The Themes of Attachment and Love in Jane Austen's Emma: A Critical Study

Abstract

The present study aims at studying critically the themes of attachment and love in Jane Austen’s Emma. Jane Austen is the first important woman novelist who stands above both the classical and romantic movement. Moreover, through the fixed character in her novel, ''Emma'' Jane Austen treats various themes: attachment, love and marriage and thwarted love. The writer   also uses them as a medium for criticizing her own society in general and the other societies in particular. Furthermore, married to a clever husband, Emma resembles an unsuccessful marriage based on sexual attraction. Finally, the paper ends with the conclusion that, love, or attachment- the word she preferred – had a precise and perhaps peculiar connotation for Jane Austen. Essentially, it expected the quality of affection that might be found between the members of a happy family. Young men and women who become honorably attached to one another were something more than siblings, something less than lovers.