This week, I was tasked with reading the latter half of Volume II of Emma by Jane Austen. Additionally, I had to read Chapters 1-2 of Frank’s The Meaning of Life and 1.2-1.4 of Martin Heidegger: The Philosophy of Another Beginning by Dugin. In starting with Emma, Austen’s approach of devoting the last couple chapters of Volume II to depict a solitary dinner gathering represents a notable narrative progression in English literature. While earlier authors might have confined the depiction of such events to a mere page or two, Austen seizes the dinner party as a platform to thoroughly explore the intricacies of human character and social dynamics. There are many ways to analyze the dinner party, but in my opinion, Austen’s portrayal of the social gathering adds vivacity to a reader’s experience through her depiction of the absurdity inherent in obligatory social discourse. This could be best exemplified through the conversation of Mrs. Elton and Mr. Weston. The exchange between Mrs. Elton and Mr. Weston is rife with nonsensical, abrupt shifts in conversation, such as in this quote:
“Depend upon it, Mrs. Churchill does every thing that any other fine lady ever did. Mrs. Churchill will not be second to any lady in the land for”—Mrs. Elton eagerly interposed with,
“Oh! Mr. Weston, do not mistake me. Selina is no fine lady, I assure you. Do not run away with such an idea.”
“Is not she? Then she is no rule for Mrs. Churchill, who is as thorough a fine lady as any body ever beheld.”
Mrs. Elton began to think she had been wrong in disclaiming so warmly. It was by no means her object to have it believed that her sister was not a fine lady; perhaps there was want of spirit in the pretence of it;—and she was considering in what way she had best retract, when Mr. Weston went on.”
Mrs. Elton persistently steers the discussion towards herself and her family, while Mr. Weston is equally adamant about redirecting it to his son, even interjecting when Mrs. Elton is interrupted by a coughing fit. Mr. Weston fails to grasp Mrs. Elton’s affected mannerisms—when she insists her sister is no fine lady, intending to convey her lack of pretentiousness, Mr. Weston takes her words literally. Mrs. Elton’s affected speech and her quest for compliments accentuate her superficiality, while Mr. Weston’s comments hint at an underlying automatism and absentmindedness in his perpetual sociability. One can certainly compare this to Dugin’s passage of relationships in Chapter III of his account. “Being—as that which makes beings what they are—must somehow be combined with beings and connected to them…that Being is, that it is beings, and that it is the most important and purest of beings,” (Dugin 55). This quote from Dugin essentially explains the need to be social in order to be truly “being”. This conversation is filled with the arrogance and irritation that many Greeks base on the concept of social philosophy when reading Western history. I think Austen is really showing the disconnect in social interaction, through especially using the motif of parties, that has dipped out of a philosophical nature based on empathy, love and fostering human connection, and rather one based on hierarchy and modernism.
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