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Abstract: As one of the greatest satiric writers in the world, Jane Austen explored the irony in her novels, especially in Emma. The researches on Emma’s irony at home and abroad are abundant and various. But the association with reader-response criticism is still not enough. This thesis includes five chapters. In this thesis, the author employs reader-response criticism to proceed to a careful analysis of the use of irony in Emma, aiming at exploring the various ironies in a different perspective and achieve a better understanding of the use of irony and the novel.
Key Words: Emma; irony; reader-response criticism
1. Introduction
In Jane Austen’s life time, she never received public acclamation comparable to that bestowed on the author of the Waverley Novels or, reached the reading massed as Charles Dickens.〔1〕Jane Austen is now considered one of the greatest writers in the world. Her novels are particularly preoccupied with the relationship between men and women in love, including Emma. Emma is a comic novel by Jane Austen, first published in December 1815, about the perils of misconstrued romance.The heroine,Emma Woodhouse is described in the opening paragraph as “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition.”〔2〕 The novel opened with the marriage of Emma’s teacher, Miss Taylor. Emma pays her attention to matchmaking. But she makes a lot of mistakes in love affairs. Then, Emma realizes her fault by Mr. Knightley’s help. The novel concludes with three marriages: between Robert Martin and Harriet Smith, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, and between Mr. Knightly and Emma Woodhouse, who has grown to accept the possibility of submitting some degree of her independence to a husband.
Emma is a model work of Jane Austen’s successful employment of irony. Irony plays a decisive part in characterization as well as in plot development. The verbal irony in the dialogues and the situational or dramatic irony here are especially note-worthy. Based on the understanding of the reader-response criticism, this paper attempts to analyze the use of irony in Emma. Through a careful examination of the different types of irony used, the author seeks the understanding of the reader-response Criticism. Meanwhile, the author tries to prove that irony contributes greatly to the characterization, structure, and theme of the novel.
2. Literature Review
The researches on Jane Austen’s Emma at home and abroad are abundant and various, especially on protagonist. Critics and researchers study Emma from different perspectives and employ various theories. What’s more, they pay more attention to the use of irony in this novel.
In West, Richard Simpson was the first one to bring forth the issue of irony in Jane Austen’s novels in 1870: Criticism, humor, irony, the judgment not of one that gives sentence but of the mimic who quizzes while he mocks, are her characteristics.〔3〕 D.W.Harding analyzed the irony in Jane Austen from the angle of psychology. He thought that Jane Austen “was a delicate satirist, revealing with inimitable lightness of touch the comic foibles and amiable weaknesses of the people whom she lived amongst and liked.”〔4〕
In domestic researches on Emma, there are plenty of articles referred to the use of irony. Lin Wenchen’s article analyzes the art of irony in Emma in there aspects- rhetoric, drama philosophy.〔5〕Liu Dongmei give an interpretation of situational irony. She holds that the use of situational irony, which is the essence of the novel, is widespread in Emma.〔6〕Liu Danlin argues that the reader is able to play the role of an ironist or artist like the author through the use of structural irony by sharing the author’s ironic intention.〔7〕
Although critics have paid much attention to analyze the use of irony the novel, the association with reader-response criticism is still not enough. But it is necessary to analyze the novel from new perspectives so as to have a deep and thorough understanding of Jane Austen’s Emma.
3 Reader-Response Criticism
Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or her experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.〔8〕 Modern reader-response criticism began in the 1960s and '70s, particularly in America and Germany, in work by Norman Holland, Stanley Fish, Wolfgang Iser, Hans-Robert Jauss, and others. Reader-response theory recognizes the reader as an active agent who imparts "real existence" to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation. 〔9〕 Reader-response criticism argues that literature should be viewed as a performing art in which each reader creates his or her own, possibly unique, text-related performance.〔10〕It stands in total opposition to the theories of formalism and the New Criticism, in which the reader's role in re-creating literary works is ignored.
4. The Use of Irony in Emma
Cuddon explains that irony “involved the perception or awareness of a discrepancy or incongruity between words and their meaning, or between actions and their results, or between appearance and reality; in all cases there may be an element of the absurd and the paradoxical.”〔11〕 Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized: verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony.
4.1 Verbal Irony
Verbal irony is a statement in which one thing is said and another is meant.〔12〕 It includes understatement and overstatement or hyperbole.〔13〕 Often verbal irony is ambiguous, having double meaning or double-entendre. The narrator can use verbal irony against action and characters in the novel. Understatement is one of the strategies of verbal irony. It often occurs that a striking observation is concealed under and matter-of-fact surface. At the beginning of the story, Austen introduced the protagonist in this way:
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. 〔14〕
The readers can get information that Emma is a praiseworthy character from Austen’s description. However, the use of the verb phase “seemed to” proclaims the invalid of above proposition and readers may doubt heroine’s happy dispositions.
4.2 Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony referring to knowledge held by the audience but hidden from the relevant characters in a play, exists widely in other forms of fiction, and is responsible for much of the interest in the reading and rereading of stories.〔15〕
When we study Emma, it is necessary to read and reread it, for in a second reading we can feel the joy of irony fully. Emma attempts to make Harriet into the wife of Mr. Elton, when Mr. Elton takes fancy to Emma. Though she finds that Mr. Elton have not grasped the chance to pursuit Harriet as she thought he would, she still deceives herself. Then, she flirts with Frank Churchill and thinks that Frank Churchill loves her. Though these mistakes seriously threaten Harriet's happiness, cause Emma embarrassment, and create obstacles to Emma's own achievement of true love, none of them has lasting consequences. We still realize how dangerous and misleading Emma’s impractical fancies are. Dramatic irony produces a striking effect especially when that the ironic victim believes is in comic contrast to the reality. 〔16〕 That the reader knows all this well adds color to the comic effect. In their self-exhibition, the characters appear more vivid and lifelike.
4.3 Situational Irony
The term situational irony refers to conditions that are measured against forces that transcend and overpower human capacities.〔17〕These forces may be psychological, social, political, or environment.
Reading Emma, we find we have entered a world mainly of situational irony. Emma, the heroine, is busy in match-making. But she suffers frustration again and again. Emma makes three major mistakes in the novel. First, she attempts to make Harriet into the wife of a gentleman, when Harriet's social position dictates that she would be better suited to the farmer who loves her. Then, she flirts with Frank Churchill even though she does not care for him, making unfair comments about Jane Fairfax along the way. Most important, she does not realize that, rather than being committed to staying single she is in love with and wants to marry Mr. Knightley. The readers find the fact that Emma, the dynamic character, who becomes mature than before. Emma, who is vain, conceited and thoughtless at the beginning of the novel become reflective, fulfilled and mature at its end. Structural irony is greatly conducive to the characterization, and the structure of the novel.
5 Conclusion
From the reader-response perspective, this paper manages to make a tentative exploration on the use of irony in Emma. The paper adopted the reader-response criticism to prove that the importance of irony in this novel. The devices of verbal irony what is a tool to portray one’s characteristics. With Emma’s overcoming her shortcomings, the narrator’s irony weakens gradually. The readers accept Emma pleasantly. Dramatic irony also plays the same role in portraying characters’ weaknesses. Emma is captivated by her own fancies, while the truth is often opposite to her daydreams. The reader sees not only the truth but also Emma’s absurdity. Structural irony is greatly conducive to the characterization, and the structure of the novel.
Totally speaking, the effect of irony in Emma is to stir up readers’ cooperative passion with the author in reading the novel. The readers’ expectations are broken when they realize the actual facts in the novel. On the basis of this point, they will review the plot and the structure carefully, so that they can enhance their understanding of this story. Meanwhile, the readers are the real thinkers in Emma. By this mean, both the author and the readers arrive at the anticipated goal.
Bibliography:
[1] Pinion, F.B. A Jane Austen Companion: a critical survey and reference book. 〔M〕.London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1976:180
[2]Austen Jane. Emma〔M〕. Shanghai:World Book Company Press,2008:1
[3] Laurie Lanzen Harris,ed.,Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism,Vol.1 (1981)
[4]Harding D.W.,Regulated Hatred and Other Essays on Jane Austen, ed. Monica Lawlor. 〔M〕.London: The Athlone Press,1988:12-13
[5]林文深. 《爱玛》反讽试论〔J〕. 上海师范大学学报,2000(8):112-118
[6]李冬梅. 奥斯丁之魂—试析《爱玛》中的情境反讽〔J〕. 北方丛论,1999(2) 86-88
[7]刘丹翎. 简•奥斯丁的小说《爱玛》中反讽的艺术特色〔J〕. 西北大学学
2003(8):145-150
[8]蔡庚生. 文学评论与鉴赏教程〔M〕. 武汉:武汉大学出版社, 1997:195
[9]朱刚. 二十世纪西方文艺批评理论〔M〕. 上海:上海外语教育出版社,2008:242
[10]ibid
[11]Cuddon.J.A, A Dictionary of Literaray Terms. Ander Deutsch Limited, 1977: 338
[12]李正栓. 英国文学学习指南〔M〕. 北京:清华大学出版社.2006:420
[13]ibid
[14]Austen Jane. Emma〔M〕. Shanghai:World Book Company Press,2008:1
[15]邵锦娣. 文学导论〔M〕. 上海:上海外语教育出版社.2006:181
[16]祝燕敏. 论简.奥斯丁的反讽艺术. 〔J〕. 湖南师范大学硕士学位论文,2000(4):33
[17]李正栓. 英国文学学习指南〔M〕. 北京:清华大学出版社.2006:420
Key Words: Emma; irony; reader-response criticism
1. Introduction
In Jane Austen’s life time, she never received public acclamation comparable to that bestowed on the author of the Waverley Novels or, reached the reading massed as Charles Dickens.〔1〕Jane Austen is now considered one of the greatest writers in the world. Her novels are particularly preoccupied with the relationship between men and women in love, including Emma. Emma is a comic novel by Jane Austen, first published in December 1815, about the perils of misconstrued romance.The heroine,Emma Woodhouse is described in the opening paragraph as “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition.”〔2〕 The novel opened with the marriage of Emma’s teacher, Miss Taylor. Emma pays her attention to matchmaking. But she makes a lot of mistakes in love affairs. Then, Emma realizes her fault by Mr. Knightley’s help. The novel concludes with three marriages: between Robert Martin and Harriet Smith, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, and between Mr. Knightly and Emma Woodhouse, who has grown to accept the possibility of submitting some degree of her independence to a husband.
Emma is a model work of Jane Austen’s successful employment of irony. Irony plays a decisive part in characterization as well as in plot development. The verbal irony in the dialogues and the situational or dramatic irony here are especially note-worthy. Based on the understanding of the reader-response criticism, this paper attempts to analyze the use of irony in Emma. Through a careful examination of the different types of irony used, the author seeks the understanding of the reader-response Criticism. Meanwhile, the author tries to prove that irony contributes greatly to the characterization, structure, and theme of the novel.
2. Literature Review
The researches on Jane Austen’s Emma at home and abroad are abundant and various, especially on protagonist. Critics and researchers study Emma from different perspectives and employ various theories. What’s more, they pay more attention to the use of irony in this novel.
In West, Richard Simpson was the first one to bring forth the issue of irony in Jane Austen’s novels in 1870: Criticism, humor, irony, the judgment not of one that gives sentence but of the mimic who quizzes while he mocks, are her characteristics.〔3〕 D.W.Harding analyzed the irony in Jane Austen from the angle of psychology. He thought that Jane Austen “was a delicate satirist, revealing with inimitable lightness of touch the comic foibles and amiable weaknesses of the people whom she lived amongst and liked.”〔4〕
In domestic researches on Emma, there are plenty of articles referred to the use of irony. Lin Wenchen’s article analyzes the art of irony in Emma in there aspects- rhetoric, drama philosophy.〔5〕Liu Dongmei give an interpretation of situational irony. She holds that the use of situational irony, which is the essence of the novel, is widespread in Emma.〔6〕Liu Danlin argues that the reader is able to play the role of an ironist or artist like the author through the use of structural irony by sharing the author’s ironic intention.〔7〕
Although critics have paid much attention to analyze the use of irony the novel, the association with reader-response criticism is still not enough. But it is necessary to analyze the novel from new perspectives so as to have a deep and thorough understanding of Jane Austen’s Emma.
3 Reader-Response Criticism
Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or her experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.〔8〕 Modern reader-response criticism began in the 1960s and '70s, particularly in America and Germany, in work by Norman Holland, Stanley Fish, Wolfgang Iser, Hans-Robert Jauss, and others. Reader-response theory recognizes the reader as an active agent who imparts "real existence" to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation. 〔9〕 Reader-response criticism argues that literature should be viewed as a performing art in which each reader creates his or her own, possibly unique, text-related performance.〔10〕It stands in total opposition to the theories of formalism and the New Criticism, in which the reader's role in re-creating literary works is ignored.
4. The Use of Irony in Emma
Cuddon explains that irony “involved the perception or awareness of a discrepancy or incongruity between words and their meaning, or between actions and their results, or between appearance and reality; in all cases there may be an element of the absurd and the paradoxical.”〔11〕 Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized: verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony.
4.1 Verbal Irony
Verbal irony is a statement in which one thing is said and another is meant.〔12〕 It includes understatement and overstatement or hyperbole.〔13〕 Often verbal irony is ambiguous, having double meaning or double-entendre. The narrator can use verbal irony against action and characters in the novel. Understatement is one of the strategies of verbal irony. It often occurs that a striking observation is concealed under and matter-of-fact surface. At the beginning of the story, Austen introduced the protagonist in this way:
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. 〔14〕
The readers can get information that Emma is a praiseworthy character from Austen’s description. However, the use of the verb phase “seemed to” proclaims the invalid of above proposition and readers may doubt heroine’s happy dispositions.
4.2 Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony referring to knowledge held by the audience but hidden from the relevant characters in a play, exists widely in other forms of fiction, and is responsible for much of the interest in the reading and rereading of stories.〔15〕
When we study Emma, it is necessary to read and reread it, for in a second reading we can feel the joy of irony fully. Emma attempts to make Harriet into the wife of Mr. Elton, when Mr. Elton takes fancy to Emma. Though she finds that Mr. Elton have not grasped the chance to pursuit Harriet as she thought he would, she still deceives herself. Then, she flirts with Frank Churchill and thinks that Frank Churchill loves her. Though these mistakes seriously threaten Harriet's happiness, cause Emma embarrassment, and create obstacles to Emma's own achievement of true love, none of them has lasting consequences. We still realize how dangerous and misleading Emma’s impractical fancies are. Dramatic irony produces a striking effect especially when that the ironic victim believes is in comic contrast to the reality. 〔16〕 That the reader knows all this well adds color to the comic effect. In their self-exhibition, the characters appear more vivid and lifelike.
4.3 Situational Irony
The term situational irony refers to conditions that are measured against forces that transcend and overpower human capacities.〔17〕These forces may be psychological, social, political, or environment.
Reading Emma, we find we have entered a world mainly of situational irony. Emma, the heroine, is busy in match-making. But she suffers frustration again and again. Emma makes three major mistakes in the novel. First, she attempts to make Harriet into the wife of a gentleman, when Harriet's social position dictates that she would be better suited to the farmer who loves her. Then, she flirts with Frank Churchill even though she does not care for him, making unfair comments about Jane Fairfax along the way. Most important, she does not realize that, rather than being committed to staying single she is in love with and wants to marry Mr. Knightley. The readers find the fact that Emma, the dynamic character, who becomes mature than before. Emma, who is vain, conceited and thoughtless at the beginning of the novel become reflective, fulfilled and mature at its end. Structural irony is greatly conducive to the characterization, and the structure of the novel.
5 Conclusion
From the reader-response perspective, this paper manages to make a tentative exploration on the use of irony in Emma. The paper adopted the reader-response criticism to prove that the importance of irony in this novel. The devices of verbal irony what is a tool to portray one’s characteristics. With Emma’s overcoming her shortcomings, the narrator’s irony weakens gradually. The readers accept Emma pleasantly. Dramatic irony also plays the same role in portraying characters’ weaknesses. Emma is captivated by her own fancies, while the truth is often opposite to her daydreams. The reader sees not only the truth but also Emma’s absurdity. Structural irony is greatly conducive to the characterization, and the structure of the novel.
Totally speaking, the effect of irony in Emma is to stir up readers’ cooperative passion with the author in reading the novel. The readers’ expectations are broken when they realize the actual facts in the novel. On the basis of this point, they will review the plot and the structure carefully, so that they can enhance their understanding of this story. Meanwhile, the readers are the real thinkers in Emma. By this mean, both the author and the readers arrive at the anticipated goal.
Bibliography:
[1] Pinion, F.B. A Jane Austen Companion: a critical survey and reference book. 〔M〕.London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1976:180
[2]Austen Jane. Emma〔M〕. Shanghai:World Book Company Press,2008:1
[3] Laurie Lanzen Harris,ed.,Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism,Vol.1 (1981)
[4]Harding D.W.,Regulated Hatred and Other Essays on Jane Austen, ed. Monica Lawlor. 〔M〕.London: The Athlone Press,1988:12-13
[5]林文深. 《爱玛》反讽试论〔J〕. 上海师范大学学报,2000(8):112-118
[6]李冬梅. 奥斯丁之魂—试析《爱玛》中的情境反讽〔J〕. 北方丛论,1999(2) 86-88
[7]刘丹翎. 简•奥斯丁的小说《爱玛》中反讽的艺术特色〔J〕. 西北大学学
2003(8):145-150
[8]蔡庚生. 文学评论与鉴赏教程〔M〕. 武汉:武汉大学出版社, 1997:195
[9]朱刚. 二十世纪西方文艺批评理论〔M〕. 上海:上海外语教育出版社,2008:242
[10]ibid
[11]Cuddon.J.A, A Dictionary of Literaray Terms. Ander Deutsch Limited, 1977: 338
[12]李正栓. 英国文学学习指南〔M〕. 北京:清华大学出版社.2006:420
[13]ibid
[14]Austen Jane. Emma〔M〕. Shanghai:World Book Company Press,2008:1
[15]邵锦娣. 文学导论〔M〕. 上海:上海外语教育出版社.2006:181
[16]祝燕敏. 论简.奥斯丁的反讽艺术. 〔J〕. 湖南师范大学硕士学位论文,2000(4):33
[17]李正栓. 英国文学学习指南〔M〕. 北京:清华大学出版社.2006:420