Emma - Romantic Imagination :: essays research papers fc

Jane Austens Emma and the Romantic Imagination "To see a world in a grain of vertebral column And a heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the ornamentation of your hand And eternity in an hour." William Blake, Auguries of Innocence Imagination, to the deal of the eighteenth century of whom William Blake and Jane Austen are but two, involves the twisting of the relationship between fantasy and reality to stimulate at a fantastical point at which a world can be extrapolated from a single grain of sand, and all the time that has been and ever will be can be pie-eyed into the space of an hour. What is proposed by Blake is clearly ludicrousit runs against the very tide of reason and senseand yet the catch that the visual modality paints of his verse inspires awe. The human imagination supplies the ablaze undercurrents that allows us to see the next wild flower we pass on the side of the road in an entirely different and amazing light. In Austens Emma, the imagination is less strenuously taxed because her story of sensibility is more easily enhanced by the imagination, more easily given life than Blakes go up vision of the great in the small because Emma is more aesthetically realistic. However, both rely on the point that "the correspondence of world and subject is at the sum of money of any sensibility story, yet that correspondence is often twisted in unusual and terrifying shapes," (Edward Young, 1741). The heroine of Austens novel, Emma Woodhouse, a girl of immense imagination, maintains it by care up with her reading and art because, as Young contends, these are the mediums through which imagination is chiefly express by manipulating the relationships between the world and the subject at hand. However, even in this, Emmas imagination falls short. "The soul might have the capacity to dupe in the world or the atom if it werent for the bodys limitations getting in the way," (Joseph Addison, 1712). As Addison supposes, th e limitations of Emmas body keeps her from seeing the truths that her soul, if let free, would represent her. One of these is that Frank Churchill, a handsome and civil man, is insincere and fake, while Mr. Knightley truly loves her like no other. In Emmas love theme, Austen shows us how emotions and imagination can augment each other. "It wassensibility which in the first place aroused imaginationon the other handimagination increases and prolongssensibility," (Dugald Stewart, 1792).Emma - Romantic Imagination essays research papers fc Jane Austens Emma and the Romantic Imagination "To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour." William Blake, Auguries of Innocence Imagination, to the people of the eighteenth century of whom William Blake and Jane Austen are but two, involves the twisting of the relationship between fantasy and reality to arrive at a fantastical point at which a world can be extrapolated from a single grain of sand, and all the time that has been and ever will be can be compressed into the space of an hour. What is proposed by Blake is clearly ludicrousit runs against the very tide of reason and senseand yet the picture that the imagination paints of his verse inspires awe. The human imagination supplies the emotional undercurrents that allows us to see the next wild flower we pass on the side of the road in an entirely different and amazing light. In Austens Emma, the imagination is less strenuously taxed because her story of sensibility is more easily enhanced by the imagination, more easily given life than Blakes abstract vision of the great in the small because Emma is more aesthetically realistic. However, both rely on the fact that "the correspondence of world and subject is at the center of any sensibility story, yet that correspondence is often twisted in unusual and terrifying shapes," (Edward Young, 1741). The heroine of Austens novel, Emma Woodhouse, a girl of immense imagination, maintains it by keeping up with her reading and art because, as Young contends, these are the mediums through which imagination is chiefly expressed by manipulating the relationships between the world and the subject at hand. However, even in this, Emmas imagination falls short. "The soul might have the capacity to take in the world or the atom if it werent for the bodys limitations getting in the way," (Joseph Addison, 1712). As Addison supposes, the limitations of Emmas body keeps her from seeing the truths that her soul, if let free, would show her. One of these is that Frank Churchill, a handsome and well-bred man, is insincere and fake, while Mr. Knightley truly loves her like no other. In Emmas love theme, Austen shows us how emotions and imagination can augment each other. "It wassensibility which originally aroused imaginationon the other handimagination increases and prolongssensibility," (Dugald Stewart, 1792).