Free indirect discourse as psychological description in Jane Austen's Emma
著者（英） Naoko Takekuma
journal or
publication title
Doshisha literature
number 36
page range 1‑21
year 1993‑03‑10
権利（英） English Literary Society of Doshisha University
URL http://doi.org/10.14988/pa.2017.0000014763
FREE INDIRECT DISCOURSE AS PSYCHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION
IN
JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA
NAOKO TAKEKUMA
I
In the epilogue to The Rise of the Novel, Ian Watt deals with J ane Austen as the novelist who successfully united the two kinds of realism developed by Richardson and Fielding, that is, "realism of presentation" and "realism of assessment." These two kinds of realism are characterized by Watt as "the internal and the external approaches to character." External approach to a character is given to the reader through the narrator's information or comments about the events or situations in which the character is involved.
Jane Austen's narrators carry out this function, though they are not so intrusive as Fielding's. J ane Austen also offers the reader internal approaches to a character by blending the narrator's point of view with the character's. The narration containing a certain character's point of view produces, in Watt's words, the "psychological closeness to the subjective world") of the character. Hence, in reading a J ane
~Austen n~vel,
the reader is afforded the pleasure of traveling in the subjective world of a certain character and simultaneously given by the narrator's intermittent commentary some information about the character from an objective point of view.In Emma the narrator blends her objective point of view with Emma Woodhouse's subjective one. For example, the description of the scene in which Harriet Smith first appears goes as follows:
Cl]
Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody. Somebody had placed her, several years back, at Mrs. Goddard's school, and somebody had lately raised her from the condition of scholar to that of parlour- boarder. This was all that was generally known of her history.
She had no visible friends but what had been acquired at Highbury, and was now just returned from a long visit in the country to some young ladies who had been at school there with her.
She was a very pretty girl, and her beauty happened to be of a sort which Emma particularly admired. She was short, plump and fair, with a fine bloom, blue eyes, light hair, regular features, and a look of great sweetness; and before the end of the evening, Emma was as much pleased with her manners as her person, and quite determined to continue the acquaintance.
She was not struck by ans thing remarkably clever in Miss Smith's conversation, but she found her altogether very engaging -: not inconven- iently shy, not unwilling to talk~and yet so far from pushing, shewing so proper and becoming a deference, seeming so pleasantly grateful for being admitted to Hartfield, and so artlessly impressed by the appear- ance of every thing in so superior a style to what she had been used to, that she must have good sense and deserve encouragement. Encourage- ment should be given. Those soft blue eyes and all those natural graces should not be wasted on the inferior society of Highbury and its connections. The acquaintance she had already formed were unworthy of her. The friends from whom she had just parted, though very good sort of people, must be doing her harm. They were a family of the name of Martin, whom Emma well knew by character, as renting a large farm of Mr. Knightley, and residing in the parish of Donwell~very creditably she believed~she knew Mr. Knightley thought highly of them~but
they must be coarse and unpolished, and very unfit to be the intimates of a girl who wanted only a little more knowledge and elegance to be quite perfect. She would notice her; she would improve her; she would det,fch her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners. It would be an interesting, and certainly a very kind undertaking; highly becoming her own situation in life, her leisure, and powers2
The first paragraph is made up of the narrator's comments about Harriet Smith from the narrator's objective point of view. Emma's subjectivity is introduced into the narrator's discourse in the second paragraph in the form of the statement of Emma's liking Harriet's appearance and manners. At the end of the second paragraph the narrator's point of view merges with Emma's subjective one. The narration in the last paragraph is totally from Emma's point of view.
If we make a close examination of the last paragraph, we will notice that as the paragraph progresses, the narrator allows herself to merge more and more with Emma. In the first half of the first sentence in which we find the phrases in the narrator's voice like "She was not struck" and "she found," the existence of the narrator is still clear. Her existence. gets blurred as the sentence continues and almost disappears at its end. The description gets more like the reproduction of Emma's inner speech. Therefore, we do not feel it· unnatural that there is not inserted into the last that-clause of the first sentence a phrase referring to Emma's action such as "Emma thought." The sixth sentence contains the phrase which can be interpreted as the narrator's commentary-"whom Emma well knew by character, as renting a large farm of Mr. Knightley, and residing in the parish of Donwell-very creditably she believed-she knew Mr. Knightley thought highly of them-." Except for this phrase, the description from the second sentence onward can be interpreted as the representation of Emma's thoughts with the words very approximate to her own. Yet the sentences are not, strictly, direct quotations of Emma's inner speech as we can judge from the tense and the reference to Emma in the form of the third-person pronoun. Such a technique as can be observed in the description after the middle of the first sentence-the technique which describes a character's speech or thoughts in his or her idiolect without introductory phrases such as "he said," "she thought," "she said to herself," and so on, while keeping the same tense as used in the
narrative and referring to the character in the third-person pronoun-lS generally known as free indirect discourse (FID).3
In Emma a great number of descriptions of the events and the situations are made from Emma's point of view. The reader shares in the experiences Emma undergoes in the course of the novel, in other words, reads the story from Emma's subjective point of view. At the same time, the reader is provided with clues to the objective facts through the narrator's comments and the other characters' speeches. It is often said that the novel is more entertaining on the second and following readings than on the first reading.
On the second and subsequent readings the reader, already aware of the result of the affairs, can take pleasure in finding the clues to the facts to which Emma is blinded. But at least on the first reading the reader tends to remain within the limit of Emma's perception. The control of inside views in Emma which helps to produce the reader's sympathy with the deficient heroine is demonstrated by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction4 What deserves notice concerning the descriptions from Emma's inside view is that the technique of FID is used in most of them, to some or to a great extent.
J
ane Austen is regarded by some critics as the first English author who used FID extensively.5 Actually she uses this style quite often, particularly when she focuses her narration on what is happening in the heroine's mind at a certain significant point in the course of the story. It can be supposed that the technique of FID is one of the elements which contribute toJ
ane Austen's superb amalgamation of "the internal and the external approaches to character."6 In this essay I would like to examine the use of FID in the descriptions of the heroine's mental processes in Emma and argue for the contribution FID makes toJ
ane Austen's realism.II
The above quotation from Emma shows the process by which Emma grows
attracted to the agreeable demeanor of Harriet Smith and thinks of giving refinement to the girl to initiate her into a "better" society of Highbury. In the course of the reflection Emma forms her dogmatic opinion that the people Harriet has associated with are not suitable for her, ignoring the fact that Harriet's parentage is not clear. Emma's grounds are only the girl's good appearance and manners. The narration in FID which starts in the middle of the first sentence of the last paragraph shows Emma's dogmatism vividly.
Using the diction approximate to Emma's actual one, it shows her excitement caused by the discovery of a good object of her curiosity and her arbitrary justification for making it her occupation to patronize the girl. Such exaltation of Emma's emotion could not be conveyed so vitally if it were written in indirect discourse which tends to give the narration a rather detached tone. If it were written in direct discourse, it could not contain the narrator's objective comment about Emma's knowledge of the Martins that can be found in the sixth sentence of the third paragraph. This comment is important because it shows that Emma forms a dogmatic judgment full of prejudice upon the Martins although she is aware of their being creditable people.
It is one of the important advantages of FID that it can reflect the character's emotion vividly using the character's idiolect. Another advan- tage of FID is that the narrator's objective comments can be inserted in the narration in FID, when necessary. The narration in FID is formally within the extension of the narrative discourse, being in accord with it in the tense and the reference to the character. Norman Page describes FID as follows:
... the peculiar advantages of both direct and indirect speech are combined to fashion a medium which brings the reader close enough to the character's consciousness to have a sense of something at times resembling interior monologue, yet at the same time preserves the kind of objectivity, and the frequent reminders of an impartial authorial
presence, which make explicit comment possible7
FID also produces more succinct descriptions than direct discourse and indirect discourse, needing no introductory phrases such as "she said," "he was sure that," "she imagined that," and so on.
FID is a medium especially suitable for rendering what happens in a character's mind. Paul Hernadi thinks that mental events, which are not strictly verbal yet cannot be articulated but by words, are "quasi-verbal" and that they cannot be duly rendered either in authorial narration or in figural speech. In his opinion, authorial narration is an arbitrary mode of signification which represents nonverbal facts and events using words as arbitrary signs, and figural speech is a natural mode of signification which imitates characters' verbal utterances using words as natural signs. There- fore, in those modes of signification mental events are treated as if they were nonverbal or verbal. Hernadi argues that only FID which has dual perspective can approximate "the quasi-verbal nature" of characters' mental events.8
Let me corroborate Hernadi's argument with an example from Emma. Here is the passage which describes what Emma feels about Frank Churchill when she hears Mrs. Weston's favorable opinion about him a few days after Emma first met him:
This was all very promising; and, but for such an unfortunate fancy for having his hair cut, there was nothing to denote him unworthy of the distinguished honour which her imagination had given him; the honour, if not of being really in love with her, of being at least very near it, and saved only by her own indifference-(for still her resolution held of never marrying)-the honour, in short, of being marked out for her by all their joint acquaintance. (206)
The two phrases, "which her imagination had given him" and "(for still her
resolution held of never marrying)," can be regarded as the narrator's commentary. Except for these, the above passage can be interpreted to be narrated in FID. In it are expressed Emma's vague ideas that Frank has a feeling approximate to attachment toward her and that she herself, though allowing him to have such a feeling, has no intention of returning it. In fact, Frank only pretends to be in love with her to camouflage his secret engagement with Jane Fairfax.
If the passage is rewritten in direct discourse, that is, in Emma's figural speech, in the form of a silent soliloquy, it will go as follows:
Hearing this, Emma thought, 'This is all very promising; and, but for such an unfortunate fancy for having his hair cut, there is nothing to denote him unworthy of the honour I have given him; the honour, if not of being really in love with me, of being at least very near it, and saved only by my own indifference; the honour, in short, of being marked out for me by all our joint acquaintance.'
A description like this is not appropriate for the following reasons. First, it is improbable that Emma verbalizes these ideas so clearly in her mind. And the verbalization of the ideas, if probable, emphasizes her complacency too much and so gives the reader an impression that she is intolerably smug.
Such an impression is unfavorable for maintaining the reader's sympathy with Emma. Yet, it is necessary to convey Emma's complacency to the reader in some way. In the original passage the narrator's comments incorporated in the narration in FID serve to imply her smug way of thinking. Such a delicate control of the reader's response would be impossible in a description in direct discourse.
If authorial narration, that is, the narrator's commentary, alone is used for the description of Emma's vague ideas, one of the possible passages will be like this:
8
Hearing this, Emma felt that Frank Churchill was very promising. But for such a fancy for having his hair cut, there seemed to be nothing to denote him unworthy of the distinguished honour which her imagination had given him. She had a fancy that she allowed him to have a sentiment toward her which resembled to love, though she herself had no intention of returning it on account of her invariable resolution of never marrying.
She intended to allow only his being marked out fOr her by all their joint acquaintance.
The succinctness of the expreSSlOn and the lively flow of Emma's consciousness found in the original passage are lost· in this objective, detached description. Emma's fancies are rendered as completely nonverbal mental events and their temporal existence is blurred. Consequently, the impression the reader receives from the original passage that he or she is sharing in Emma's fancies cannot be produced in this rewritten description.
Hence the comparison with the rewritten passages in figural speech and authorial narration proves that the original passage narrated in FID and authorial narration represents Emma's vague ideas effectively maintaining their "quasi-verbal" quality.
FID has an effect especially in the scenes in which significant changes occur in Emma's mind. For instance, the following passage is the description of the scene in which Emma notices Mr. Knightley's attractiveness as a man for the first time:
She was more disturbed by Mr. Knightley's not dancing, than by any thing else.~ There he was, among the standers-by, where he ought not to be; he ought to be dancing,~not classing himself with the husbands, and fathers, and whist-players, who were pretending to feel an interest in the dance till their rubbers were made up,~so young as he looked! ~He could not have appeared to greater advantage perhaps any where, than where he had placed himself. His tall, firm, upright figure, among the bulky forms and stooping shoulders of the elderly men, was such as Emma felt must draw every body's eyes;
and, excepting her own partner, there was not one among the whole row of
young men who could be compared with him.-He moved a few steps nearer, and those few steps were enough to prove in how gentlemanlike a manner, with what natural grace, he must have danced, would he but take the trouble.- Whenever she caught his eye, she forced him to smile; but in general he was looking grave. She wished he could love a ballroom better, and could like Frank Churchill better.-He seemed often observing her. She must not flatter herself that he thought of her dancing, but
if
he were criticising her behaviour, she did not feel afraid There was nothing like flirtation between her and her partner. They seemed more like cheerful, easy friends, than lovers.That Frank Churchill thought less of her than he had done, was indubitable.
(325-26, italics mine)
The italicized parts are narrated 1ll FID. The first two sequences of description in FID convey vividly the surprise accompanying Emma's discovery that Mr. Knightley is still a young man. It is a new idea to Emma because his being her brother-in-law and sixteen years older than she has prevented her from regarding him as a man. But Emma herself does not notice that she is first attracted by his sexual appeal, as we can see from the narrator's comment which tells Emma's innocent action of catching his eye.
Her action is not a coquetry but a sign to inform him of her watching him. If she were conscious of her discovery of his sexual attractiveness, she would be too embarrassed to catch his eye, let alone, to force him to smile. The narrator also gives the. information that Mr. Knightley is in a bad mood, from which the reader, already aware of his ill opinion of Frank Churchill, perceives that he is jealous of Frank. Emma fails to notice the fact, too. The last sequence of description in FID shows that she interprets his grave look as an expression of his moral criticism of her flirtation with Frank. In other words, in Emma's consciousness Mr. Knightley remains her brother-.in-Iaw.
Thus, the narration in Fm: combined with the apt and adequate commentary by the narrator, produces an effective rendering of the situation in which Emma unwittingly undergoes an experience which has an important
10
meamng 1ll her whole experIence 1ll the novel.
III
Irony is one of the important effects produced by the narration in FID. In this section I would like to deal with irony and another effect, sympathy with the heroine, which are produced as the result of the use of FID in Emma.9
The effect of irony produced by the description in FID can be observed especially in those scenes where Emma forms her wrong judgments. For example, the following passage presents the scene in which Emma, after being advised by Mr. Knightley to give up her scheme to unite Harriet to Mr.
Elton, strives to dismiss Mr. Knightley's assertion that Mr. Elton who is calculating will never marry Harriet:
[Mr. Knightley] had frightened her a little about Mr. Elton; but when she considered that Mr. Knightley could not have observed him as she had done, neither with the interest, nor (she must be allowed to tell herself, in spite of Mr. Knightley's pretensions) with the skill of such an observer on such a question as herself, that he had spoken it hastily and in anger, she was able to believe, that he had rather said what he wished resentfully to be true, than what he knew anything about. He certainly might have heard Mr. Elton speak with more unreserve than she had ever done, and Mr. Elton might not be of an imprudent, inconsiderate disposition as to money-matters; he might naturally be rather attentive than otherwise to them;
but then, Mr. Knightley did not make due allowance for the influence of a strong passion at war with all interested motives. Mr. Knightley saw no such passion, and of course thought nothing of its effects; but she saw too much of it, to feel a doubt of its overcoming any hesitations that a reasonable prudence might originally suggest; and more than a reasonable, becoming degree of prudence, she was very sure did not belong to Mr. Elton. (67 -68, italics mine)
The italicized part is the narration in FID. In this scene Emma, though admitting to some extent Mr. Knightley's opinion about Mr. Elton,
convlllces herself that the possibility of Mr. Elton's marrylllg Harriet is indubitable because he has such a passionate feeling toward Harriet as makes him lose his reason and prudence. Emma believes she has firm grounds for her conviction as she has actually observed Mr. Elton's actions expressing his extraordinary attachment to Harriet. But the truth is that the passion which Emma believes Mr. Elton has for Harriet is meant for Emma herself and stems not from a pure attachment but from a design on Emma's fortune and situation. In other words, Mr. Elton is nothing more than what Mr. Knightley has described him. Emma is completely ignorant of this fact at this point. Those who have already read the novel and so know Emma's blunders concerning Mr. Elton probably do not fail to notice the author's ironical view latent in the passage of the misjudging heroine. The description of Emma's thoughts in FID conveys the inflated feeling she has for having better insight into Mr. Elton's feelings than Mr. Knightley does.
The language close to Emma's idiolect helps to produce such an effect. At the same time, the narration in FID, which maintains the past tense and refers to Emma in the third-person pronoun, implies the presence of the narrator who communicates Emma's thoughts to the reader. The irony is effectively produced by the existence of the narrator who communicates Emma's thoughts in Emma's words while knowing them to be false. The latter part of the last sentence which contains the phrase, "she was very sure," is the narrator's comment. This phrase strengthens the irony further. The insertion of such an effective comment by the narrator would be impossible if the passage were written in direct discourse.
Chapter XVI of Volume I focuses mostly on Emma's psychology after the disclosure that the object of Mr. Elton's courtship has been not Harriet but Emma herself. Emma's self-reproach for her own blunders is rendered in the narrator's discourse, FID, and direct discourse. The opening part of the chapter presents a model for the combination of the three types of discourse:
12
The hair was curled, and the maid sent away, and Emma sat down to think and be miserable.-It was a wretched business, indeed!-Such an overthrow of every thing she had been wishing for I-Such a development of every thing most unwelcome I-Such a blow for Harriet ! -That was the worst of all. Every part of it brought pain and humiliation, of some sort or other; but, compared with the evil to Harriet, all was light; and she would gladly have submitted to feel yet more mistaken-more in error-more disgraced by mis-judgment, than she actually was, could the effects of her blunders have been confined to herself.
'If I had not persuaded Harriet into liking the man, I could have born any thing. He might have doubled his presumption to me-But poor Harriet I' (134, italics mine)
As the description progresses from the narration in the narrator's discourse through the, narration in FID which I italicized to Emma's own speech, the reader gets nearer to Emma's own voice and so feels more intensely the exaltation of Emma's emotion in her self-reproach.
The description subsequent to the above quotation IS made in the narrator's discourse and FID. It shows Emma's reflection. She first regrets that she could not penetrate the real object of Mr. Elton's attentions and that she failed to listen to Mr. Knightley's right opinion about Mr. Elton. Then her reflection moves on to the mortification she has received from Mr.
Elton's proposal of marriage. The anger Emma feels is rendered in FID as follows:
But-that he should talk of encouragement, should consider her as aware of his views, accepting his attentions, meaning (in short), to marry him !-should suppose himself her equal in connection or mind !-look down upon her friend, so well understanding the gradations of rank below him, and be so blind to what rose above, as to fancy himself shewing no presumption in addressing her I-It was most provoking.
Perhaps it was not fair to expect him to feel how very much he was her inferior in talent, and all the elegancies of mind. The very want of such
equality might prevent his perception of it; but he must know that in fortune and consequence she was greatly his superior. He must know that the W oodhouses had been settled for several generations at Hartfield, the younger branch of a very ancient family-and that the Eltons were nobody. The landed property of Hartfield certainly was inconsiderable ... but their fortune, from other sources, was such as to make them scarcely secondary to Donwell Abbey itself, in every other kind of consequence; and the Woodhouses had long held a high place in the consideration of the neighbourhood which Mr. Elton had first entered not two years ago, to make his way as he could, without any alliances but in trade, or any thing to recommend him to notice but his situation and his civility.-But he had fancied her in love with him; that evidently must have been his dependence .... (135-36)
The quoted passage exposes one of Emma's disagreeable tendencies, class-consciousness, and shows her disdain for Mr. Elton. Reading this, the reader understands how vehemently Emma resents having been regarded by Mr. Elton as a candidate for his wife. It can be surmised from the passage that Emma repents not so much of having maneuvered Harriet into loving the man she chose as of having induced Mr. Elton's misunderstanding because of the encouragement she gave him to court Harriet. This surmise is corroborated by Emma's second soliloquy in the chapter:
'Here have I,' said she, 'actually talked poor Harriet into being very much attached to this man. She might never have thought of him but for me; and certainly never would have thought of him with hope, if I had not assured her of his attachment, for she is as modest and humble as I used to think him. Oh1 that I had been satisfied with persuading her not to accept young Martin. There I was quite right. That was well done of me; but there I should have stopped, and left the rest to time and chance.
I was introducing her into good company, and giving her the opportunity of pleasing some one worth having; I ought not to have attempted more. But now, poor girl, her peace is cut up for some time. I have been but half a friend to her; and if she were not to feel this
14
disappointment so very much, I am sure I have not an idea of any body else who would be at all desirable for her;-William Coxe-Oh! no, I could not endure William Coxe-a pert young lawyer.' (137) Emma repents of having encouraged Harriet to love Mr. Elton but not of having attempted to find a husband for Harriet in what Emma thinks the better society of Highbury. She still has no doubt that Harriet should be encouraged to associate with people in the "better" society and find a husband there. That is why she does not feel remorse for having maneuvered Harriet into refusing Robert Martin's proposal. At this point Emma fails to realize the essential impropriety of the attempt to manipulate others' feelings. As a result, Emma later commits another blunder which is of the greatest consequence to her, that is, she unwittingly encourages Harriet to love the man she herself loves. The shallowness of Emma's repentance is indicated in the following comment by the narrator which IS gIven subsequent to the description of Emma's going to bed after her long reflection:
To youth and natural cheerfulness like Emma's, though under temporary gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of spirits. The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of softened pain and brighter hope.
Emma got up on the morrow more disposed for comfort than she had gone to bed, more ready to see alleviations of the evil before her, and to depend on getting tolerably out of it. (137-38)
If we read once more the description of Emma's reflection made on the night before after reading this objective and detached comment by the narrator, we will feel irony in Emma's not being aware of her essential fault though she bitterly regrets her blunders. The description of Emma's reflection in direct
15 discourse, that is, Emma's soliloquy, can be found in the two places mentioned above in the chapter. Those soliloquies are used to bring the effect of irony to its height, showing Emma's psychology directly. The former conveys the vehemence of Emma's repentance; the latter Emma's unawareness of her essential fault. The narration in FID which is used to a great extent in the chapter has an effect in implying the presence of the ironical point of view of the narrator. And, what is more important in this case, it fulfills the function as a bridge between the narrator's discourse and figural discourse. The shift between those two types of discourse appears.not unnatural owing to the incorporation of FID which shares some characteris- tics with both of them. Thus the chapter presents a good example of the combination of the three types of discourse which not only brings about variety in narration but creates irony.
The narration in FID has also an effect in evoking the reader's sympathy with Emma with the help of the narration in the narrator's discourse. Such effects can be observed in some of the descriptions after the crucial incident for Emma at Box Hill, that is, Mr. Knightley's reproach of Emma for her unfeeling words to Miss Bates.
He reproaches Emma when she is about to take the carriage to home at Box Hill. Until then she is unconscious of having hurt Miss Bates. The description just after the reproach goes as follows:
While [Mr. Knightley and Emma] talked, they were advancing towards the carriage; it was ready; and, before she could speak again, he had handed her in. He had misinterpreted the feelings which had kept her face averted, and her tongue motionless.' They were combined only of anger against herself, mortification, and deep concern. She had not been able to speak; and, on entering the carriage, sunk back for a moment overcome-then reproaching herself for having taken no leave, making no acknowledgement, parting in apparent sullenness, she looked out with voice and hand eager to show a difference; but it was just too
16
late. He had turned away, and the horses were in motion. She continued to look back, but in vain; and soon, with what appeared unusual speed, they were half way down the hill, and every thing left far behind. She was vexed beyond what could have been expressed-almost beyond what she could conceal. Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck.
The truth of his representation there was no denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates I-How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in anyone she valued I And how suffer him to leave her without saying one word of gratitude, of concurrence, of common kindness I
Time did not compose her. As she reflected more, she seemed but to feel it more. She never had been so depressed. (375-76, italics mine) The italicized part is the description in FID. In this description are repetitive patterns. The three sentences begin with exclamatory how. The first of them continues using twice the repetition of so plus an adjective. The third proceeds using three times the repetition of of plus a noun. These repetitive elements convey the excitement of Emma's emotion and so the sincerity of her self-reproach. Naturally there exists the narrator's objective point of view in it. But in this case no irony can be observed in the narrator's attitude toward Emma. On the contrary, it seems that the narrator shares with Emma in the anguish. Such an impression is evoked with the help of the description in the narrator's discourse previous to the description in FID.
The former description shows Emma being shocked at having caused Mr.
Knightley's misunderstanding about her feelings. It evinces her sincere acceptance of his reproach. The impression evoked in the description in FID is also confirmed by the description in the narrator's discourse subsequent to it, which tells that Emma's anguish caused by her self-reproach is not alleviated even though time passes. This comment is effective in giving the reader a conviction that Emma's regret is genuine. The impression thus
produced and cofirmed of the narrator's sympathy with Emma, combined with the impression evoked in the description in FID of the sincerity of Emma's self-reproach, helps to induce the reader's sympathy, or empathy, with her.
When Harriet confesses to Emma that she loves Mr. Knightley and believes him to be returning her love, Emma first realizes that she loves him.
After this realization, Emma is brought to her biggest crisis. She is menaced with the idea that she may lose the man she loves to another woman whom she has unwittingly encouraged to love him. Her suffering is augmented by another fear that she and her father may be left alone in Hartfield because of the events that can be expected to occur to their intimates. Her apprehensions are rendered in FID as follows:
If all took place that might take place among the circle of her friends, Hartfield must be comparatively deserted; and she left to cheer her father with the spirits only of ruined happiness.
The child to be born at Randall's must be a tie there even dearer than herself; and Mrs. Weston's heart and time would be occupied by it. They should lose her; and, probably, in great measure, her husband also.- Frank Churchill would return among them no more; and Miss Fairfax, it was reasonable to suppose, would soon cease to belong to Highbury.
They would be married, and settled either at or near Enscombe. All that were good would be withdrawn; and if to these losses, the loss of Donwell were to be added, what would remain of cheerful or of rational society within their reach? Mr. Knightley to be no longer coming there for his evening comfort I-No longer walking in at all hours, as if ever willing to change his own home for their's I-How was it to be endured?
And if he were to be lost to them for Harriet's sake; if he were to be thought of hereafter, as finding in Harriet's society all that he wanted; if Harriet were to be the chosen, the first, the dearest, the friend, the wife to whom he looked for all the best blessings of existence; what could be increasing Emma's wretchedness but the reflection never far distant.
from her mind, that it had been all her own work? (422-23)
18
Emma's anxiety is described in the form approximate to the actual flow of thoughts in her mind. We see Emma get more excited when her thought comes to Mr. Knightley. Subsequent to this description the following comment by the narrator is given:
When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a few seconds-and the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could. be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone. (423)
Here the narrator makes earnest efforts to communicate to the reader Emma's praiseworthy resolution which she makes in her dejection to improve herself.
Reading this comment, the reader is convinced of the narrator's tacit support of Emma's spiritual growth. Then the reader, having read the lively description of Emma's anguish, feels sympathy with her and even comes to hope that she will overcome this crisis somehow to be happy again.
As the examples I have taken up demonstrate, the combination of the narration in the narrator's discourse and that in FID can effectively induce the reader's sympathy with Emma, after she becomes aware of her own deficiencies and comes to make sincere efforts to correct them. While the narration in FID shows Emma suffering for her own follies and striving to improve herself, the narrator's comments indicate her approval and support of Emma's change. The characteristics of FID-the representation of a character's thoughts m his or her idiolect and the accordance with the narrator's discourse m the tense and the reference to the character- contribute greatly to such an effectual combination.
IV
In Emma J ane Austen fully utilizes the advantageous characteristics of FID to render the significant changes in the heroine's mind from its inside and at thesame time to control the reader's response to the heroine's mental events. As far as this novel is concerned, FID can be said to be a technique indispensable to Jane Austen's realism which is featured by "the internal and the external approaches to character."
Referring to FID as "substitutionary narration," Hernadi states the significance of the narration in FID which contains dual perspective as follows: "The d~al modes of evoking mental events in turn affirm both the private and the public relevance of time: substitutionary narration and related techniques embed figural dUTf!e [Henri Bergson's term meaning the immeasurable flux of internal time] in the narrative context of time's intersubjective progressdO The style of FID itself represents the simul- taneous existence of the "private" reality grasped by each individual from his or her subjective point of view and the "public" reality supported by facts observed from multiple points of view. The character's subjective world corresponds to the "private" reality and the narrator's objective world to the
"public" reality. Emma believes in the subjective reality which she forms from her partial point of view and consequently commits blunders. She is then awakened to the undeniable existence of the objective reality. FID symbolizes the dualism of reality which Emma learns through her own blunders.
Any human being, however objective he or she endeavors to be, cannot go beyond the limit of his or her subjective point of view. Even Mr. Knightley, whose acute insight makes him the only person in the novel that penetrates the secret engagement of Frank Churchill and J ane F airfax, is not able to know what is really going on in Emma's mind when he proposes to her. The
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narrator comments just after the proposal scene: "Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken ... " (431). The narration. in FID embodies the limitation of an individual's perspective.
Simultaneously it indicates the existence of objective reality. One of the lessons Emma learns in the course of the novel is to see things and form judgments from a point of view which, though inevitably subjective, is as unbiased as possible. She is thereby able to get closer to the objective reality.
NOTES
Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel, 1st paper-bound ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964), p. 297.
2 J ane Austen, Emma, Vo!. 4 of The Novels of Jane Austen, ed. R. W. Chapman, 3rd ed. (1933; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 22-24. All references to Emma are from this edition. Hereafter page numbers will be given in the text in parentheses.
3 There are vanous terms used for indicating this technique. The terms enumerated by Paul Hernadi in his study of the technique are "style indirect libre, verschleierte Rede, erlebte Rede, independent form of indirect discourse, uneigentlich direkte Rede, represented speech, Rede als Tatsache, monologue int'erieur indirect, and narrated monologue." (Paul Hernadi, "Dual Perspective: Free Indirect Discourse and Related Techniques," Comparative Literature, 24 [1972], p. 35.) I have chosen the term, free indirect discourse, because it is used as a heading in the subject index of the MLA International Bibliography. For a brief view of the history of the study of the technique, see Dorrit Cohn, Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for Presenting Consciousness in Fiction (Princeton, N.].: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 107-109.
4 Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961), pp. 245-49.
5 See, for example, Norman Page, The Language of Jane Austen, Language and
Style Series 13 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1972), p. 124; Dorrit Cohn, p. 108;
David Lodge, "Jane Austen's Novels: Form and Structure," The Jane Austen Companion, ed.]. David Grey (New York: Macmillan, 1986), p. 175; and John·A.
Dussinger, "The Language of 'Real Feeling': Internal Speech in the Jane Austen Novel," The Idea of the Novel in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Robert W. Uphaus, Studies in Literature, 1500-1800,3 (East Lansing, Mich.: Colleagues, 1988), p.
102.
6 The contribution which FID is supposed to make to what Watt defines as Jane Austen's feat of the union of the two kinds of realism is also pointed out by Dorrit Cohn, p. 113.
7 Norman Page, p. 132.
8 Paul Hernadi, pp. 38-40.
9 For a general study of the effects of irony and sympathy created in the description in FID, see Dorrit Cohn, pp. 116-26. I am indebted to his study for a deeper understanding of those effects of FID.
10 Paul Hernadi, p. 43.
