austen carefully embroiders the events into her novel without making direct reference. This allows for the subsequent satire and irony that Austen delivers. She makes it quite clear - through the rational and sensible Mr Knightley - that Emma can not damage the environmental fabric or change the social hierarchy within Highbury (a microcosm of the real-world) because the society is too well fixed and lacks subjectivity to change.