《艾瑪》中的驚訝 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士論文. 指導教授: 吳易道先生 Adviser: Dr. Yih-Dau Wu. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大中文題目. 《艾瑪》中的驚訝. ‧. Nat. y. 英文題目. n. er. io. al. sit. Surprise in Emma. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：曾慧昀 Name：Sophia Hui-Yun Tseng 中華民國一○七年七月 July 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(2) SURPRISE IN EMMA. A Master Thesis Presented to Department of English. 政治大. National Chengchi University. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. In Partial Fulfillment. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. by Sophia Hui-Yun Tseng July 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(3) To Dr. Yih-Dau Wu and my beloved family. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(4) Acknowledgements. Though I cannot bring myself to say that writing a thesis is a pleasant process, it is definitely a memorable one. This journey is made memorable thanks to those who kindly support me along the way. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Yih-Dau Wu. It is with his immense knowledge, patience and continuous support of my master research that this thesis can be completed. I really could not have imagined having a better advisor for my master study.. 政治大 Thanks also go to my dear classmates. Thank you, Sophie, for taking out 立. your precious time to have dinner with me every week. Nothing means more to me. ‧ 國. 學. than having a good friend to talk to after a tiring day of thesis writing. I would also. ‧. like to thank Tank and Phoebe, who fight side by side with me in the library in the. sit. y. Nat. past four months. Though writing a thesis is indeed a battle that one must fight alone,. io. er. I would like to address you guys as my comrades. I sincerely wish you guys success in fighting your own battles.. al. n. v i n My gratitude also goesCto Henry. You are theUfirst person that comes to mind hengchi. when I am feeling down. Thank you for picking up the phone no matter how late it is. Though I usually refrain myself from bothering my friends too much, somehow I feel secured to share all my problems and concerns with you. Thank you for being you. Your sincerity, sweetness and kindness have not changed a bit since high school. Tremendous thanks to my friends who constantly drag me out to dinner, karaoke,. exercise and travel: Felicia, Cindy, Jodee, Pei-Nian, Lily and Jason. Without you guys, I might have suffered from mental breakdown long, long time ago. I would also like to thank my beloved Yung and Shu-Ting. Though distance has kept us apart, you girls provide me with comforting and encouraging words through constant exchange of. iv. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(5) messages. Distance will never be a problem for us because I know we will always have each other’s back whenever we are. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for being very supportive of my study. Though the busy school work has kept me from going home often, once I find time to go home, I can always recharge my battery to the fullest. Thank you for your unconditional love and support. Special thanks to my dearest sister, Sonia, who understands me even when I am not like my usual self. I feel so lucky to have you as not only my sister but also my partner in crime for life.. 政治大 appreciation again to my advisor, Dr. Wu. I could never thank you enough for all the 立 At the end of this acknowledgement, I would like to express my deepest. wise advice you gave me and the detailed comments you wrote on my drafts. I wish. ‧ 國. 學. you all the happiness in the world and thank you for being my advisor that guides me. ‧. through the difficult process of writing this thesis.. sit. y. Nat. Writing this acknowledgment brings back a lot of bitter-sweet memories.. io. er. Though I always feel lonely in the process of writing, this acknowledgement reminds me of how much help I have received to complete this thesis. There are indeed good. al. n. v i n days and bad days. At the end ofCthe day, all the ups and h e n g c h i U downs I experienced in the writing process will come back to remind me of the great people around me. Thank you all. And I hope you enjoy reading my thesis.. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(6) Table of Contents. Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………….iv Chinese Abstract……………………………………………………………………..vii English Abstract………………………………………………………………………ix Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1. Embodied Surprise…………………………………………………………...15. 政治大 3. Mr. Woodhouse’s Fear 立of Surprise…………………………………………...37. 2. Narrating Surprise……………………………………………………………28. ‧ 國. 學. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………47 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………..50. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vi. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(7) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱：《艾瑪》中的驚訝指導教授：吳易道先生研究生：曾慧昀論文提要內容：乍看之下，《艾瑪》中的驚訝不是一個值得深入研究的題目，因為驚訝是一. 政治大與同時期的志異小說相比，《艾瑪》並未以聳動、誇大的手法描寫令人驚訝的事立. 個廣泛運用於各類文學的表現手法，它會在《艾瑪》中出現實在不足為奇。此外，. 件，而是描繪一個祥和、有秩序的英國社會。正因如此，多數學者認為其主要議. ‧ 國. 學. 題並非驚訝，而是十九世紀初英國仕紳的禮儀及日常生活。. ‧. 此二因素造成《艾瑪》中的驚訝長期缺乏討論與研究，然而，筆者認為《艾. y. Nat. 瑪》中的驚訝蘊藏著許多重要訊息，值得吾人細心探索。透過克里斯多佛‧米勒. er. io. sit. 的書—Surprise: The Poetics of the Unexpected from Milton to Austen (2015) 可知，作家在文學作品中對驚訝的描述能夠反映他們獨特的文學表現手法及價值觀。因. al. n. v i n 此，筆者認為驚訝不應只被視為一個常見的文學手法或是無意義的反射動作，透 Ch engchi U. 過分析《艾瑪》中的驚訝，讀者能更清楚地明白角色的性格、情緒以及階級衝突。另外，驚訝能幫助我們更了解奧斯汀對禮儀和日常生活的看法。本文旨在探討驚訝在《艾瑪》中的價值。首先，筆者檢視驚訝如何體現於角色的肢體反應。當角色們受到驚嚇時，他們的肢體反射並非毫無意義，而是反映其社會階級意識及道德觀。奧斯汀透過描寫角色們的肢體反應，說明了無禮的行為正是引發驚訝的一大原因。其次，筆者檢視奧斯汀如何描寫小說中的突發事故及意外。奧斯汀選擇不用聳動、誇大的文字來渲染這些事件所造成的驚嚇。相反地，她用客觀、冷靜的文字敘述，而這樣獨特的敘述手法說明了奧斯汀對維持日常生活平和的堅持。最後，筆者將探討奧斯汀對驚訝的看法。雖然在《艾瑪》中，. vii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(8) 奧斯汀透過客觀和冷靜的文字來降低意外所造成的驚嚇，但透過描述艾瑪的父親—伍德豪斯先生對驚訝的恐懼和反抗，可知實際上奧斯汀認為驚訝是一個滲透日常生活、無所不在且無法避免的情緒。. 關鍵字：珍‧奧斯汀、《艾瑪》、驚訝、禮儀、階級衝突、日常生活、敘述. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. viii. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(9) Abstract Emma is commonly believed to be a novel that has nothing to do with surprise. Surprise, however extraordinary it may seem, is actually a common literary device frequently used by authors in various literary genres. Given its near-universal presence in literary works, surprise does not present itself readily as a useful lens through which we can analyze a novel critically. Hence few Austen scholars notice its significance in Emma. Surprise in Emma fails to garner scholarly attention also because it is not represented in a noticeably sensational fashion as in the gothic novels. 政治大 surprising events, Emma is立 known for its delicate portrayal of a serene and orderly. that Austen was familiar with. While gothic novels are famous for their depiction of. ‧ 國. 學. English society. On the face of it, daily life and manners in the early 19th century England become two major concerns in this novel. Compared to these two dominant. ‧. concerns, surprise appears at best a peripheral, at worst an irrelevant, issue.. sit. y. Nat. However, I find surprising events everywhere in the world of Emma.. n. al. er. io. Having read the rich discussion of the issue of surprise in Christopher R. Miller’s. i n U. v. recent book, Surprise: The Poetics of the Unexpected from Milton to Austen (2015), I. Ch. engchi. observe the possibility to discuss Emma in a new light. Surprise, far from being merely a common literary device or a brainless reflex, is a significant emotion that leads us to scenes of true emotion, self-revelation and class conflicts in the novel. What is more, I claim that surprise helps us better understand two of Austen’s major concerns—manners and the everyday. This dissertation aims to explore the value of surprise in Emma. First, I examine how the characters’ bodily responses toward surprise reveal their social and moral attitudes. Moreover, their surprises are closely related to behavior that Austen deems as flawed or bad manners. Second, I draw on several potentially sensational. ix. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(10) incidents in the novel to show how Austen deliberately deflates the disruptive power of surprise in her narration. Her calm and matter-of-fact depiction of surprising scenes reveals her allegiance to the everyday. Finally, though Austen appears determined to deflate surprise in her narration, I observe that, by illustrating Mr. Woodhouse’s unceasing fear of surprise, she actually recognizes surprise’s ubiquitous presence in everyday life. Keywords: Jane Austen, Emma, surprise, manners, class conflict, the everyday, narration. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. x. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(11) Introduction. The first sentence of Emma explains why this is arguably Jane Austen’s most boring novel: “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (E 5).1 The heroine of Emma distinguishes herself by being the only Austen heroine who is “handsome, clever and rich” (E 5). These three enviable. 政治大 last-finished novel Persuasion (1818) begins with the story of Anne Elliot’s faded 立 qualities combine to nip many potential stories in the bud. While Austen’s. charm and moves on to dramatize its restoration, Emma appears “handsome” in the. ‧ 國. 學. very beginning and remains “the picture of health” throughout the entire novel (E 29).. ‧. Unlike Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey (1818), whose silly confusion of. y. Nat. gothic fiction and reality amuses readers and produces many interesting anecdotes in. er. io. sit. this novel, the “clever” Emma seems unlikely to make such a mistake. If Elinor Dashwood, Elizabeth Bennet, and Fanny Price, the heroine of Sense and Sensibility. al. n. v i n C hand Mansfield ParkU(1814) respectively, spend (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) engchi much of their time dealing and struggling with the consequences of financial. insecurity, Emma’s wealth ensures that she does not need to worry about such matter. Emma risks of being a boring novel because, given Emma’s “comfortable home,” there seems no room for its heroine to experience distress of any sort. How can a novel proceed without involving its heroine in some difficulties?2. 1. Hereafter I refer to Emma as E. Quotations from this novel will appear in this dissertation with page numbers parenthetically. 2 This assumption was widely shared by English novelists in the late 18th and early 19th century. Many of them believe that interesting stories can spring from a troubled family background of a hero or a heroine. That is why many novels in this period feature an orphan. Austen herself also subscribes to this view about the connection between distress and narrative development, as the unhappy homes of many of her heroines demonstrate. Indeed, she even includes in Emma an orphan: Jane Fairfax. Read in. 1. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(12) Emma is boring for another reason: most characters in this novel do little other than visiting their neighbours and welcoming their friends to their houses. While this is the case in perhaps all of Austen’s major novels, Emma stands out for being the only one in which such frequent visiting is unvaried by other more exciting travels. Elinor Dashwood travels to London. Elizabeth Bennet accompanies her aunt and uncle to Derbyshire. Catherine Morland goes to Bath and Northanger Abbey. Fanny Price returns to her original home in Portsmouth. Anne Elliot goes to the seashore. Emma Woodhouse alone never travels beyond the border of her local community,. 政治大 activities. But such activities can also be tedious. Frances Burney, a novelist 立. Highbury. Visiting friends and neighbours may well be innocuous and pleasant. contemporary with Austen, makes exactly this point in her diary: “We have nothing. ‧ 國. 學. but visiting here [i.e. Lynn Regis], and this perpetual round of constrained civilities, to. ‧. persons quite indifferent to us, is the most provoking and tiresome thing in the world;. sit. y. Nat. but it is unavoidable in a country town, where everybody is known, as here. It’s a. io. er. most unworthy way of spending our precious and irrevocable time, to devote it to those who know not it’s [sic] value — why are we not permitted to decline as well as. al. n. v i n accept visits and acquaintance?”C(qtd. in Spacks 68, original h e n g c h i U emphasis). Austen. admires Burney’s literary achievement,3 and Burney’s words uncannily apply to the dominant activities in the social world of Emma. Emma also lives in a small community where almost “everybody is known” to everybody and where almost everybody finds it necessary to engage in a “perpetual round of constrained. this light, the opening line of Emma seems to promise a lack of stories. For a study of orphans in 18th-century fiction, see Eva König’s book: The Orphan in Eighteenth-Century Fiction: the Vicissitudes of the Eighteenth-century Subject (2014). For another account of the role distress plays in eighteenth-century fiction, see R. F. Brissenden’s book: Virtue in Distress: Studies in the Novel of Sentiment from Richardson to Sade (1974). 3 In Northanger Abbey, Austen praises Burney’s novel Evelina and Camilla as works “in which the greatest power of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language” (31).. 2. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(13) civilities.”4 Patricia Spacks is certainly right when she points out that “[f]or two-thirds of Emma, boredom in effect supplies a disturbing metaphor for the ordinary condition of women” (173). Burney’s demand to do something other than visiting friends may well resonate with Emma. Emma is obviously a boring novel about (female) boredom. A novel about boredom, however, need not be boring. Spacks makes this point when she discusses the tedious life of many nineteenth-century English women. Before Spacks draws on Austen’s novel Emma to illustrate her argument, she cites a. 政治大 relates an anecdote about her schizophrenic sister: 立. narrative about boredom in the October 1987 issue of New Yorker. Miriam Rothschild. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. Once, we were all at dinner and she was bored with the conversation. She didn’t know that’s what it was, but she was bored. So she got an orchid out of the middle of the table and ate it. Munched her way through it. Very slowly. Ha! That stopped us in our tracks! (qtd. in Spacks 165, original emphasis). sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. This narrative about boredom fully engages Spacks’s thoughts, making it far from. i n U. v. boring.5 It triggers a series of significant questions in her head: “What, if anything, is. Ch. engchi. the relation between [Miriam’s sister’s] boredom and her psychosis? . . . How did eating an orchid help her? . . . What, if anything, does this bizzare anecdote have to do with the ordinary female situation? Does it bear at all on the realm of textuality?” (165). The major reason why this narrative about boredom is intellectually stimulating is that at its centre lies an intriguing form of emotion: surprise. The schizophrenic sister shocks others by suddenly grabbing an orchid and eating it. Such unexpected incident not only disturbs her friends — “That stopped us in our tracks!”— but also. 4. Adela Pinch offers a brilliant commentary on the idea of “every body” in Emma (xv). Spacks has defined boredom as “the incapacity to engage fully: with people, with action . . . , with one’s own ideas” (165).. 5. 3. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(14) enables the reader of this incident — Spacks in particular — to think critically about what lies beneath and beyond boredom. Moving on from this anecdote, Spacks goes on to discuss Emma’s boredom and her “impulse to combat boredom by messing with other people’s life” (173). Emma, Spacks suggests, is a novel concerned with “the severe difficulties of being handsome, clever, and rich with little acceptable outlet for one’s talents” (173). While Rothschild’s sister’s staggering act of eating an orchid helps Spacks to reconsider the issue of boredom, I claim that surprise in Emma provides a way for us to re-examine this seemingly boring novel. Surprise, in other. 政治大 While surprise in another narrative allows Spacks to think more deeply and critically 立 words, enables readers to re-evaluate an apparently boring novel about boredom.. about boredom in Emma, I would argue that surprise in this boring Austen novel. ‧ 國. 學. deserves critical attention for its own sake.. ‧. Surprise seems ubiquitous in Emma. To the surprise of the Bates family, a. sit. y. Nat. mysterious person sends a pianoforte to their house. Early in the novel, Mr. Elton. io. er. proposes to Emma unexpectedly, when she believes he is interested in Harriet Smith. After the ball held at the Crown Inn, a group of gypsies suddenly attack Harriet Smith. al. n. v i n C h usual politeness on her way home. At Box Hill, Emma’s lapses and, much to Mr. engchi U. Knightley’s surprise, she insults Miss Bates publicly. Perhaps the greatest surprise in this novel is the unexpected revelation of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax’s secret engagement. This novel even ends with two unexpected events. One is that the stubborn Mr. Woodhouse gives up his usual prejudice against marriage and allows his daughter to marry Mr. Knightley. And this unexpected turn of things is facilitated by the pilfering of Mrs. Weston’s poultry-yard, another shocking event in the otherwise safe environment of the Highbury community. Given so many incidents of surprise in this novel, it seems surprising that few critics have discussed this important part of the novel sufficiently. How can we explain scholars’ lack of interest in discussing the. 4. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(15) representation of surprise in Emma? One major reason, I believe, is that surprise is a common literary device applied by novelists to develop twists and turns of the plot, to reveal truth or simply to raise readers’ interest. Christopher R. Miller’s book, Surprise: The Poetics of the Unexpected from Milton to Austen (2015), reminds us that surprise is an “attention catching technique” that can be found in a variety of literary genres (1). From John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) to William Wordsworth’s poems, Miller’s discussion of. 政治大 Among all the literary genres, gothic novels appear most suffused with surprises. 立. surprise covers the works of epic, realistic fiction, gothic novels and romantic poetry.. Popular gothic novels in the 1790s extensively use surprise as a literary technique.. ‧ 國. 學. Mathew Lewis’s novel, The Monk (1796), for instance, is punctuated by unexpected. ‧. events that shock its characters. The hero of this novel, Ambrosio, feels astonished. sit. y. Nat. when his favorite disciple, Rosario, tells him that he in fact is a woman, Matilda.. io. er. Lewis stresses the response of his characters on this particular occasion in this way: “Astonishment on the one part, apprehension on the other, for some minutes chained. al. n. v i n Cthey them in the same attitudes, as had touched by the Rod of some Magician” h ebeen ngchi U. (59). Similarly, Raymond’s shock at finding that he mysteriously fails to rescue his. lover Agnes out of a convent is dramatized vividly when he meets the Bleeding Nun: “I gazed upon the Spectre with horror too great to be descried. My blood was frozen in my veins. I would have called for aid, but the sound expired, ere it could pass my lips. My nerves were bound up in impotence, and I remained in the same attitude inanimate as a Statute” (160). Similar sensational scenes of surprise can be found in Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest (1791). While Lewis shows that surprise can transfix people, Radcliffe demonstrates that it motivates dramatic actions. Adeline, the heroine of the. 5. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(16) novel, is very much shocked by one unexpected event after another. She responds to these events with characteristically strong emotions. At one point in this novel, to her great surprise, she wakes up and finds La Motte standing beside her bed.. The light of the lamp, which shone strong upon her eyes, awoke her and, perceiving a man, she uttered a scream. […] The wildness of his looks and the gloomy silence he preserved increased her alarm, and with tears of terror she renewed her supplication. “You once saved me from destruction,” cried she; “O save me now! Have pity upon me — I have no protector but you” (230).. 政治大 Later in the novel, when Adeline finds out a shocking fact that the person she has 立. always deemed as her “father” is in fact the venomous murderer of her real father, she. ‧ 國. 學. is no longer able to cope with the “tumult of emotion that now rushed upon her heart”. ‧. so that she “uttered a deep sigh and fainted away” (342). Screaming, supplicating,. sit. y. Nat. crying, sighing and fainting: for Radcliffe, surprise is a form of energy that must. io. er. express itself physically or verbally.. Austen is a novel lover. She is familiar with the works of her contemporary. al. n. v i n novelists. And she incorporates C The Monk and The Romance h e n g c h i U of the Forest into her. own novels as well. John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey declares that “[n]ovels are all so full of nonsense and stuff; there has not been a tolerably decent one come out since Tom Jones, except the Monk” (43). In Emma, Radcliffe’s novel becomes a conversational topic for Harriet Smith and her admirer Robert Martin. Harriet tells Emma about his reading habit: “He never read the Romance of the Forest, nor The Children of the Abbey. He had never heard of such books before I mentioned them, but he is determined to get them now as soon as ever he can” (E 22). What is more, Emma, like The Romance of the Forest, draws on the issue of unknown parentage. While Adeline turns out to be the daughter of a nobleman, Harriet proves to be the. 6. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(17) “daughter of a tradesman” (E 331). Though the revelation of Harriet’s parentage is not as dramatic as Adeline’s because it does not involve a drastic elevation of her social position, it is a great shock to Emma. Emma’s strong belief that Harriet must be the daughter of a gentleman encourages her to find a marriage partner for her friend accordingly. However, when Emma learns that Harriet, far from being the daughter of a gentleman, is actually the daughter of a businessman who is “decent enough to have always wished for concealment [of his illegitimate daughter],” she expresses her shock: “Such was the blood of gentility which [she] had formerly been so ready to. 政治大 Austen’s novel suggest that, like Lewis and Radcliffe, Austen simply regards surprise 立 vouch for!” (E 331). Do the presence of these books and the issue of parentage in. as a useful literary technique for intriguing characters and readers? Given the. ‧ 國. 學. near-universal presence of surprise in novels of various kinds, should we believe that,. sit. y. Nat. critical attention?. ‧. as a common literary technique, surprise in a novel is too commonplace to deserve. io. er. Miller’s book-length study of surprise gives a decided no to these two questions. His discussion of surprise in Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1817) suggests. al. n. v i n C h can speak volumes that even a threadbare literary technique about its user’s distinctive engchi U representation of a particular emotion. Miller observes that Austen, instead of simply. drawing on extraordinary incidents to create surprise, as Lewis and Radcliffe has done, puts “emphasis on the power of ordinary objects or events to startle” in Northanger Abbey (145-46). To explain this, I would like to discuss some examples from the novel. In Northanger Abbey, Austen presents readers with “one of [her] most surprisable characters”—Catherine Morland (Miller 141). Being so engrossed in gothic novels, Catherine perceives the world through a gothic lens. She not only imagines herself to be the gothic heroine during her stay at the Abbey but also forms a strong belief that General Tilney is the vicious villain who imprisons his wife.. 7. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(18) However, to Catherine’s astonishment, the mysterious “manuscript” she finds in the cabinet turns out to be nothing more than a piece of laundry list and General Tilney, instead of being a venomous villain, is simply a wealth-obsessed man with an odd temper (176). Northanger Abbey, a work that responds to popular gothic novels, is replete with the heroine’s imagination of extraordinary gothic plots. However, by replacing the sensational gothic manuscript with a piece of laundry list and an evil villain with a selfish man, Austen draws our attention to the potential of ordinary things to surprise. While gothic novels use extraordinary elements to surprise,. 政治大 triggered by extraordinary incidents, can be easily elicited by the interplay between 立 Northanger Abbey pokes fun at this usage. It proves that surprise, apart from being. common everyday objects and one’s overdose of imagination. Northanger Abbey, a. ‧ 國. 學. work that obviously mocks the extraordinary gothic elements and shows Austen’s. ‧. distinctive representation of surprise, therefore, is reasonably chosen by Miller as a. sit. y. Nat. novel most suitable for the discussion of surprise among all of Austen’s works.. io. er. Miller’s argument points out another reason why surprise in Emma has never garnered sufficient scholarly attention. Because Northanger Abbey is clearly a. al. n. v i n C form parody of gothic fiction, a literary surprises dominate, it provides a U h e inn which i h gc. fertile ground for us to investigate Austen’s attitude towards surprise. Miller makes. this point clearly: “for this early work not only pokes obvious fun at the shocking effects of the gothic novels, it also serves as a witty dissertation on surprise in all its eighteenth-century inflections” (141). Emma, by contrast, is such a different novel from gothic fiction that Sir Walter Scott uses it to exemplify a new type of novel in English literature. According to Scott, Emma is a “new style of novel” that breaks decisively away from its gothic contemporaries (qtd. in Southam 63). It is because Emma distinctively lacks gothic elements such as “the romantic tropes of foundlings,” the “hidden family relationships” and the “sexual menace and violence” (Miller 141).. 8. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(19) Without utilizing any gothic elements, Emma, in the words of Scott, “present[s] to the reader, instead of the splendid scenes of an imaginary world, a correct and striking representation of that which is daily taking place around him” (qtd. in Southam 63). Habits and routines that are “daily taking place” are not things that people usually find amusing, inspiring, let alone surprising. Thus, Scott denies the existence of surprise in Emma utterly, claiming that instead of “alarming our credulity” or “amusing our imagination by wild variety of incident,” it engages in “the art of copying from nature as she really exists in the common walks of life” (qtd. in Lee 369). Scott’s comment. 政治大 mutually exclusive. Since Scott’s influential comment on Emma’s dailiness, no 立. gives an impression that the concept of the everyday and the problem of surprise are. scholar ever ventures to discuss surprise in this novel, probably because it seems. ‧ 國. 學. incompatible with the everyday. If Emma is a far cry from gothic novels and if in this. ‧. novel Austen does not show as much interest as in Northanger Abbey in exploring. sit. y. Nat. “sensational” events that shock characters and readers alike, it seems to follow that. io. er. Austen has little to say about surprise in Emma. To discuss surprise in Emma seems to be an unpromising and unimportant enterprise. Hence the critical reticence on that. n. al. front.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. This dissertation seeks to vindicate the significance of surprise in Emma, not least by demonstrating how surprise, allegedly a commonplace literary technique, is closely related to two of Jane Austen’s major concerns—manners and the everyday. Manners and the everyday in Austen’s novels have been extensively discussed by critics. In his essay, “Jane Austen and the Critical Novel of Manners,” Anthony Joseph Peterman discusses why Austen’s works have long been recognized as “the novel of manners” (6). Martine Price, in “Manners, Morals and Jane Austen,” views manners as “the tissue of ceremony and protocol” that often “shrouds an unpleasant reality” in Austen’s novels (262). Price’s view is echoed by Charlotte Brontë’s response to. 9. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(20) Emma. She writes: “[Austen] does her business of delineating the surface of the lives of genteel English people curiously well; there is a Chinese fidelity, a miniature delicacy in the painting” (qtd. in Southam 128). As to the discussion of the everyday, Marshall Brown’s essay, “Emma’s Depression,” specifically addresses Emma as a “novel of dailiness” (23). Maggie Lane, the author of Jane Austen’s World: The Life and Times of England’s Most Popular Author (1996), explores the daily routines and rituals in the 19th century English society through the details depicted in Emma. Adela Pinch, who writes the introduction to the Oxford edition of Emma, examines the voice. 政治大. of “every body” in the novel to understand the villagers’ daily conversation and exchange of gossip (xv).. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Surprise can be used as a useful lens through which we can understand manners and the everyday more thoroughly because it represents a “chaotic energy”. ‧. that prompts us to think about how to behave properly and how to manage daily. Nat. sit. y. ruffles (Miller 1).6 This “chaotic energy” comprises two essential parts—external. n. al. er. io. stimuli and unexpected possibilities. First of all, it is crucial to stress external stimuli. i n U. v. because it is an element distinctively belonging to surprise (Miller 5). Unlike joy,. Ch. engchi. sadness and fear that can indicate an internal state without involving an outer stimulant, surprise is an emotion that clearly indicates the presence of an external irritant (Miller 5). In the case of other emotions, they are deemed much more “free-floating” than surprise because they can be easily altered by the whimsical status of the mind, a random occurrence of thought or simply a self-gratifying intention of an individual (Miller 5-6). Indeed, it cannot be denied that emotions like. 6. The phrase, “chaotic energy,” is taken from Miller (1). While Miller specifically uses this term to show problems or dangers that threaten the human bodies, I view it as a force that disrupts the tranquility of everyday life. As I shall demonstrate in the second chapter of this dissertation, it is by deflating the “chaotic energy” of surprise that Austen maintains the serenity and peacefulness in Emma.. 10. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(21) joy and sadness are also products of a certain stimuli; however, in their cases, emotion can be self-initiated rather than externally triggered (Miller 5-6). In addition to external stimuli, unexpected possibilities are also significant in initiating surprise. “Unexpected” is a word worth highlighting here because it indicates all those possibilities that one never bothers to think about. In “The History of Astronomy,” Adam Smith provides us with an example: “we are surprised at those things which we have seen often, but which we least of all expected to meet with in the place where we find them; we are surprised at the sudden appearance of a friend,. 政治大 them” (3). In this instance, what we have “not imagine[d]” denotes the possibilities 立. whom we have seen a thousand times, but whom we did not imagine we were to see. that have never crossed our minds (3). Unexpected possibilities are overlooked. ‧ 國. 學. because people base their thinking on familiar patterns and probability. As David. ‧. Hume notes: “what we have found to be most usual is always most probable” (124).. sit. y. Nat. That is, people build their expectation on probability. This explains why it is no. io. er. surprise to see classmates in classroom, run into neighbors in the neighborhood or find family members at home. The aforementioned encounters are surpriseless. al. n. v i n because they are associated withChigh probability. It isU h e n g c h i not only possible to see them in. these places but more importantly, they are expected to be there. However, if parents make a sudden visit to school or a classmate shows up in front of one’s house, their. appearances have great potential to surprise. In short, surprise strikes with great force when expectation is disrupted by possibilities that one has never given any thoughts to. Large-scale disruption is the last thing one would expect to see in a harmonious and tranquil society that characterizes the world of Emma.7 However,. 7. Legouis and Cazamian in A History of English Literature (1926), notice how Emma is characterized by “a sense of balance, and a serene reasonableness” (qtd. in Murray 162).. 11. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(22) Gilbert and Gubar notice that Austen is good at creating deceptive appearances. They explain: “Jane Austen has always been famous for fireside scenes in which several characters comfortably and quietly discuss options so seemingly trivial that it is astonishing when they are transformed into important dilemmas” (113). I agree with Gilbert and Gubar’s view and would like to argue that the tranquility of Emma in fact conceals a lot of conflicts between individuals and a consistent attempt to ease those conflicts. The problem of surprise is essential for formulating and explicating my argument. Requiring a stimuli, surprise is triggered only by things that are specific. 政治大 conflicts in the seemingly tranquil daily life. Moreover, to investigate the role surprise 立 and concrete. Thus, it can be used as an important index that points to the underlying. plays in those conflicts is to help us better understand Austen’s social vision and. ‧ 國. 學. moral attitude.. ‧. In the first chapter, I would like to examine how the feelings of surprise are. sit. y. Nat. embodied by and communicated through physical interactions and responses. Despite,. io. er. or because of, Austen’s sophisticated depiction of the human minds, she has long been accused of lacking interest in the body. However, by analyzing how Austen. al. n. v i n C hof surprise, we canUsee that Austen does attend to dramatizes the physical dimension engchi the body in her work and that Austen’s representations of the body are informed by. strong emotions. Moreover, I will demonstrate that it is by depicting the body and its relation to surprise that Austen engages with the issue of social and moral conflicts in Emma. In the second chapter, “Narrating Surprise,” I would like to examine how Austen attenuates surprise in her narration. Although Austen peppers Emma with many surprising happenings, she deflates surprise’s sensationalism to such an extent that it is barely felt by the readers. According to Miller, surprise, as a literary device, is often used to “excite curiosity or engage attention” of the readers (7). Moreover,. 12. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(23) what is “surprising” in a story is often closely related to what is “interesting” (7). If we bear in mind how Austen’s contemporary Gothic novelists use surprise to create sensational drama in their works, we can realize that Austen’s deflation of surprise understandably results in two readerly responses — a sense of boredom and a feeling of tranquility. On one hand, Maria Edgeworth famously comments that there is “no story” in Emma (qtd. in Pinch vii). She is so bored by the surpriseless everyday details of Mr. Woodhouse’s gruel and Emma’s terrible matchmaking skill that she gives up reading after finishing only the first volume (Pinch vii). On the other hand, Marvin. 政治大 almost no sense of plot” in Emma, believes that the lack of twists and turns of plot 立. Mudrick, though echoing partly with Edgeworth’s claim by saying “there is no excess,. helps to construct the “delicate ordering of a small calm world” (183). While. ‧ 國. 學. Edgeworth complains about Emma’s tediousness, Mudrick appreciates the sense of. ‧. serenity that the plot offers. If we judge from the critics’ responses to the novel, we. sit. y. Nat. can say that the disruptions that surprise in Emma usually occasions are almost. io. er. entirely left unfelt. Taking into consideration two common readerly responses to this novel, chapter two aims to explore how Austen effectively abates the disruptive power. al. n. v i n C h Moreover, it isUthrough her unexaggerated and of surprise in Emma through narration. engchi matter-of-fact depiction of surprise that her allegiance to the everyday is revealed.. It seems that, by adopting a realistic, unexaggerated narrative style, Austen determines to make surprise unperceivable in Emma. However, I believe that she hints at surprise’s all-encompassing presence throughout the novel. In the third chapter, “Mr. Woodhouse’s Fear of Surprise,” I would like to examine how the old man constructs a regular lifestyle to protect himself from the disruption of surprise. Though Mr. Woodhouse’s adherence to daily routines contributes greatly to the novel’s sense of regularity and security, I observe that his peculiar stubbornness in carrying out his routines actually suggests surprise’s omnipresence. The old man’s uncompromising. 13. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(24) attitude about his daily routines betrays his fear of surprise. This fear and its consequence demonstrate exactly how the shadow of surprise pervades the seemingly calm and peaceful world of Highbury. Though to surprise readers may not be Austen’s aim, Mr. Woodhouse’s fear of surprise in Emma shows that surprise, far from being a shock-initiating tool that Austen dismisses utterly or recycles uncritically, is actually an emotion that she ponders on carefully.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 14. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(25) Chapter One Embodied Surprise. Surprise, according to Miller, is conceived of as “a fully corporeal emotion” that involves “a sudden seizure, a violent physical or sexual attack, a temporary condition of muteness, a petrification of the body, an intimation of death” (1). That is, although surprise is a psychological condition, it has conspicuous physical ramifications. When confronted with utterly unexpected events, one may be petrified at the moment, without any ability to move or speak. In fact, surprise, according to. 政治大. Miller, is derived from the old French word, surprendre, meaning to attack or. 立. overtake (3). The English word, “surprise,” first denoted “military assault, seizure,. ‧ 國. 學. rape or disturbance” (Miller 3). It was not until “the late Middle Ages that it began to acquire a cognitive sense” (Miller 3). In the modern usage of the word, the physical. ‧. and psychological dimensions of surprise seem combined. The phrase “surprise attack”. y. Nat. io. sit. therefore is “etymologically redundant” because “the first word denotes the psychic. n. al. er. effect of the second” (Miller 3). To feel surprised is not only to experience a particular. i n U. v. kind of emotion, but also to be reminded of “what it means to have a vulnerable body. Ch. engchi. and a fallible mind in a world of unpredictable and chaotic events” (Miller 3). In other words, surprise “takes both physical and cognitive form” (Miller 3). The body plays an important role in understanding surprise. Though one may argue that aside from surprise, all emotions can be manifested through physical responses, corporeal surprise deserves our critical attention because it features one’s involuntary response. While physical manifestations of joy, anger or sadness can be consciously suppressed or exaggerated, surprise, according to Miller, features a “startle reflex” (5). That is, one simply cannot control his bodily reactions when receiving surprise. Surprise, in its corporeal form, is. 15. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(26) not as performative as other emotions. Thus, it provides a useful lens through which we can observe one’s true emotions, morality and social views. Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, draws on this corporeal dimension of surprise to articulate her social vision and moral ideas. To discuss this dimension of surprise helps us to reconsider conventional knowledge of Austen’s use of the body in her novels. This conventional knowledge would have us believe that in Austen’s novels, bodies are at best insignificant, at worst nonexistent. John Wiltshire summarizes this view when he writes:. 治政 Jane Austen’s novels, I will admit, seem among 大the least likely texts on which to found a立 discussion of the body. Isn’t the body—absent, suspended, ‧. ‧ 國. 學. at best relegated to the inferior partner in the dyad of mind and body, as all agree is its position in our culture—virtually banished from her work? However we categorise them—as comedies of manners, or narratives of. sit. y. Nat. moral sensibility, of domestic politics, of the developing ethical consciousness, of heroines educated out of illusion, of the anxieties of choice, the subtleties of self-deception—these are novels whose titles, Sense. n. al. er. io. and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, firmly ensconce them within an august and dominant tradition of moral adjudication, and by ‘moral’ here we must mean transcending the natural and the immanent. These are novels of a polite society too, in which obvious restraints are put upon the discussion of bodily matters, and the latitude of bodily expression allowed men and women, but especially women, is severely curtailed. (1). Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Wiltshire uses other 19th century writers’ comments to illustrate this point. After reading Emma, Cardinal Newman observes: “Everything Miss Austen writes is clever, but I desiderate something. There is a want of body in the novel” (qtd. in Wiltshire 2). Charlotte Brontë, having read Pride and Prejudice, comments on it in a similar vein: “what did I find? An accurate daguerreo-typed portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully-fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers, but. 16. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(27) no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy” (qtd. in Soutam 126). Austen’s novel Emma does not change Brontë’s dislike of her predecessor. Having read this novel, Brontë feels that, although it briefly touches on the body, the representations of the body in this text are superficial. There is no emotional substance shoring up those representations. Brontë thus criticizes Austen:. ‘Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth, hands and feet; what sees deeply, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study, but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of Life and the sentient target of death—this Miss Austen ignores’ (qtd. in Wiltshire 2, emphasis original).. 立. 政治大. I believe that Brontë’s understanding of Austen’s novelistic engagement with the. ‧ 國. 學. body generally, her representations of the body in Emma in particular, is wrong. Three. ‧. examples of surprise in Emma: Mr. Elton’s unexpected proposal, Emma’s sudden. sit. y. Nat. insult of Miss Bates and the revelation of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax’s secret. io. er. engagement, refute such limited understanding of the body in Jane Austen’s novels. They reveal Austen’s interest in embodied experiences and the powerful feeling that. n. al. underpin such experiences.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Bodies play an important role in Mr. Elton’s unexpected proposal to Emma. As an imaginary match-maker, Emma thinks that she detects a growing romance between Mr. Elton, a local vicar, and Harriet Smith, a young woman whom Emma chooses to befriend. Emma tries her best to foster affection between Mr. Elton and Harriet, expecting that he will make a marriage proposal to her sooner or later. But all such fanciful thinking comes to an end during a carriage ride with Mr. Elton.. she found her [conversational] subject cut up—her hand seized—her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her:. 17. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(28) availing himself of the precious opportunity, declaring sentiments which must be already well known, hoping—fearing—adoring—ready to die if she refused him; but flattering himself that his ardent attachment and unequalled love and unexampled passion could not fail of having some effect, and in short, very much resolved on being seriously accepted as soon as possible. It really was so. Without scruple—without apology—without much apparent diffidence, Mr. Elton, the lover of Harriet, was professing himself her lover (E 92 original emphasis). Austen emphasizes the word “her” in this passage, because she wishes to stress Emma’s astonishment in this scene. In this dramatic scene of surprise, a series. 政治大 his passion by seizing Emma’s hand but also forcefully demands that his words be 立. of physical contacts are made by Mr. Elton. The confident suitor not only expresses. heard. With an effort to prove his “violent love” for Emma, Mr. Elton even professes. ‧ 國. 學. that he is “ready to die if she refuse[s] him” (E 92). Here, by using the expression, “to. ‧. die,” the passionate suitor is imaginatively and figuratively putting his body in a. sit. y. Nat. potentially fatal crisis. He is telling Emma that, by accepting his proposal, she is not. io. er. only saving him from a broken heart, but also rescuing his body from an imminent threat of destruction. Mr. Elton believes that he has already won Emma’s heart. The. al. n. v i n Ch confident suitor claims that his “unequalled love” and “unexampled passion” must engchi U. have moved Emma so that he is “very much resolved on being seriously accepted as soon as possible” (E 92). Much to our heroine’s astonishment, the vicar, whom Emma perceives only as Harriet’s suitor, seems extremely certain that his “ardent attachment” will be reciprocated (E 92). With an attempt to rationalize this extraordinary confession of love, Emma blames Mr. Elton’s shocking behavior on the effect of alcohol, that is, on a dysfunctional and intoxicated body. She feels that “half this folly must be drunkenness” and secretly hopes that this alcohol-induced misdemeanor may soon pass in due course (E 92). One measure of how the connection between surprise and the body in this. 18. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(29) scene carry social significance is that Mr. Elton mentions a dead body twice to refer to two different situations. When Emma argues agitatedly that Harriet, instead of herself, is the one who Mr. Elton has been pursuing all along, Mr. Elton replies: “I never thought of Miss Smith in the whole course of my existence… never cared whether she were dead or alive” (E 93). An interesting parallel can be seen in Mr. Elton’s choice of expressions. When expressing his love for Emma, a lady from the prestigious Woodhouse family, the passionate young man declares that he is ready to die if rejected. However, when addressing Harriet, a girl whose family background is. 政治大 care whether the poor girl is dead or alive. A dead body therefore becomes a vehicle 立. entirely unknown, the romantic suitor turns drastically into a cruel man who does not. of expressing social values. Mr. Elton, just like what Mr. Knightley has predicted,. ‧ 國. 學. indeed “knows the value of a good income” and is “not at all likely to make an. ‧. imprudent match” (E 48).. sit. y. Nat. In this surprising scene, Mr. Elton’s proposal proves to be more than an. io. er. unexpected incident but a catalyst that surfaces unpleasant truths and transforms existing opinions about others. Emma is surprised not only because she finds that the. al. n. v i n C h to herself; moreover, man she prepares for Harriet is proposing her shock is induced engchi U by how Mr. Elton, being merely the vicar of the town, can suspect that she, a. “handsome, clever, and rich” lady from the Woodhouse family, will return his “love” (E 5). Mr. Elton, in a similar fashion, cannot believe that he, the vicar of the town, would be associated with Harriet, a girl of no consequence at all. To view the matter in this light, it can be said that the cause of Emma’s and Mr. Elton’s surprise is actually very similar. Both of them are extremely surprised and upset when being related to the member of an inferior social class. On one hand, Emma’s “unpleasant sensation” reaches its uppermost when Mr. Elton suggests that she has been giving him “encouragement” throughout the course of his pursuit (E 93). On the other hand,. 19. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(30) Mr. Elton’s anger reaches its peak when he expresses: “Every body has their level” (E 94). However, though both of them dislike being associated with their social inferiors, they think it is acceptable for one to do social-climbing. For Mr. Elton, seizing Emma’s hand equals to holding on to the social-ladder that promises elevation of his position in the Highbury society. As for Emma, she encourages the match between Harriet and Mr. Elton because, compared with Robert Martin, a “gross, vulgar farmer,” the vicar is obviously more superior (E 17). In this scene of surprise, physical contacts and references to the body indeed are not skin deep. It is through bodies that Emma’s. 政治大 Thanks to this surprising proposal, Mr. Elton’s bad manners are exposed 立. and Mr. Elton’s snobbery is revealed.. and Emma is finally able to see that he is not the “superior creature” that she has. ‧ 國. 學. always believed him to be (E 228). However, Emma’s insulting words toward Miss. ‧. Bates at Box Hill make her realize that, actually, she herself is not a superior creature. y. Nat. either. When Miss Bates makes fun of herself good-humoredly about her capability to. er. io. sit. say “three dull things” without effort, Emma could not resist replying: “Ah! ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me—but you will be limited as to number—only. n. al. i n three at once” (E 256). Facing aC shocking public insult, hengchi U. v. Miss Bates, deceived by the mock ceremony of [Emma’s] manner, did not immediately catch her meaning; but, when it burst on her, it could not anger, though a slight blush shewed that it could pain her.” (E 256). In contrast to Miss Bates’s timid reaction towards a shocking insult, Emma expresses her surprise critically after receiving the unexpected proposal from the vicar: ‘Mr. Elton, my astonishment is much beyond any thing I can express. After such behaviour, as I have witnessed during the last month, to Miss Smith—such attentions as I have been in the daily habit of observing—to be. 20. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(31) addressing me in this manner—this is an unsteadiness of character, indeed, which I had not supposed possible! Believe me, sir, I am far, very far, from gratified in being the object of such professions’ (E 93). There is an obvious difference between Emma’s and Miss Bates’s reactions towards surprise. On one hand, Emma’s expression of “astonishment” serves as a means for her to criticize Mr. Elton’s inconstancy. In Emma’s opinion, Mr. Elton suddenly and mysteriously stops pursuing Harriet and channels his attention to her instead. On the other hand, it is described that Emma’s insult “could not anger” Miss Bates but only makes her blush involuntarily (E 256). Unlike Emma, who, when confronted with. 政治大. unpleasant surprise, is able to voice her displeasure vocally, Miss Bates can only. 立. respond with a “slight blush” in a similarly embarrassing scenario (E 256).. ‧ 國. 學. A blush, undoubtedly, is a very physical expression. However, according to Mary Ann O’Farrell’s book, Telling Complexions: The Nineteenth-Century English. ‧. Novel and the Blush (1997), a blush is not merely “an event of the body” but also a. y. Nat. io. sit. means for people to “speak with her body” (4). That is, a blush, instead of simply. n. al. er. being viewed as a bodily phenomenon, is a meaningful physical reaction to a. i n U. v. particular external stimuli. A blush, in contrast to good manners, is an involuntary. Ch. engchi. physical response that exposes one’s true feelings. That is, a blush can easily frustrate one’s endeavor to compose himself or herself in awkward, humiliating situations, not least by betraying what he or she really feels. Therefore, though Miss Bates is not capable of responding to the insult verbally, her blush serves as a way of telling her discomfort and pain. According to O’ Farrell, one’s “self-recognition and self-revelation” can easily induce a painful blush (5). After fully comprehending Emma’s meaning, Miss Bates is indeed struck by the painful recognition that she must have made herself “very disagreeable” (E 256). The disparity between these two women’s social positions is revealed in this. 21. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(32) scene about surprise. Though obviously, it is Emma who should be embarrassed by her bad manners, Miss Bates, as a social inferior, cannot criticize the heroine’s behavior by expressing her surprise verbally. It is because surprise, in its verbalized form, is often used as a “lever of judgment” (Miller 5). Examples of such function can be drawn from the episode in which Emma tries to persuade Harriet into loving Mr. Elton. She says that she “should be surprized” if Harriet, after spending time with “very good specimens of well educated, well bred men”, will still perceive Mr. Martin as a gentleman (E 25). Believing Harriet is secretly in love with Frank Churchill after. 政治大 not at all surprized at you, Harriet. The service he rendered you was enough to warm 立. he comes to her rescue during the gypsies attack, Emma expresses her approval: “I am. your heart” (E 235). In these two instances, the expressions of surprise equal to. ‧ 國. 學. expressions of judgment. Emma, instead of saying that she disapproves or approves of. ‧. Harriet’s choice of man, makes comments about herself being surprised or not.. sit. y. Nat. If we realize that verbalized surprise can serve as a form of critical. io. er. judgment, we can also understand why Miss Bates feels unable to talk about her surprise during the Box Hill episode. As a social inferior who depends on the. al. n. v i n generosity of her neighbors for aClot of things, from food h e n g c h i U supply to social gatherings,. she cannot afford being critical of Emma and running the risk of losing her patronage as a result. So fearful of forming her own critical judgment, Miss Bates declines to use the critical potential of verbalized surprise even when she actually expresses her. surprise verbally. Miss Bates only utters her surprise once throughout the whole novel. Having in mind Mr. Knightley’s considerate act of sending a carriage for her and her niece to go to the ball, Miss Bates thankfully expresses: “I was quite surprized;—very glad” because it is “the sort of thing that so few men would think of” (E 155). Surprise, here, is spoken not as a criticism but an expression of gratitude and compliment toward Mr. Knightley’s kind attention. Unlike Emma, who constantly. 22. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(33) uses surprise to evaluate other people’s behavior, Miss Bates uses surprise as a means for her to thank her friends. The reason why these two women use the word “surprise” so differently lies in the great disparity between Emma’s and Miss Bates’s social positions. On one hand, Emma, who has “a great many independent resources” of her own, does not have to be afraid of offending others (E 63). On the other hand, Miss Bates, who is dependent on the neighbors’ help to sustain a living, cannot afford the consequence if she accidentally offends someone by uttering sharp, critical words. However, Emma fails to sympathize with the poor woman’s situation in the society. 政治大 Our resourceful heroine forgets that a poor spinster like Miss Bates does not have the 立. and criticizes her for being “so silly,” “so undistinguishing and unfastidious” (E 62).. privilege to be picky. To reach an average living standard, what the amiable woman. ‧ 國. 學. can do is to make the most of what she has—interpersonal relationships. In the. ‧. Highbury society, Miss Bates indeed proves to be very much “to the taste of every. sit. y. Nat. body” because of her “universal good-will and contented temper” (E 62). A surprising. io. and power structure of the world of Emma.. al. er. insult and Miss Bates’s bodily response to it speak volumes about the social dynamics. n. v i n C hproposal and Emma’s If Mr. Elton’s unexpected shocking insult of Mrs. engchi U. Bates combine to challenge traditional consensus that Austen has zero interest in the body, the surprising revelation of Frank Churchill’s engagement with Jane Fairfax casts healthy doubt on Brontë’s criticism that emotions play little role in Austen’s scant references to the body. At one point in the novel, Emma and Mr. Weston are on their way to Randalls, where Mrs. Weston wishes to communicate a piece of important news to Emma. However, before reaching their destination, the heroine cannot suppress her curiosity.. ‘[N]ow Mr. Weston, do let me know what has happened.’. 23. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(34) ‘No, no,’—he gravely replied.—‘Don’t ask me. I promised my wife to leave it all to her. She will break it to you better than I can. Do not be impatient, Emma; it will all come out too soon.’ ‘Break it to me,’ cried Emma, standing still with terror.— ‘Good God!—Mr. Weston, tell me at once.—Something has happened in Brunswick Square. I know it has. Tell me, I charge you tell me this moment what it is’ (E 271).. Austen’s choice of word and its context in this passage deserve our careful attention. Mr. Westion says that his wife will “break” the news to Emma. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb “to break” in the phrase “to break news” means. 政治大. “to make it known, disclose, divulge it.” The OED also indicates that, when used in. 立. relation to news, the verb “to break” carries the connotation of “caution and delicacy.”. ‧ 國. 學. Ironically, the verb “to break” also implies a certain degree of violence and disruption.8 Therefore, when Mr. Weston tells Emma that his wife “will break [the. ‧. news] to you better than I can,” he cautiously implies both that something unexpected. y. Nat. io. sit. and unpleasant has happened and that it has the potential to shatter Emma’s peace of. n. al. er. mind. In other words, Mr. Weston tries to prepare Emma mentally for an unwelcome surprise.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. It is worth noticing that Emma “stand[s] still in terror” when she picks up Mr. Weston’s hint and realizes that she is about to hear unpleasant news that lie beyond her expectation (E 271). Emma’s inability to move her feet confirms surprise as “a fully corporeal emotion,” one that requires the body to convey its seriousness (Miller 1). Austen, however, is interested not only in describing Emma’s bodily movement but also in the feeling that informs such physical posture. Though Emma’s 8. In Emma, Austen is aware of this dimension of the verb “to break.” For instance, when describing Emma’s wish to cut short of Miss Bates’s characteristically long speech, Austen writes: “to break through her dreadful gratitude, Emma made the direct inquiry of” Jane Fairfax, the niece of Miss Bates (E 262). In addition, when describing Jane Fairfax’s decision to put an end to her engagement with him, Frank Churchill writes: “She closed with this offer, resolving to break with me entirely, and wrote the next day to tell me that we never were to meet again” (E 304).. 24. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(35) feet are obviously petrified, her curiosity keeps her mouth active. She speaks with great agitation: “Mr. Weston, tell me at once—Something has happened in Brunswick Square. I know it has. Tell me. I charge you to tell me this moment what it is” (E 271). This earnest request draws our attention to something beyond the physical dimension of surprise. Interestingly, without even the slightest hint of what the news is about, Emma seems quite confident in her guess that it involves Mr. Knightley, who is at present staying with his brother’s family at Brunswick Square. Although the scene of a petrified Emma is dramatic, what is equally important here is her inner feelings.. 政治大 about the person that she cherishes the most. And the person is not Frank Churchill, 立. Thinking about what kind of unpleasant news is likely to reach her, she starts to worry. who she has been flirting excessively with, but Mr. Knightley, the man who always. ‧ 國. 學. “find[s] fault” with her for her own good (E 9). Emma’s physical response to an. sit. y. Nat. Mr. Knightley.. ‧. unexpected event here in fact reveals her mental condition: how much she cares about. io. er. The unexpected news that is going to reach Emma concerns Frank Churchill’s secret engagement with Jane Fairfax. The body features prominently in. n. al. Ch. this scene of surprising revelation.. engchi. i n U. v. ‘Have you indeed no idea?’ said Mrs. Weston in a trembling voice. ‘Cannot you, my dear Emma—cannot you form a guess as to what you are to hear?’ ‘So far as that it relates to Mr. Frank Churchill, I do guess.’ ‘You are right. It does relate to him, and I will tell you directly;’ (resuming her work, and seeming resolved against looking up.) ‘He has been here this very morning, on a most extraordinary errand. It is impossible to express our surprize. He came to speak to his father on a subject,—to announce an attachment—’ She stopped to breathe. Emma thought first of herself, and then of Harriet. ‘More than an attachment, indeed,’ resumed Mrs. Weston; ‘an engagement—a positive engagement.—What will you say, Emma—what will any body say, when it is known that Frank Churchill and Miss Fairfax are engaged;—nay, that. 25. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(36) they have been long engaged!’ Emma even jumped with surprize;—and, horror-struck, exclaimed, ‘Jane Fairfax!—Good God! You are not serious? You do not mean it?’ (E 272) Emma’s “jump” is of great significance because it shows how shocked she is when learning that all her previous conjectures and assumptions about Frank Churchill are overthrown. At first, she firmly believes that Frank, the gallant young man, is in love with herself. After the gypsies attack incident, during which Frank rescues Harriet from danger, she is convinced that there is great possibility that Frank might fall in. 政治大. love with the unfortunate girl. However, neither Harriet nor herself proves to be the. 立. subject of Frank’s attachment.. ‧ 國. 學. Jumping, the instinctive bodily movement characterizing Emma’s response to a shocking discovery, deserves our further attention. This bodily movement was. ‧. supposed to be beyond what a proper lady in Jane Austen’s time should do.9 In Pride. sit. y. Nat. and Prejudice (1813), for instance, Elizabeth Bennet walks to Netherfield Park to visit. n. al. er. io. her sick sister, Jane, “jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient. i n U. v. activity, and finding herself at last within view of the house, with weary ankles, dirty. Ch. engchi. stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise (32). She is criticized by Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst as rude and socially repulsive. In other words, jumping, by lifting a body off the ground, hints at a subversive attempt to break away from the confines of social expectations. Emma’s jumping, the result of hearing Frank Churchill’s immoral behavior (He flirts with her when he is an engaged man), indicates the connection between this physical movement and the breach of social etiquette. If Emma’s jumping once again reminds us of Austen’s interest in the body, 9. Mary Poovey’s book, The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Jane Austen (1984) remains a classic account of the proper lady in Georgian England. Jane Nardin’s book, Those Elegant Decorums: the Concept of Propriety in Jane Austen's Novels (1973), is another important book about this topic.. 26. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(37) the cause of this physical movement suggests that her representation of the body is suffused with complex emotions. Emma jumps because her astonishment is tinged with consternation, disappointment and mortification. She must admit, however reluctantly, that her good opinions about Frank is misplaced, that her fancy about his attachment to her is ridiculous, and that her assumption that Frank will soon admire Harriet is yet another proof of her misguided imagination. Bodies in all these three instances of surprise are more than superficial descriptions of hands, faces or feet. They draw our attention to the psychological and. 政治大 Emma’s hand not out of his insuppressible love for her but because of his eagerness to 立. social messages that inform Austen’s representations of the physical. Mr. Elton seizes. elevate his social position. Miss Bates’s blush proves to be more than an expression of. ‧ 國. 學. embarrassment but a silent way of telling her social inferiority. Emma’s jump. ‧. demonstrates that the physical drama of surprise is built on strong emotions. That is,. y. Nat. all the bodily expressions triggered by surprise are closely related to the heart. Thus, it. er. io. sit. can be said that Brontë is quite mistaken when she criticizes Austen by saying: “her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth,. al. n. v i n C128). hands and feet” (qtd. in Southam it is exactly by depicting the human U h eInnfact, i h gc. hand, cheek and feet that Austen illustrates the subtle manifestations of the human heart. And it is through surprise and its physical dimension that we can see the intimate relation between the body and the heart in Austen’s Emma.. 27. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.

(38) Chapter Two Narrating Surprise. The previous chapter discusses the physical dimension of surprise in Emma. In this chapter, I would like to explore the narrative dimension of surprise: how characters in this novel talk about surprise and why Austen allows them to talk in that way. Narrating surprise is an important element of late-eighteenth-century gothic novels, with which Austen is very familiar. Such novels tend to put an unexpected event in a sensational light, exploiting the power of surprise to disturb characters in. 政治大. the novel and intrigue readers. A case in point can be found in the black veil episode. 立. of Radcliffe’s classic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). The heroine of this. ‧ 國. 學. novel, Emily St. Aubert is curious about a veiled picture in the Udolpho Castle. Unable to resist her curiosity further, she decides to take a look at what lies behind the. ‧. veil. Radcliffe describes this incident in this manner:. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Emily passed on with faltering steps, and having paused a moment at the door, before she attempted to open it, she then hastily entered the chamber, and went towards the picture, which happened to be enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room. She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil; but instantly let it fall — perceiving that what it had concealed was no picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless on the floor (248-49).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The passage above is a brief narrative about surprise. Emily expects to see a picture, however extraordinary it may be, behind the veil. To her great astonishment, she finds no picture at all.10 Her surprise is accompanied by intense fear, so much so that she faints. In other words, Radcliffe taps into the sensational potential of surprise, 10. By the end of this novel, Radcliffe tells her readers that what Emily sees on this occasion is “a human figure of ghastly paleness, stretched at its length, and dressed in the habiliments of the grave” (662). But she explains that the human figure in question is not a real human but a wax figure (662).. 28. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.006.2018.A09.