“Small is Beautiful”: Relocating Highbury as a locale in Jane Austen’s Emma

Abstract

In her portrayal of Highbury social life, Jane Austen condemns all social forms of aggression, and harps on social harmony.” Moreover, by placing Emma's fine and interesting mind at the centre of the novel, the novelist makes us experience the life of Highbury through the heroine's consciousness. There is a whole larger world outside of it of which she says nothing, but that does not invalidate the world she had made. The world of Emma may be painted on a very small canvas, perhaps even on two inches of ivory, but the frame that sustains that canvas is very large and beautiful.