Austen embodied: Class and gender performances in Emma and Persuasion

Abstract

This essay analyses gender performances in Jane Austen’s Emma and Persuasion. It uses Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, which argues that masculinity and femininity are constituted of a series of repeated bodily acts. Through such acts, characters like Emma Woodhouse, Anne Elliot, Sir Walter Elliot, and Mr Knightley blur or traverse gendered lines. This essay further argues that gender performances in Emma and Persuasion carry class implications. Through their ‘incorrect’ embodiments of gender, Jane Austen’s characters offer critiques of class structures. Austen’s depictions of such characters also provide insight on exactly how masculinity and femininity, upper class and lower, are constructed.