Essay on Hierarchy of Language in Jane Austens Emma

Jane Austen writes social novels. Her societies are microcosms of relative stability in a rapidly changing world. Within these restricted realms, class structure is rigid; however, members of this society participate in one common activity: discourse. Due to the vagaries and incompetencies among the characters, not all conversations in Emma conform to the ideals of communication, and in fact, contribute to the promulgation of the central conflict. Henry Fielding proposed in his Miscellanies, that conversation should resemble that reciprocal Interchange of ideas, by which Truth is examined, and all our Knowledge communicated to each other [and which] contributes to the moral improvement of society but presupposes, under ideal†¦show more content†¦Man is a social animal who in the modern world of the [nineteenth century, has] his physical and economic security...necessarily bound up with that of other members of his society (Warren 82) thereby rendering civilization dependent on the proper functioning of communication. For many persons, a half an hours uninterrupted communication of all those little matters on which the daily happiness of private life depends (138) may be the only available and allowable means of entertainment; both knowledge and pleasure are communicated through conversation. In the insulated village of Highbury, daily communications comprise the majority of provincial activity. Because conversation is so basic to daily functions, it takes myriad forms. Discourse can be a harmless exchange of ideas or events, a communication of truth, idle gossip, or willful deceit. It is in the form of deceit that language can become deleterious and threaten the society it serves to engender. Falsification upsets the careful social balance (Smith 59) by contaminating the relationship between speaker and audience. A speech act, according to the rules of pragmatics, should convey truth. When what is spoken is falsified or misinterpreted, communication is ineffectual. In Emma, it is the prevalence of falsity and misunderstanding that causes confusion among the characters. The social relationships inShow MoreRelatedJane Austen s Clueless 1280 Words   |  6 Pagesfilm ‘Clueless’ enhances our understanding of the transformation derived from Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ and communicates the issues of rigid social status and confined attitudes to women despite contextual realignments. 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