The Marriage Game: On Play and Performance in Jane Austen's Emma
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Authors
Schlegel, Amanda
Issue Date
2023-05-04
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
University of the South , English Department , Senior Honor Thesis 2023 , Austen , psychoanalysis , marriage , speculation , mother , object theory , attachment , game theory , rehearsal
Alternative Title
Abstract
Throughout Jane Austen’s Emma, the playful and alluring titular character indulges in pleasurable pastimes and games, but the greatest game Emma plays is a psychological one. As opposed to the popular concept of the “marriage market,” Austen facilitates a “marriage game.” Indulging potential for a beneficial match, even though it might not be economically suitable, pushes players like Harriet Smith to transcend their lower-class backgrounds. Austen draws attention to the provisional and competitive nature of games, making Emma’s version of playing with matches an ambivalent commentary on social privilege.
Lack, a term from psychoanalytic theory, focuses on individual needs; there is much sympathy for those with a great amount of lack and relatively little for those who scarcely lack. Despite minimal mentions of Emma’s mother, the lack of this original object becomes critical to interpreting and sympathizing with Emma. Unable to connect due to her motherlessness, Emma turns to games in an attempt to gain sympathy and form connections with female companions to fill her lack. Additionally, games offer a rehearsal or low-stakes representation of the world. By examining games in Austen’s novel, this study exhibits the way in which the singular phenomenon of original lack pervades an individual’s interactions with their environment as they strive to supplementally fill their lack with the company they profoundly need despite the inefficiency of playfulness as a means to obtain it.
Description
Citation
Publisher
University of the South