Jane Fairfax is a major character in Emma. She is the only person whom Emma Woodhouse envies due to her accomplishments and beauty.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Jane Fairfax is the daughter of Lieut. Fairfax, an infantryman, and his wife, Jane Bates, who was the daughter of Mr and Mrs. Bates and the sister of Miss Bates. Both her parents died by the time she was three years old; her father died in action abroad, and her mother died soon afterwards from consumption and grief.[1]
Mrs and Miss Bates raised her until Jane was nine years old, which was when her father's former commanding officer Colonel Campbell invited her to come stay with his family in London and be educated alongside his daughter. Though the Campbells loved her, they did not have the money to give a fortune to Jane as well as their own child, and as the Bateses were poor, it was decided early on that Jane would become a governess and provide for herself.[1]
Jane paid occasional visits to her grandmother and aunt after she went to live with the Campbells, the last being two years before the novel began,[2] but she wrote them often and they continued to adore her from afar. They were always excited to hear of her accomplishments, and they read each of her letters many times—forty times according to Emma, although that is assumed to be an exaggeration—at tea with Henry and Emma Woodhouse. As such, the idea of Jane Fairfax tired Emma to death.[3]
In the autumn before her return to Highbury, Jane visited Weymouth with the Campbells, where the family deepened their acquaintance with Mr. Dixon and Frank Churchill over the course of several engagements where she acted as a chaperone for Miss Campbell while Mr. Dixon courted her. Mr. Dixon saved Jane's life during a water party.[2]
Mr. Dixon proposed to Miss Campbell, and they were married in late October. Unbeknownst to anyone but themselves, Jane and Frank entered into a secret engagement around the same time. Frank persuaded her, though she is "the most upright female mind in the creation," because he knew his aunt Mrs. Churchill would never permit a marriage between her nephew and a young woman with only the "very few hundred pounds" her parents had left her.
Jane had resolved to find a position as a governess as soon as she was twenty-one, but though she reached the age in question, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell put off the search when Jane fell ill after the Dixons' marriage.[1] Mrs. Dixon invited her parents and Jane to visit her at Baly-craig, but Jane chose instead to visit Highbury, and the Campbells agreed because they hoped her native air would aid in her recovery.[2]
Character traits[]
Jane is an orphan whose only family consists of an aunt, Miss Bates, and a grandmother, Mrs. Bates. Jane is regarded as a very beautiful, clever, and elegant woman, with the best of manners, and is also very well-educated and exceptionally talented at singing and playing the piano; in fact, she is the sole person whom Emma envies. She has little fortune, however, and seems destined to become a governess – a prospect she dislikes. Mrs. Elton, to the surprise of others, takes it upon herself to dote on Jane, viewing her a poor creature due to her prospects. Mrs. Elton persistently attempts to find Jane a governess posting, and Jane accepts this 'charitable' friendship with little choice. Throughout the novel, she is often viewed as cold and sickly, her mood poor upon Frank Churchill growing close with Emma Woodhouse despite him being attached to Jane. In many social scenes, she is quite glum and reticent.
Jane Fairfax serves the role as Emma's rival, and possibly a second heroine in the novel. Unlike Emma, Jane is private with her affairs, mainly to keep her secret engagement a secret. We do not get much information about Jane's character, mainly because the narrator usually portrays Emma's perspective and may not want to dwell on Jane's accomplishments.