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Idiolect in Emma
Idiolect in Emma
Angel Werth
1.1K views • 49 likes
1 month ago • 1:13 min
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Transcript
[00:00]
Jane Austin shows us who her characters
[00:02]
are, not just through what they say, but
[00:04]
through how they say it. Scholars
[00:06]
celebrate Austin's ability to bring to
[00:07]
life even her minor characters, giving
[00:09]
them [music] each their own manner of
[00:10]
talking or idioct. Consider in Emma, for
[00:13]
example, the difference between how Emma
[00:15]
Woodhouse speaks and how the other
[00:16]
female characters speak. [music]
[00:18]
Harriet is much less strong willed and
[00:20]
much less certain than Emma, and so the
[00:22]
[music] way she speaks is a lot more
[00:23]
hesitant. She asks a lot more questions.
[00:25]
Miss Bates is a lot less structured and
[00:27]
thoughtful in what she reveals and to
[00:29]
[music] whom and how, and her dialogue
[00:32]
reads almost like she's narrating her
[00:33]
subject to herself. Jane Fairfax is a
[00:36]
lot more reserved and formal, and the
[00:38]
brief sentences we get from her force us
[00:40]
to read between the lines if we are to
[00:41]
understand her feelings and motives. We
[00:43]
can see these characteristics [music]
[00:45]
anytime any of these characters opens
[00:46]
her mouth, but it's especially obvious,
[00:48]
of course, when they're in scenes
[00:49]
[music] together and we can compare
[00:51]
them. These uniquenesses add vibrancy to
[00:53]
Austin's characters and stories, but
[00:55]
they're also a guide to understanding
[00:57]
people in real life. For example, if
[00:59]
somebody speaks as hesitantly as Harriet
[01:01]
does, they're probably not so strong
[01:03]
willed and apt to be misguided. All of
[01:06]
our choices both shape and reveal who we
[01:08]
are.
