In the Paltrow film, our heroine and her friend Harriet are depicted

briefly visiting a row of impoverished houses to deliver soup to an older

woman sick in bed. The scene is one of rural desolation, but the visit is

brief. And, as in the novel, it is made clear to us that the main purpose for

the visit is to skirmish past the house of the vicar, who is the present target

of Emma’s matrimonial strategy. Indeed, the mention of the charitable

event is so brief, and the discussion of the vicarage so extensive that it is

soon very clear that the main purpose of the walk is to stalk Mr. Elton, and

generate an accidental meeting with him if possible. C.Wilkes P71, 2013

In Emma, the courageous woman is upset to see Mr. Knightley 'among the standersby' at the ball at
the Crown, 'with the spouses, and fathers, and whist-players' (ch. 38). The individuals who remain by
being expelled from the explicitly charged joys of execution. She is later charmed to see him hit the
dance floor with Harriet, and to see that his moving is 'very great' (ch. 38). Toward the finish of the
section, we know something extremely noteworthy is going on when he asks Emma herself to move
– and she acknowledges.

Even a rigid British court etiquette began to adapt to changing

fashions and introduced a bell-shaped hoop which was thought to

complement the new style of women's dress. However, a hooped

gown belted just underneath the bosom gave even the most slen-

der shape a somewhat bloated appearance. Travelling decked out

in prescribed court costume was no slight feat either, though the

invention of the revolutionary collapsible hoop added to the wearer's

comfort, if not her attractiveness: reporting the arrival of court

ladies squeezed into their sedan chairs.

The male equivalent of women's revealing dress was the

perfecdy-tailored suit, popularised by the most influential dandy

of the period, Beau Brummell. Blessed with handsome looks and a

razor-sharp wit, he held aristocratic society in awe and set the stan-

dard for masculine elegance from the Regency onwards: the dark

green or blue tailored double-breasted frock coat, set off against the

cool whiteness of a linen shirt and starched, meticulously arranged

necktie or cravat. He replaced breeches with tight-fitting

cream pantaloons which showed off the contours of his leg and

teamed them with tasselled Hessian boots. The look of under-

stated perfection was rounded off with lightly coloured gloves - yet

where Frank Churchill appears content with the range of 'Men's

Beavers' and 'York Tan' provided by Ford's in Highbury, Brum-

mell's were made to order by two tailoring firms, one entrusted with the cut of the fingers, the other
with the thumbs, to ensure an impeccable fit. Pp 243 – 245

food in Emma

Supper was the last meal of the day. It had once been a substantial

repast, but now that dinner itself was becoming an evening meal, all

that was required was a tray of elegant light refreshments.

It was at a ball, with exceptionally late hours, that supper came into its own. ‘A private dance,
without

sitting down to supper, was pronounced an infamous fraud upon

the rights of men and women' (2:11), 266

Soup seems to have been the essential component of a ball

supper: there is soup at the Crown in Emma

Emma is the Austen

novel by far the most laden with references to food, and here they

build up to show us the interdependence of the village community,

where some people have more access to food, through wealth or occupation, than others. Robert
Martin gathers walnuts for Harriet,

Mrs Martin sends a goose to Mrs Goddard and Miss Bates is the

grateful recipient of apples from Donwell and pork from Hartfield.

Food in Emma is a metaphor for neighbourly love.

Jane Austen grew up in a household where the provision of food

was not a simple matter of shopping or placing orders but of for-

ward planning, hard work and daily contrivance. Almost all the

foodstuffs consumed in Steventon Rectory were home-produced,

the exceptions being luxury imported goods like tea, coffee, choco-

late, sugar, spices, wine, dried fruit and citrus fruit. p 262

The English were also eating during this period, though, as usual, they

were not eating well. But for some, at least, this was about to change.

Cuisine and culinary practices, including the purchase, preparation and

consumption of food, provide a third terrain on which social hierarchies

played out in Austen’s time. (23)

Food played an essential part in the eighteen century. The main types of foods were; meat, fruits
and vegetables, Dairy products (milk and cheese), tea and coffee, dessert. Some of the dishes served
at that time were : white soup (made with veal stock, cream and almonds), Pease soup (made of
dried peas, simmered in stock or with celery, onion, and seasoning), syllabub (popular beverage
based on cider or wine flavored with nutmeg, milk, or cream) and gruel (made of boiled oatmeal and
butter).

The analysis of films in the Austen genre is also complicated on its

own account. There are at least three broad categories of film to consider.

First, there are the films made of the novels. In the case of Pride and

Prejudice, two major films are well-known, and often referred to

interchangeably, as if they constitute a single text.

Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, based on the screenplay by

Deborah Moggach, released in the UK on September 16, 2005, and starring Keira

Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. This is a shorter version than the archetypal

1995 TV serial, which runs to six episodes, and therefore provides much more

detail than a straight-forward film release. Here Jennifer Ehle plays Elizabeth

Bennet, and Colin Firth, Darcy. They cast a long shadow over all later versions.159

During Austen's time, most of women's dress articles were either

sewn to order by 'mantua-makers', professional dressmakers, or

made at home, often with the assistance of a ladies' maid. 248 Todd