“Such an alternative as this had not occurred to her”: The transformation of Jane Austen’s Emma as understood from an evolutionary perspective.

Abstract

Published in 1815, Jane Austen's Emma is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed English novels, but it features one of the least likeable of Austen's heroines. At the beginning of the story, Emma Woodhouse is perceived by many readers in antagonistic terms but then undergoes a significant change. Using short character descriptions, we investigate the psychological underpinnings of Emma's narrative journey from an evolutionary point of view. Our study reveals that Emma's transformation involves changes in all of the Big Five personality dimensions: In the course of the novel, Emma's Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience increase, while her Extraversion and Neuroticism decrease. Emma also shifts in characteristics associated with reproductive strategies and relationship preferences: Study participants perceive the transformed Emma as more interested in and attractive for long-term relationships. These characteristics are associated with life history variations by modern readers, though they could have been manifested differently behaviorally in Austen's time, given the constraints on women in Austen's cultural context. Taken together, these changes suggest a shift from a faster to a slower life history strategy and it is this shift that confirms Emma's protagonistic status. We advocate for the ecological validity of our method, which is commonly used in psychological studies but rarely used in literary studies. Public Significance Statement Jane Austen's Emma is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed English novels. The key aspect of the story is the emotional and moral maturation of the titular heroine. Evaluations of short descriptions of Emma's character from the early and late stages of the novel suggest that she undergoes changes in all major personality dimensions, which are also associated with varying perceptions of Emma's interest in and attractiveness for intimate relationships. Life History Theory provides the framework for understanding the nature and appeal of Emma's transformation.