There are three broad kinds of
references to governesses in :
- Miss Taylor as
governess to the Woodhouses - Jane Fairfax's potential position as a
governess - general mention of governesses applying to the Sucklings and
determining their conditions.
Bear in mind, though, that the
glimpse given in Emma of the world of governesses is a minute glance and a
very rarefied glimpse. In other worlds, there is far more to the world of governessing than
appears in Emma. This is important to understand if you intend to draw
general conclusions about the place and social role of governesses throughout English society
because you will be unable to draw sound conclusions if you examine just what is found in
Emma. Examples of other aspects of governessing come, for instance, from
the Bront« sisters in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront« and in
Agnes Grey by Anne Bront«. Emma draws the world of
the governess with "so fine a brush" on a bit "of ivory" "two inches
wide."
Mr. Knightley gives the closest thing to a "job
description" for a governess when he and Mrs. Weston nee Taylor discuss her
inappropriateness to be a governess. This discussion alone tells that governesses were not mere
escorts to protect and oversee children. Knightley (as Mrs. Elton dared to call him) tells Mrs.
Weston that her "powers" promised a good education but that that promise was never
fulfilled; she became the companion instead.
"Emma
has been mistress of the house and of you all. ... You might not give Emma such a complete
education as your powers would seem to promise; but you were receiving a very good education
from her,..."
This inadequate, failed
role Knightley criticizes. Thus companionship was not the
role of the governess. The role, as Knightley
implies, was to provide a good, high quality education, especially to daughters who were at that
time not sent out at a young age to "public school" to be educated ("public"
meaning private, but public in that it is not at home with a tutor (man) or governess (woman)),
though, as in David Copperfield and Jane Eyre and
Great Expectations, daughters had many avenues of formal education open to
them under the university level. To try to define a "good
education" for girls, it included skill in music, modern language
multilingualism, geography and history, science reading, morality and philosophy reading, and
perhaps Greek and Latin along with the ancient Classics (it is believed Austen was versed in
reading the Greek and Roman classics though perhaps in translation).
Mr.
Woodhouse offers a glimpse at the idealized place of the governess
when he says that Miss Taylor had lived with them as living in what was her home, not as a
tenant or boarder or boarding employee in someone else's home, "it has been her home,"
and that her health was always his first concern (never mind he is a bit obsessive about it,
it's the concern that counts), "her health ... ought to be the first object." Mrs.
Elton offers a glimpse of the realistic place of the governess when
she prattles on about what is possible as a governess for a family that moves in the "first
circles" of social contact and connections (though Maple Grove and the Sucklings wouldn't
be the first circles were they to chance to meet Lady de Bourgh or Darcy from
). Mrs. Elton paints a picture where the quality and "powers" of
the governess determine her place in terms of
interacting with the family. She also paints a picture of the converse
where the quality of the family determines
her place in terms of the happiness given her
through her employ with the family. The place, then, of the
governess is that, first, she is an employee; second,
she is the sole provider of quality, good education, like Austen's heroines themselves have
(with some flaws); third, she is at the mercy of the family employing her
for her comforts in life.
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