Emma

I enjoy reading the novels of Jane Austen though it is many years since I have read Emma - it is on my list of books to read again. In 2011 we visited the Jane Austen Centre in Bath which provided an insight into life in Regency England as well as information about the life of the author. Completing the Future Learn course, Jane Austen: Myth, Reality and Global Celebrity run by the University of South Hampton, also increased my interest in and knowledge of  Jane Austen's works.

Before the cinemas closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown, we had planned to see the new film adaption of Jane Austen's novel, Emma. Several weeks later the film was available for download on television so we were then able to watch the film at home.

It was enjoyable to relax at home and escape what is ocurring in our world while entering the world of Emma Woodhouse. Emma can be described as manipulative as she meddles in the lives of family and friends. She enjoys match making and deciding how those she befriends should behave.

Jane Austen's observation and satirisation of life in a small English village, with its long held social structure, is vividly portrayed in this film as the heroine eventually realises the unintentionial damage that she is inflicting on those around her.

The film is an amusing representation of life in the early nineteenth century with its emphasis on marriage as a way to maintain or improve one's social standing in a community. Emma is a very independent young lady and it takes time for her to understand what her real role in her world shoud be.