The Function of Games in Jane Austen's Emma.

In Jane Austen’s courtship novel Emma (1815), we follow a young adult navigating her way through her sheltered upper-class upbringing in the fictional village of Highbury. Within this novel games are played throughout, almost as an art form specifically for Highbury and are used as a disguise for hidden messages and even romantic intentions. There are a number of instances of this happening throughout the novel. We see this during the game of charades that is played between Mr Elton, Harriet and Emma when he believes he’s disguising his affections for Emma which eventually goes south or when a game of anagrams is played.

The first instance we really see this play out is in Volume 1, Chapter 9, where Mr Elton is implored to ‘contribute any really good enigmas, charades or conundrums’ [P.51]. The chapter opens with the narrative voice using free indirect discourse of Emma. Harriet and Emma discuss improving themselves by reading more books and yet it is only focuses on ‘improving her littles friends mind’ [P.51] and not herself. Here, we can get a ‘clear sense of superiority to the characters whom she grants tenderness to’ [Morgan, P.35]. We can see this clearly here when we find out where Emma places Harriet against herself, the tone here is almost condescending. This is then repeated again when Emma figures out the answer to Mr Elton’s riddle which is courtship. Emma sits ‘happily smiling’ [P.53] whereas Harriet exudes ‘confusion of hope and dullness’ [P.53], furthermore, this is more poignant when she exclaims ‘courtship, you know’ [P.54], it’s almost reaching arrogance. The way we read this specific chapter is changed as we’re not reading through an omniscient narrator but through Emma, an upper class, almost naïve girl.

The first hint to romantic intentions from Mr Elton can be read when ‘the speech was more to Emma than Harriet’ [P.52]. He is clearly all too happy to join in and believes he is not only in with a chance with Emma but to be something more with her. Then to also give a riddle with courtship as the answer is evident. However, this changes drastically when Emma believes these hidden messaged are for Harriet and not herself. Because Emma is so deep into the thought of Mr Elton having affections for Harriet her reaction to the riddle would only fuel Mr Elton’s own affections for her. Litvak states that whenever the ‘characters in Emma seem to merely be playing with words, the stakes are much higher’ [Litvak, p.764], this is evident here, something as small as a riddle is used to allude to his affections for Emma. Through the use free indirect discourse, we know that Emma reads between lines of social interactions; this is clearly seen when she believes the riddle Mr Elton sets out for the girls is for Harriet and not herself. This gives the guise of the narrator being unreliable through free indirect discourse as we can’t fully trust Emma due to her naivety of the situation at hand.

We soon find out that these feelings won’t be reciprocated on Emma’s end which leads to the unfortunate events of the carriage later in the novel in the fifteenth chapter where he ‘professes him self her lover’ [P.92] and not Harriet’s. Mr Elton clearly believed he was getting closer to Emma as he is plastered with a ‘boastful pretence of amazement’ [P.93] once Emma confesses that she believed the messages were for Harriet and not for herself. This presents Mr Elton in a light we have not yet seen him in. Even further into the novel we can then see the bitterness of this as when Mr Elton is invited to join in with a game of conundrums at Boxhill park, but he passes with a ‘sneering consciousness’ [P.257] before exclaiming that he has ‘nothing to say to entertain Miss Woodhouse’ [P.257] as we now know what happened the last time he attempted this.

When talking about games within Emma we must look at the anagram game played between Emma, Harriet, Jane Fairfax, Mr Knightley and Frank Churchill. The table layout for this particular moment can be as seen as mirroring where the characters are placed on a hierarchal scale as ‘Frank was next to Emma, Jane was opposite and Mr Knightley so placed as to see them all’ [P.240]. Here we see Mr Knightley as the highest, Frank and Emma just below and Jane Fairfax on the other side of the table and yet Harriet isn’t mentioned until after, that ‘she was sitting by Mr Knightley’ [P.240], here we can see the clear class difference between the characters but especially as Jane ‘has gained entry into good society’ [Waldron, P.143] through ‘her patronage by’ [Waldron, P.143] Frank Churchill. It is interesting to note that Harriet isn’t present in the scene until after the more upper-class characters are placed at the table first.

They start playing a game of anagrams with Emma’s nephew’s ‘box of letters’ [P.239] with the first being played by Frank Churchill to the table. Here we can see the chemistry between Jane and Frank. Frank creates the word ‘blunder’ out of the letters, and we see ‘a blush on Jane’s cheek which gave it meaning not otherwise ostensible’ [P.240], this shows that Jane knows what is being referred to and the reader does not, it can be read as an almost intimate moment between the two secret fiancés. By producing the word ‘blunder’ [P.240] we can see a transparent apology from Frank to Jane, hence her shy response to it. Litvak points out that ‘the reoccurrence of the word [blunder] points indeed to the centrality of misinterpretations and misbehaviour in this would-be bildungsroman’ [Litvak, P.765].

When the second word is produced, the tone shifts immediately. He lays out the word ‘Dixon’ as to allude to when Jane Fairfax nearly falls into the water while boating and is rescued by Mr Dixon. Emma finds this all to funny until she is questioned as to why by Mr Knightley, as if she has to be reminded that not all are envious of Miss Fairfax. There is some comedic relief of the use of ‘blunder’ as it seems everyone around the table does so, in almost dramatic irony, it’s hard to believe anyone around that table truly knows what is currently unfolding. This little mix up ‘creates a hilarious mix of misunderstanding and blunder’ [Waldron, P.142], as if bringing the word to reality.

Here, the function of the game is to show that Mr Knightley is slowing realising something may be happening with Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill as up to this point the reader wouldn’t know they are together. Fletcher puts it perfectly when they state that the ‘watcher is watched, where we are invited to join in as detectives’ [Fletcher, P.40]. The game can be seen as a way to invite the reader to read through the lines of social interactions much like Emma does. These suspicions are later confirmed when Mr Knightley confides in Emma and questions the ‘degree of acquaintance’ [P.241] between the both of them.

To conclude, throughout Jane Austen’s novel Emma we see games being used as a guise for the character’s hidden messages and romantic intentions. This is ever present during the use of charades on Mr Elton’s part where he alludes to his affections of Emma by having the answer to one of his riddles be courtship, hinting at what he would like to achieve. This is the same with the game of anagrams, we can see Frank Churchill subtly communicating with Jane Fairfax through hidden messages within the game, in front of everyone. However, both times this is used, it is unsuccessful for the characters, Mr Elton gets swiftly rejected further into the novel when his true feelings are revealed and Jane making a swift exit after having the word Dixon played in front of her.

Works Cited:

Austen. J, Emma (1815), Norton Critical Edition 4th edn, New York and London, 2011

Fletcher. L, Emma: The Shadow Novelist Critical Survey, Vol. 4, No. 1, Jane Austen and Romanticism (1992), pp. 36-44

Litvak. J, Reading Characters: Self, Society and Text in Emma, PMLA, Vol. 100, No. 5 (Oct., 1985), pp. 763-773

Morgan. S, Emma Woodhouse and the Charms of Imagination, Studies in the Novel, Vol. 7, No. 1, JANE AUSTEN (1975), pp. 33-48

Waldron. M, Men of Sense and Silly Wives: The Confusions of Mr Knightley, Studies in the Novel, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1996), pp. 141-157