Both Douglas McGrath and Autumn de Wilde seize upon the holiday scenes in Emma (1815), the only Austen novel with a Christmas scene. Each film’s Christmas scene display the cultivation of relationships and community-building. However, in their respective representations of Emma and Mr. Elton (McGrath) and Emma and Mr. Knightley (de Wilde), the movies underscore binary and oppositional relationships. In these relationships a mirroring occurs, positioning Mr. Knightley and Mr. Elton against each other with Emma as an anchoring force—all against the backdrop of Christmas. In both films, Christmas becomes a kind of oppositional holiday, one that brings out the combativeness of others, not one that creates relationships among them.…
-
-
Baby, It’s Cold Inside: McGrath’s Family Warmth and de Wilde’s Chilling Christmas Dinner
Douglas McGrath’s Emma (1996) stresses the importance of kindness and familial harmony, themes which are absent from Autumn de Wilde’s cool rendition, Emma. (2020). In the novel, Emma learns to be kind and caring to others as well as be considerate and helpful after her behavior is called out, and McGrath showcases this journey from performed kindness to genuine kindness. In de Wilde’s retelling, Emma remains cool throughout, even as she matures. The novel’s Christmas scene depicts a community gathering with its members caring for each other. Emma is witness to warm family togetherness. She cheerfully banters while talking to the Westons and Mr. Knightley. Family is important to everyone…
-
Merry Christmas to All, and to Emma a Good Knightley
In both Douglas McGrath’s and Autumn de Wilde’s adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma (1815), Christmas dinner scenes intimate the intersection of the familial love and comfort associated with Emma and Mr. Knightley’s romance. At the same time, these scenes draw attention to Knightley’s often paternalistic love for Emma. Taken together, these scenes at once associate Knightley to the comfort, conventions, and even the colors of the Christmas season, and crystallize his identity as the story’s central patriarchal figure. De Wilde’s Emma. (2020) shapes its “Winter.” chapter along the intersections of the romantic and familial plots of the story. The chapter opens with the arrival of Emma’s sister Isabella and her…
-
“Do You See What I See?”: Christmas Scenes in Douglas McGrath’s and Autumn de Wilde’s Emma
The integration of the holiday season and all things Jane Austen might appear the doing of popular retellings. But many of Jane Austen’s contemporaries were probably reading Emma on Christmas and the days following the holiday given the novel’s publication on December 23rd, 1815. Although the overlap of the holiday and the novel’s publication is accidental, Christmas is mentioned eleven times throughout the narrative and key plot turns occur during and immediately after the Christmas party at Randalls. In fact, while we often turn to the novel’s opening to recite the famous first line which lists everything that Emma is—“handsome, clever, and rich” —and has—”a comfortable home,” a “happy disposition,”…
-
Pride and Peppermint
When I was perusing the closely placed bookshelves at a favorite cozy bookstore, I noticed books that were not books. These faux books were glossy tea tins of the NovelTeas tin collection. I immediately noticed the Pride and Peppermint tin and knew that I had to try it. It was snuggled in between Sencha Sensibility and Don Quixotea: Man of La Manchai. The tea tin, complete with a two-ounce bag of ‘Pride and Peppermint” tea brought puns, tea, and Austen references together. What kind of Austen fan would not love everything about it? The NovelTeas tin itself was very fun. Apart from the tea, it also came with a Mr.…
-
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) is a staple of many Christmas movie diets. Its popularity and appeal are no wonder as the film constitutes a melding of the well-loved genres of Christmas films, rom-coms, and Austen adaptations. Although its heroine Bridget (Renée Zellweger) bears very little similarity to Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice (1813), there is one significant continuity at the heart of each work: each protagonist experiences challenges making a good romantic match in a society which systematically devalues them- albeit for disparate reasons. While Elizabeth experiences pressure to marry due to her lack of dowry and is critiqued as a result of her family’s dysfunction, Bridget’s primary issue-…
-
Christmas at Pemberley Manor
Spoilers ahead! Hallmark’s Christmas at Pemberley Manor (2018) is an entertaining retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813). The movie follows event planning assistant Elizabeth Bennett (Jessica Lowndes), as she organizes her first solo project, a small-town Christmas festival. An issue with the venue leads her to approach Mr. William Darcy (Michael Rady), the owner of Pemberley Manor, and convince him to let them use the property for the town festival. Elizabeth’s main goal is to find her “one true love,” and Pemberley Manor’s caretaker, who is revealed to be Santa, wants to help her make this wish come true. The movie explores the disparity between demanding bosses and…
-
Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most recognizable stories of the literary canon, but does it truly fit in the holiday season? As a result of the popularity of the story, it has been adapted many times and has taken a central place in holiday movie culture. The Hallmark Channel’s Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe (2018) attempts to bring the plot of Pride and Prejudice to small-town Ohio with a gender reversed casting that pits Darcy Fitzwilliam (Lacey Chabert) against Luke Bennet (Brendan Penny). Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe quickly strays from the plot of the novel, the only similarities come from the names of characters, Darcy Fitzwilliam for Mr. Darcy…
-
Nostalgia, Merriment, and Hallmark Prejudice
In our very first marathon, we’re taking the season at its word and focusing on movies that entwine Austen’s novels and Christmas. We are curious about the increasing number of holiday movies touting Austen novel titles—and also a bit suspicious. For instance, Sense, Sensibility, and Snowmen (Hallmark, 2019), which we decided against reviewing due to a paywall (and today we have one more reason not to pay a dime), seemed like a stretch even to the casual reviewer. To be sure, the connection between Jane Austen’s novels and Christmas is as old as the novels. The opening chapters of Emma, which was published just in time for the holidays, on…
