BACKGROUND:
Not quite 4 years ago, after
watching the then latest adaptation of Jane
Eyre, I wrote a couple of posts in which I noted Charlotte Bronte’s sly homophonic
punning on the words “Eyre”, “heir”, “air”, and “hare”. I also noted how that punning
seemed to have been inspired by Jane Austen’s own punning on most of those
words, in particular in the allusion to “The Hare and Many Friends’ in Northanger Abbey:
A month ago, I revisited
that analysis by extending it to Jane Austen’s allusion (via Mrs.Elton) to “The
Hare and Many Friends” in Emma, adding
to the list of puns the name “Harriet”, which sounds like “Hare Yet”.
Today it occurred to me
that there was one more word in that rich lode of puns which I have been aware
of since 2005, which fills out this punning matrix---that is Frank Churchill’s infamous
“hair cut”. As my Subject Line hints, and I will demonstrate, Frank’s ‘heir cut”
is perhaps the most thematically significant and ingenious pun of the bunch!
I am not the first to see
wordplay in Frank’s “hair cut”—15 years ago, Jill Heydt-Stevenson first pointed
out that the Regency Era slang definition for “getting one’s hair cut” was to
visit a woman”. Stevenson, reading the novel straightforwardly, suggests that
Frank’s trip to London is all about his secret relationship with Jane. However,
Stevenson did not realize what I deduced in 2005, which is that Frank’s
assignation in London is not with Jane at all, it is with none other than Miss
Hawkins (soon to be Mrs. Elton), whom I claim he jilts during that brief trip
to London which (ironically) occurs on Valentine’s Day, by giving her the “courtship”
charade we read in Chapter 9 of Emma:
THE CASE FOR FRANK’S “HEIR”
CUT:
The pun I’ll unpack today
is between the “hair cut” that Frank obtains in London on Valentine’s Day, and
the “heir cut” (i.e., the inheritance) he solidifies by murdering his aunt Mrs.
Churchill 4 months later.
That Frank smothers Mrs. Churchill in Richmond was
first suggested by Leland Monk in 1990, but Monk had no idea of the way that
plot point was interwoven into the rest of the intricate shadow story of Emma that I have painstakingly excavated
since late 2004. I see the removal of Frank’s
domineering aunt as constituting the forcible removal of a huge obstacle to
Frank’s economic independence. As a result of her death, he then only has his
very malleable (and also generous and aging) uncle Mr. Churchill to deal with –and
we are given dramatic evidence of all of this, when we learn that the Churchill
family jewels are to be set into a crown for Jane Fairfax.
Think I’m reaching with all
of this? Well, consider the following passages in Emma which JA ingeniously
scattered throughout the novel, all to create an elaborate, cumulative, and
entirely subliminal suggestion of this pun on Frank’s freaky “hair cut” and “heir
cut”:
Chapter 2: When we first hear
about Frank, we read that Mr. Weston, in marrying poor (literally!) Miss Taylor,
“had only himself to please in his choice: his fortune was his own; for as to
Frank, it was more than being tacitly brought up as his uncle's HEIR, it had
become so avowed an adoption as to have him assume the name of Churchill on
coming of age.”
So the idea of Frank’s
expectancy of a great inheritance is “early implanted” in the reader’s mind, an
idea which, like the baby growing in Jane Fairfax’s uterus, develops slowly
over the remainder of the novel, and is “born” just before the end!
In Chapters 25-26, after
Frank has finally showed up in Highbury, the reader joins Emma in surprise in hearing
via the gossip mill the details of Frank’s infamous hair cut:
“Emma's very good opinion of
Frank Churchill was a little shaken the following day, by hearing that he was
gone off to London, merely to have his HAIR CUT. A SUDDEN FREAK seemed to have SEIZED
him at breakfast, and he had sent for a chaise and set off, intending to return
to dinner, but with no more important view that appeared than having his HAIR CUT.
There was certainly no harm in his travelling sixteen miles twice over on such
an errand; but there was an air of foppery and nonsense in it which she could
not approve.
…but for such an unfortunate
fancy for having his HAIR CUT, there was nothing to denote him unworthy of the
distinguished honour which her imagination had given him; the honour, if not of
being really in love with her, of being at least very near it, and saved only
by her own indifference—(for still her resolution held of never marrying)—the
honour, in short, of being marked out for her by all their joint acquaintance.
…Frank Churchill came back
again; and if he kept his father's dinner waiting, it was not known at
Hartfield; for Mrs. Weston was too anxious for his being a favourite with Mr.
Woodhouse, to betray any imperfection which could be concealed.
He came back, had had his HAIR
CUT, and laughed at himself with a very good grace, but without seeming really
at all ashamed of what he had done. He had no reason to wish his HAIR longer,
to conceal any confusion of face; no reason to wish the money unspent, to
improve his spirits….
…"…I never knew days
fly so fast. A week to-morrow!—And I have hardly begun to enjoy myself. But
just got acquainted with Mrs. Weston, and others!—I hate the
recollection."
"Perhaps you may now
begin to regret that you spent one whole day, out of so few, in having your HAIR
CUT."
"No," said he,
smiling, "that is no subject of regret at all. I have no pleasure in
seeing my friends, unless I can believe myself fit to be seen." END QUOTES FROM CHAPTERS 25-6
Rereaders of the novel
believe the cover story presented at the end of the novel, which is that Frank
went to London on a “sudden freak” to buy the mysterious pianoforte for Jane.
But Jane Austen, via further wordplay, links Frank’s trip to London to two
later trips by Frank. The key clue is the sentence “A SUDDEN freak seemed to
have SEIZED him at breakfast”, describing Frank’s decision to abruptly leave
Highbury to take a long ride. Keep that sentence in mind as you read the
following (supposedly unrelated) sentences:
In Chapter 42: “He had
been detained by a temporary increase of illness in her; a nervous SEIZURE,
which had lasted some hours—and he had quite given up every thought of coming,
till very late;—and had he known how hot a ride he should have, and how late,
with all his hurry, he must be, he believed he should not have come at all.”
In Chapter 45: “The
following day brought news from Richmond to throw every thing else into the
background. An express arrived at Randalls to announce the death of Mrs.
Churchill! Though her nephew had had no particular reason to hasten back on her
account, she had not lived above six-and-thirty hours after his return. A SUDDEN
SEIZURE of a different nature from any thing foreboded by her general state,
had carried her off after a short struggle. The great Mrs. Churchill was no
more.”
The word “seizure”, which
echoes Frank being “seized” with a “sudden freak” earlier, is ripe with four
different meanings, referring not only to (1) Frank’s impulsive decision and (2)
Mrs. Churchill’s illness, but also to (3) Frank’s seizing something of value,
meaning his inheritance, from his aunt, a seizure which he accomplishes by (4) seizing
her throat and choking her to death! I.e., the word “seizure” is a smoking gun that
shoots four bullets which subliminally but directly target Frank’s “hair cut”
to Frank’s “heir cut!”
But there are still more
subliminal textual hints which bolster my interpretation.
First, in Chapter 18: “"We
shall never agree about him," cried Emma; "but that is nothing
extraordinary. I have not the least idea of his being a weak young man: I feel
sure that he is not. Mr. Weston would not be blind to folly, though in his own
son; but he is very likely to have a more yielding, complying, mild disposition
than would suit your notions of man's perfection. I dare say he has; and though
it may CUT HIM OFF from some advantages, it will secure him many others."
Here we have yet another pun,
this time on the word “cut”---when we read Emma’s usage of “cutting off” referring
to the involuntary loss by Frank of something advantageous, we may think of Frank’s
‘hair cut”, and wonder if another slang usage was already extant in the Regency
Era, in the sense we read about a bank “taking a haircut” on a bad loan by
accepting pennies on the dollar.
And then, in Chapter 26, JA
pings that same connection of “cutting off” and ‘inheritance” again:
"Dear Mrs Weston, how
could you think of such a thing? -- Mr Knightley! -- Mr Knightley must not
marry! -- You would not have little Henry CUT OUT from Donwell? “
….Her objections to Mr.
Knightley's marrying did not in the least subside. She could see nothing but
evil in it. It would be a great disappointment to Mr. John Knightley;
consequently to Isabella. A real injury to the children—a most mortifying
change, and material loss to them all;—a very great deduction from her father's
daily comfort—and, as to herself, she could not at all endure the idea of Jane
Fairfax at Donwell Abbey. A Mrs. Knightley for them all to give way to!—No—Mr.
Knightley must never marry. Little Henry must remain the HEIR of Donwell.
And the following, in Chapter
38, is particularly witty by Jane Austen, as Mrs. Elton (who, as I opined
above, was jilted by Frank only months earlier) echoes both Mr. Knightley’s
earlier expressed opinion that Frank’s getting a haircut on a sudden freak
makes Frank a fop, and associates that harsh judgment on puppies/fops with saying
“very CUTTING things”!:
"A very fine young man
indeed, Mr. Weston. You know I candidly told you I should form my own opinion;
and I am happy to say that I am extremely pleased with [Frank].—You may believe
me. I never compliment. I think him a very handsome young man, and his manners
are precisely what I like and approve—so truly the gentleman, without the least
conceit or puppyism. You must know I have a vast dislike to puppies—quite a
horror of them. They were never tolerated at Maple Grove. Neither Mr. Suckling
nor me had ever any patience with them; and we used sometimes to say VERY
CUTTING THINGS! Selina, who is mild almost to a fault, bore with them much
better."
And then, after Frank does
Mrs. Churchill in, we have this passage in Chapter 45, which shows Emma’s dawning
but very dim recognition of the significance of Frank’s expected windfall:
“How {Mrs. Churchill’s death]
would affect Frank was among the earliest thoughts of both [Mr. & Mrs. Weston].
It was also a very early speculation with Emma. The character of Mrs.
Churchill, the grief of her husband—her mind glanced over them both with awe
and compassion —and then rested with lightened feelings on how Frank might be
affected by the event, how BENEFITED, how freed. She saw in a moment all the
possible good. Now, an attachment to Harriet Smith would have nothing to
encounter….”
All the clueless Emma can see
as Frank’s “benefit” from his aunt’s death is the phantom of the connection she
fantasizes between Harriet and Frank, but the suspicious reader sees much more.
And JA turns once more to black comedy in
Chapter 46, when Mr. Weston alarms Emma with an urgent but vague summons to come speak to Mrs.
Weston:
“Emma found that she must
wait; and now it required little effort. She asked no more questions therefore,
merely employed her own fancy, and that soon pointed out to her the probability
of its being some money concern—something just come to light, of a disagreeable
nature in the circumstances of the family,—something which the late event at
Richmond had brought forward. Her fancy was very active. Half a dozen natural
children, perhaps—and poor Frank CUT OFF—This, though very undesirable, would
be no matter of agony to her. It inspired little more than an animating
curiosity.”
Once more we register the
idea of Frank being “cut off” in relation to an inheritance. But the cat Jane
Austen is STILL not done toying with this “mouse”. In Chapter 50, we read Frank’s
letter to his stepmother where he protests way too much about how he values his
inheritance of a hopeful disposition from his father more than he values the huge
pecuniary inheritance he can now expect to receive from his uncle!:
: “…If you need farther
explanation, I have the honour, my dear madam, of being your husband's son, and
the advantage of INHERITING a disposition to hope for good, which no INHERITANCE
of houses or lands can ever equal the value of….”
And last on this theme in
Chapter 51, we read Emma’s revisiting for the final time of the theme of
inheritance, as she, with characteristic casuistry, rationalizes her no longer
worrying about John’s son Henry inheriting Donwell Abbey, which is based not on
any shred of good morality, but instead is patent evidence of Emma selfishly
reveling in her prospective marriage to Knightley, just as much as she dreaded
his marrying Jane 25 chapters earlier—remarkable indeed!:
“It is remarkable, that Emma,
in the many, very many, points of view in which she was now beginning to
consider Donwell Abbey, was never struck with any sense of injury to her nephew
Henry, whose rights as HEIR-expectant had formerly been so tenaciously
regarded. Think she must of the possible difference to the poor little boy; and
yet she only gave herself a saucy conscious smile about it, and found amusement
in detecting the real cause of that violent dislike of Mr. Knightley's marrying
Jane Fairfax, or any body else, which at the time she had wholly imputed to the
amiable solicitude of the sister and the aunt.”
So, I hope you’ll agree that all
of the above constitutes compelling evidence for the shadow story meme of Frank
having murdered his aunt, thereby obtaining the “heir cut” he has long believed
himself to have earned by his many years of sucking up to her!
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
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