By Bill Gaither
Members gathered on June 23, 2024, for an engaging and in-depth discussion of Jane Austen’s unfinished novella or novel The Watsons. The discussion was led by members and scholars Mary Jane and Betty E., and Mary Jane created the helpful study guide. This was a Virtual Book Club meeting. Also leading the meeting was emcee for the day Rose C. and the regional coordinator Sara. Thank you to all for their leadership!
The discussion centered on character types, plot situations, and themes in The Watsons that Jane Austen “recycled”1 and further developed in later works.
A significant part of the discussion focused on the character of Emma Watson and especially on the notable and charming scene at the assembly ball, in which Emma graciously offers to dance with ten-year-old Charles Blake after Miss Osborne has callously broken her promise to dance with him.
- This scene evidently resonated strongly with Jane Austen, for she introduced a similar scene at a critical moment in Emma, when Mr. Knightley offers to dance with Harriet Smith after she is left without a partner.
- Emma Watson’s offer shows her appealing character and personality: her quick empathy, her genuine compassion, her clear sense of the injustice done, her natural and reflexive kindness, her disregard of social risks, and her true understanding of manners.
- Emma Watson’s offer also shows the psychological depth with which Jane Austen imbues her characters: Emma, like the boy whom she instinctively rescues, is existentially out of place and abandoned.
- This scene affords the most favorable view of a child in all of Jane Austen.
Members noted other appealing character traits of Emma Watson that are shown throughout the work: her positive attitude in making the best of her current situation in life; her compassion in forgoing social conversation to sit with her invalid father; her resolution in refusing to ride in Tom Musgrave’s carriage; her good sense and wit, as in her estimations of the cold or awkward Lord Osborne and the attention-seeking Tom Musgrave. Of Lord Osborne: “[H]e would be handsome, even tho’ he were not a Lord – and perhaps – better bred.” Of Tom, in summation: “There is a ridiculousness about him that entertains me, but his company gives me no other agreeable Emotion.”
We also see Emma Watson’s directness and her skill at advocacy, as in her defense of her aunt to her brother Robert and in her response to Lord Osborne:
“Female Economy will do a great deal, my lord, but it cannot turn a small income into a large one.” . . . Her manner had been neither sententious nor sarcastic, but there was something in its mild seriousness, as well as in the words themselves, which made his lordship think; and when he addressed her again, it was with a degree of considerate propriety totally unlike the half-awkward, half-fearless style of his former remarks.
COMMON ELEMENTS
Members also discussed the traits that Emma Watson shares with characters in Jane Austen’s other works: a regard for character and manners in a suitor rather than great wealth and status (Elizabeth Bennet); compassionate actions on behalf of unfortunate persons (Anne Elliot, Fanny Price, and other characters); skill at disputation (Elizabeth Bennet); intelligence and resolution (Fanny Price); positivity and making the best of a situation (Jane Bennet, Anne Elliot, Mrs. Smith, and many other characters).
Members also discussed common elements in characterization between The Watsons and Austen’s later works: wealthy but cold young suitors (Lord Osborne and Fitzwilliam Darcy); less elevated but meritorious young men (Reverend Howard, Edward Bertram, Robert Martin); privileged but erratic young men driving carriages (Tom Musgrave and John Thorpe); men in love with their images (Robert Watson and Sir Walter Elliot); characters fostered by wealthy relatives but abandoned to an impecunious state (Emma Watson, Jane Fairfax, and Edward Ferrars); maiden aunts, past their middle twenties, drifting towards spinsterhood (Elizabeth Watson and Elizabeth Elliot); sisters forward and foolish in courtship or association (Penelope and Martha Watson, Mary Musgrove, and Kitty and Lydia Bennett); presumptuous women (Mrs. Robert Watson, Miss Elizabeth Elliot, and Mrs. Philip Elton).
Members also found common plot situations between The Watsons and later works: a set of sisters or cousins seeking partners and spouses (the Watson sisters, the Dashwood sisters, the Bennet sisters, the Musgrove sisters, and others); offspring whose financial security is threatened by the terms of an inheritance (the Watson sisters, the Bennet sisters, and the Dashwood sisters).
Members also commented on the plot dynamics of The Watsons: the effectiveness of the opening dialog in introducing characters and their situations; a tension between Emma’s refinement and her new social and economic realities; Emma Watson’s lack of a confidante with whom she can communicate on an equal level; the difficulty of plot resolution in a work having so many characters with significant issues.
All in all, the discussion highlighted Jane Austen’s continuing focus, during her short career, on a core group of characterization and plot ideas, which she developed with such great variation, psychological insight, and genius.
Up Next
Next month, JASNA-NC is having some fun and games time with Pride and Prejudice adaptations trivia and film clips discussion, which you can learn more about here. In August, we’re having our nonfiction selection for our Virtual Book Club, and we’ll be reading our member Inger Brodey’s new book Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness. Inger will be leading the discussion, and you can learn all about it here!
1Kathryn Sutherland, “Jane Austen: Fragment Artist,” Persuasions, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Spring 2018). Cited as recommended reading in Mary Jane’s study guide.
