Mistress of the House——An Interpretation of Emma and Her Predicament in Jane Austen’s Novel Emma

Published in 1815, Emma is considered to be Jane Austen’s best and most representative novel. It tells the story of how the heroine acquires the knowledge of herself as well as the world, and finally steps to maturity. Attracting readers with its humor and vivacity, the novel, at the same time, repeatedly betrays a sense of frustration and incompleteness. Looking into Emma’s role in the family, her moral judgment, and her relationships with male characters in the novel, we will be able to touch the root of her power, yearning and predicament. My paper attempts to explore into the above three aspects in order to discover the inherent ironies of the novel and Austen’s profound reflections on the position of women.