Journaling with Jane Day 4: Emma
Welcome to Day 4 of Journaling with Jane. We're now at the halfway point of Journaling with Jane and halfway through Jane's novels. Today we are looking at Emma and the importance of self-knowledge.Jane Austen famously wrote of Emma Woodhouse that she was going to create “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” Yet Emma received some glowing reviews on publication and has been read and enjoyed ever since. Perhaps it is the way that Emma slowly comes to discover herself throughout the novel, and the way that we as readers can watch her finding out things about herself, and others that we knew all along! Emma is also constantly drawing up lists for reading and self improvement – which endearingly she very rarely completes.
Today we’re going to be looking at how well we know ourselves and taking Emma’s journey as an inspiration.
If you would like, here are some further prompts:
- How well do you think you know yourself?
- Who knows you better than you know yourself?
- What would you add to your ‘improving’ reading list?
Emma is also a novel of a village, and a small, interconnected community that is dependent on each other socially and financially.
For a further journaling prompt, inspired by Emma, we suggest:
- What does your community mean to you?
- How are you inspired by your community?
Jane Austen refers to Elegant Extracts in the text of Emma, and we have her copy here in our collection