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The Ramifications Of Highbury In Jane Austen's The Awakening

Decent Essays

Wenner explores the geographical ramifications of Highbury from a broader scope by appointing Emma Woodhouse as the central figure of the allegorical nation-state Highbury is meant to represent. She argues, despite Jane Austen’s seeming ignorance of the real-world events happening at the time the novel is set, that there exists an implicit acknowledgement of Austen’s political awareness in a time of English triumph and “nationalistic pride” (Wenner 56). The ethnocentric ideals of the characters are exposed in the way ‘outsiders’ pose threats, or rather “bring the plot complications” (58). Highbury, in the context of Emma, acts as the heart of the narrative, with foreign places floating in the periphery of the novel’s geographical centre. The

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