Emma, a Heroine

In this essay, George Justice observes that in adaptations, in classrooms, at meetings of the Jane Austen Society of North America, the character of Emma is still widely discussed and debated. Without claiming to settle the question, the essay focuses specifically on the nature of Emma as heroine. He demonstrates how Austen’s toying with notions of heroism relates not only to the novel’s protagonist but to its very form. The novel is about her and pulls us into her thinking, whether we like it or not. None of Austen’s other novels is as directly tied to its main character as is Emma.