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David Southward suggests in a fascinating study of embarrassment in Austen\u2019s novels, Emma \u201cseems more concerned about \u2018being looked at\u2019 than she is about \u2018doing wrong.\u2019\u201d When she holds a dinner party for the Eltons, it\u2019s intended to avoid being \u201cexposed to odious suspicions\u201d that she is full of \u201cpitiful resentment\u201d for Elton\u2019s marriage to someone else: \u201cIn Emma\u2019s mind, the embarrassment of \u2018odious suspicions\u2019 far outweighs the shamefulness of her actual resentment, which is itself only an evil when imagined by others.\u201d When she \u201cjudged it proper to appear to censure\u201d Knightley\u2019s suspicions about Frank and Jane, \u201cpropriety lies not so much in the censure as in the convincing appearance of it.\u201d Her repentance later on is a shift from \u201cembarrassment\u201d to genuine, abject, penitent \u201cshame.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Southward suggests in a fascinating study of embarrassment in Austen\u2019s novels, Emma \u201cseems more concerned about \u2018being looked at\u2019 than she is about \u2018doing wrong.\u2019\u201d When she holds a dinner party for the Eltons, it\u2019s intended to avoid being \u201cexposed to odious suspicions\u201d that she is full of \u201cpitiful resentment\u201d for Elton\u2019s marriage to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n