More Jane Austen

[elfundeb2]

No: HPFGUIDX 77075

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sylviablundell2001" 
<sylviablundell at a...> wrote:
> Emma is undoubtedly Hermione - clever, charming but thinks she 
knows 
> everything and has a right to order other people's lives.

Absolutely.  Hermione becomes bolder with each success, but is blind 
to her failure with the house-elves.  JKR has indicated both that 
Hermione is a bit of a caricature of herself and that Emma was one of 
her favorite novels.  Indeed, "[t]he real evils of [Hermione's] 
situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a 
disposition to think a little too well of herself."  (Emma, ch. 1.)  

> Mr. Knightley, the only person who dares to criticise Emma in any 
> way - could be Snape, possibly Ron.

Snape, IIRC, generally reserves his criticisms for Harry and 
Neville.  He has on occasion told Hermione to shut up, but does not 
ever directly criticize her.  Therefore, I agree with the second 
choice:  Ron is Knightley to Hermione's Emma, as he alone continues 
to challenge her on the house-elf issue, and I can't think of anyone 
else who really argues with her on other issues, either. Ron also 
plays the role of knight to Harry, as well as when he pulls out his 
wand every time Draco insults her.  And he was also the knight in the 
chess game.

There is another Knightley.  Lily takes on that role in Snape's worst 
memory when she defends him against James' taunts.  And under this 
theory, James becomes Emma, except with one difference:  James knew 
full well how he was treating Snape and did it for effect.  Emma, 
OTOH, blithely believed that Miss Bates did not understand.   

> Miss Bates, muddle-headed gossip - who else but Bertha Jorkins.

Or, under the Lily-as-Knightley theory, it is Snape who plays Miss 
Bates.  Neither is pleasant company, but both feel the pain of an 
insult intensely.  I allow, however, that Miss Bates is a bit more 
gracious than Snape is.  But that's because these parallels are not 
meant to be exact.  I think JKR drew extensively from Austen in 
characterization, in certain scenes, and in threading the mystery 
elements into a plot.  But the plotlines are very different and the 
parallels, like generational parallels, are only echoes that bounce 
off several characters at once.

> Can't find parallels for Jane Fairfax or Mr. Woodhouse (my own 
> darling favourite character).  Anyone help?

The parallel for Jane Fairfax is clearly Lupin, IMO.  They are alike 
in both personality and position.  Both are very reserved, and their 
reticence allows them to hide their secrets.  In addition, neither 
gets the respect that others do, Jane for her poverty and the fact 
that it will require her to take a demeaning job and Lupin for his 
lycanthropy that leads to his unemployability and consequent 
poverty.  In both cases, however, their inner pain is evident, even 
though we don't see either one frequently and never from their point 
of view.

Mr. Woodhouse's resistance to change and the unknown bears not a 
small resemblence to the Dursleys' mania with normality.  Though I 
wouldn't regard the Dursleys as sweetly eccentric, he stifles Emma in 
his own way, so that instead of living her own life she directs 
others' as if it was a dramatic performance.

Debbie
now preparing the argument that Hermione and Ron are Elinor's Sense 
and Marianne's Sensibility in their relationship to Harry