One of
the most delightful and memorable motifs of the movie Clueless (which the entire Janeite world now knows is a modern
version of Emma) is the way Cher
(Emma) repeats the sarcastic phrase “As if!” as a kind of Valley-girl mantra.
These
playful video snippets capture this motif perfectly:
However,
it only occurred to me this morning that this was actually a very very clever
pickup by Amy Heckerling of something subtle in the text of Emma, which actually provides a wormhole
deep into the shadows of Emma (and,
it turns out, also of Mansfield Park as
well!).
First
look at these statistics for the number of usages of the phrase “as if” in JA’s
fiction:
Work Usages Usage/Word
(from Low to High)
Other
juvenilia: 0 0
Lady
Susan: 4 .00017319
Northanger
Abbey: 21 .00027159
S&S:
27 .00022578
P&P:
20 .00016410
MP: 48 .00030012
Emma:
43 .00026795
Persuasion:
25 .00029994
As I have depicted visually, what
is noteworthy in these statistics is the sharp divergence between the low frequency
of this phrase in the Juvenilia and the two novels published first (S&S and P&P), on the one
hand, and the four novels published later,
on the other. And the most striking
divergence, novel to novel, is between P&P, published in 1813, and MP,
published in 1814, where the frequency has been nearly doubled from one novel
to the next.
All
of which tells me that after publishing Pride
& Prejudice, Jane Austen significantly upped the frequency of her usage
of the phrase “as if”, and continued that pattern till the end of her career. Now…why might that be?
I
assert that this is extremely unlikely to be a random distribution, and that it
suggests strongly that for some reason Jane Austen used the phrase “as if” much
more frequently the deeper into her career that she went. Suddenly, that made
Heckerling’s seizing on that phrase as a signature line in Clueless seem like much more than a cute, funny, and clever way of
modernizing the language of Emma.
But what
might that reason be? I have now given that question some preliminary thought,
after browsing through those usages in all the novels, looking for ones which
leapt out at me as unusual in some way, in Mansfield Park and Emma in particular. And my working hypothesis is that this was
intentional on Jane Austen’s part, and was a reflection of her desire to use frequent
repetition of this phrase as a subliminal cue to the reader of a fictional
world. It was a way of "whispering" to the reader that you cannot know for sure whether the person in front of you
speaking or behaving so as to communicate a particular attitude or opinion can
be counted on to be sincere, or is merely speaking or behaving “as if” they
were sincere, but actually, they are not. And first in line of those persons
whom you cannot be sure that they are being sincere with you is author of all
those insincere characters, Jane Austen herself!
Let’s
test that hypothesis out on a sampling of passages which I believe support my
claim of an intentional motif which JA
began implementing in her novels beginning in 1814:
Here’s
the “as if” that first caught my eye not long ago—at first I just found it very
funny, as the phrase “as if” entirely undermines the seriousness we ought to
accord to Benwick’s “grief”.
Persuasion,
Ch. 11: “…[Benwick] repeated, with such tremulous feeling, the various lines
which imaged a broken heart, or a mind destroyed by wretchedness, and looked so
entirely AS IF he meant to be understood, that she ventured to hope he did not
always read only poetry…”
And
here’s my favorite from Emma, it’s in Ch. 10, and it entirely undermines the seriousness
we ought to accord to Emma’s “generosity” to the poor cottagers:
They
were now approaching the cottage, and all idle topics were superseded. Emma was
very compassionate; and the distresses of the poor were as sure of relief from
her personal attention and kindness, her counsel and her patience, as from her
purse. She understood their ways, could allow for their ignorance and their
temptations, had no romantic expectations of extraordinary virtue from those
for whom education had done so little; entered into their troubles with ready
sympathy, and always gave her assistance with as much intelligence as
good-will. In the present instance, it was sickness and poverty together which
she came to visit; and after remaining there as long as she could give comfort
or advice, she quitted the cottage with such an impression of the scene as made
her say to Harriet, as they walked away,
"These
are the sights, Harriet, to do one good. How trifling they make every thing
else appear!—I feel now AS IF I could think of nothing but these poor creatures
all the rest of the day; and yet, who can say how soon it may all vanish from
my mind?"
And
here in Chapter 27, the King of Insincerity, Frank Churchill, actually says “as
if” twice in a short speech:
"And
while Mrs. Weston pays her visit, I may be allowed, I hope," said Frank
Churchill, "to join your party and wait for her at Hartfield—if you are
going home."
Mrs.
Weston was disappointed.
"I
thought you meant to go with me. They would be very much pleased."
"Me!
I should be quite in the way. But, perhaps—I may be equally in the way here.
Miss Woodhouse looks AS IF she did not want me. My aunt always sends me off
when she is shopping. She says I fidget her to death; and Miss Woodhouse looks AS
IF she could almost say the same. What am I to do?"
"I
am here on no business of my own," said Emma; "I am only waiting for
my friend. She will probably have soon done, and then we shall go home. But you
had better go with Mrs. Weston and hear the instrument."
The conventional
reading, of course, is that Frank is doing his best to get out of staying with
Emma at Ford’s while Mrs. Weston goes on to the Bateses, but I believe he is
actually using reverse psychology here, trying to provoke Emma into asking him
to stay with her—but then Mrs. Weston puts the kibosh on that plan
straightaway.
And
here’s another favorite of mine, in Chapter 44, with Mrs. Bates putting on the
mask of senility in a private performance for a special audience of one, Emma,
when Mrs. Bates knows exactly what is
going on with Jane!:
There
was a bustle on her approach; a good deal of moving and talking. She heard Miss
Bates's voice, something was to be done in a hurry; the maid looked frightened
and awkward; hoped she would be pleased to wait a moment, and then ushered her
in too soon. The aunt and niece seemed both escaping into the adjoining room.
Jane she had a distinct glimpse of, looking extremely ill; and, before the door
had shut them out, she heard Miss Bates saying, "Well, my dear, I shall say
you are laid down upon the bed, and I am sure you are ill enough."
Poor
old Mrs. Bates, civil and humble as usual, looked AS IF she did not quite
understand what was going on.
"I
am afraid Jane is not very well," said she, "but I do not know; they tell
me she is well. I dare say my daughter will be here presently, Miss Woodhouse.
I hope you find a chair. I wish Hetty had not gone. I am very little able—Have
you a chair, ma'am? Do you sit where you like? I am sure she will be here
presently."
And I
will end there, but with the intention at some future date to do a followup
post about the many “as ifs” of Mansfield
Park.
AS IF I were going to just abandon
this subject midstream, and fail to accord the Crawfords and Fanny, all masters
of behaving as if they felt something other than they showed,
the proper dignity of their own blog post of “as ifs”! ;)
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
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