Jane Fairfax Quotes

“Every letter from her is read forty times over; her compliments to all friends go round and round again; and if she does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair of garters for her grandmother, one hears of nothing else for a month. I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires me to death.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. Emma uses hyperbolic language when talking about Jane Fairfax, her bitchy comments emphasizing her dislike of her. They come in response to Harriet asking Emma if she is acquainted with Miss Bates’s niece. This is the first time in the novel that Jane Fairfax is referenced.

Jane Fairfax was an orphan, the only child of Mrs. Bates’s youngest daughter. The marriage of Lieut. Fairfax, of the – regiment of infantry, and Miss Jane Bates, had had its day of fame and pleasure, hope and interest; but nothing now remained of it, save the melancholy remembrance of him dying in action abroad – of his widow sinking under consumption and grief soon afterwards – and this girl.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 20. In the backstory of Jane Fairfax’s family, we learn that her military father died abroad and her mother soon after succumbed to consumption and grief. This would have left young Jane in poor financial circumstances, highlighting the difficulties faced then of women with no wealth. There is an allusion to the Napoleonic Wars, in which Jane’s father was killed in action fighting for his country.

With the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had resolved at one-and-twenty to complete the sacrifice, and retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 20. Austen describes Jane Fairfax’s decision to become a governess. The orphaned Jane has been treated like a daughter by the Campbells since they took her into their family. But when their own daughter marries, Jane resolves that it is time to move on from her guardians’ charity. Since she has no fortune of her own she prepares to look for a position as governess, so that she may have food and place to live in. The quote highlights the harsh realities faced by women without wealth in English society in Austen’s time.

Emma was sorry; – to have to pay civilities to a person she did not like through three long months! – to be always doing more than she wished, and less than she ought! Why she did not like Jane Fairfax might be a difficult question to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was because she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she wanted to be thought herself; and though the accusation had been eagerly refuted at the time, there were moments of self-examination in which her conscience could not quite acquit her.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 20. Emma’s irrational dislike of Jane Fairfax exposes her own vanity and pride, as well as her tendency to misread people. As a woman of accomplishments Jane presents a rival to Emma, who clearly is jealous of her. Emma enjoys being the alpha female of Highbury, clings tightly to that status and sees Jane as a threat to her position.

“If you are very kind,” said he, “it will be one of the waltzes we danced last night; – let me live them over again. You did not enjoy them as I did; you appeared tired the whole time. I believe you were glad we danced no longer; but I would have given worlds – all the worlds one ever has to give – for another half-hour.” She played.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 28. At the apartment of the Bares women Frank Churchill flirts with Jane Fairfax through music. He goes to the piano to ask Jane to play a waltz they danced to the previous night. He would have “given worlds” to have danced with her longer, he tells her. Jane’s responds to his request – “She played” – makes clear that there is more than flirting going on here. There is a love bond between them, as will be confirmed later when we learn they have been secretly engaged.

“Very thoughtful of Colonel Campbell, was not it? – He knew Miss Fairfax could have no music here. I honour that part of the attention particularly; it shews it to have been so thoroughly from the heart. Nothing hastily done; nothing incomplete. True affection only could have prompted it.” Emma wished he would be less pointed, yet could not help being amused; and when on glancing her eye towards Jane Fairfax she caught the remains of a smile, when she saw that with all the deep blush of consciousness, there had been a smile of secret delight.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 28. You would need to be a linguistics expert to interpret the secret languages spoken and unspoken during the piano scene at the Bates’s apartment. Frank Churchill is talking about the music that came with the piano Jane Fairfax is playing. To Jane, secretly engaged to Frank, he is expressing his “true affection” for her. For it was he who secretly bought her the piano and music. But to everybody else’s ears, Frank is saying that Colonel Campbell supplied the music and is implying the piano was a gift from him too. Emma of course misreads everything she hears and sees. She believes that the piano came from Mr. Dixon, the husband of Jane’s friend. To Emma, the reference to “true affection” is a dig at Jane’s supposed affair with Mr. Dixon. Jane’s blushes and smile are enough to confirm Emma’s suspicions.

“She is a riddle, quite a riddle!” said she.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 33. Emma is commenting on what she thinks is the enigmatic nature of Jane Fairfax. She cannot understand why Jane has chosen to stay in Highbury under difficult circumstances with the “insufferable” Mrs. Elton and her husband. It turns out that the Campbells, whom Jane had been living with, have gone to Ireland to visit their daughter and Mrs. Elton has taken Jane under her wing. Since Jane has little financial resources of her own, she depends on the kindness of others. This highlights the difficult position women like Jane who lacked wealth found themselves in Austen’s time – something Emma had no personal experience of.

“Jane Fairfax has feeling,” said Mr. Knightley – “I do not accuse her of want of feeling. Her sensibilities, I suspect, are strong – and her temper excellent in its power of forbearance, patience, self-control; but it wants openness. She is reserved, more reserved, I think, than she used to be – And I love an open temper.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 33. When Emma teases Mr. Knightley about the possibility of marriage to Jane Fairfax, he makes it clear that he is not interested. He points out that he prefers women who are open tempered and not reserved. As Emma seems to fit the bill a lot more than Jane, this may be seen as Austen foreshadowing her and Knightley’s eventual marriage.

“When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something – Offices for the sale – not quite of human flesh – but of human intellect.”
“Oh! my dear, human flesh! You quite shock me; if you mean a fling at the slave-trade, I assure you Mr. Suckling was always rather a friend to the abolition.”
“I did not mean, I was not thinking of the slave-trade,” replied Jane; “governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely different certainly as to the guilt of those who carry it on; but as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 35. When Mrs. Elton pushes Jane about finding employment as a governess, Jane resists her and says she is not ready for a job yet. In fact she compares being a governess to the slave trade, except it involves the sale of human intellect instead of flesh. Austen’s allusion to slavery and Jane’s bitterness reflect the precarious positions of financially dependent people like Jane and also governesses. The latter had to work long hours for low pay and were sometimes treated poorly by the families who took them on. Emma was published in 1815 and is set in the years 1813-1814. It was only after many failed attempts that the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1807. However, enslaved labor continued to be used throughout the Empire for many years. The abolition of enslavement in the Empire was not wholly achieved until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

This gallant young man, who seemed to love without feeling, and to recommend himself without complaisance, directly handed over the word to Miss Fairfax, and with a particular degree of sedate civility entreated her to study it. Mr. Knightley’s excessive curiosity to know what this word might be, made him seize every possible moment for darting his eye towards it, and it was not long before he saw it to be Dixon. Jane Fairfax…was evidently displeased; looked up, and seeing herself watched, blushed more deeply than he had ever perceived her, and saying only, “I did not know that proper names were allowed,” pushed away the letters with even an angry spirit.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 41. During a lighthearted word game at Hartfield, Frank Churchill plays a mean trick on his secret fiancée Jane and humiliates her with Emma’s help. After sending Emma the word “Dixon” and her reacting with laughter, Frank places it in before Jane in full view of all. Jane is upset and angry. Dixon refers to the affair Jane was rumored to have had with Mr. Dixon, but for which there is no evidence. This was certainly not Frank’s finest hour, and the irony of describing him as a “gallant young man,” which he certainly wasn’t, says it all.

“It is only by seeing women in their own homes, among their own set, just as they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of that, it is all guess and luck – and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his life!”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 43. At the Box Hill outing Frank Churchill makes this statement about men marrying in haste. He warns of the danger of wedding a woman without first getting to know her in her natural environment, among family and friends. His comments are ostensively about the Eltons, saying how lucky they are that they suit one another. But they are also part of Frank’s secret language and a taunt aimed at Jane. He implies that he got engaged too quickly and now wants out. For Frank is secretly engaged to Jane, something he goes to great pains to disguise and hide from family and friends. An upset Jane responds briefly to his taunt, is stopped by a cough, then recovers her voice. And in their secret coded argument she gives as good as she gets: “It can be only weak, irresolute characters, (whose happiness must be always at the mercy of chance,) who will suffer an unfortunate acquaintance to be an inconvenience, an oppression for ever.”

The contrast between Mrs. Churchill’s importance in the world, and Jane Fairfax’s struck her; one was every thing, the other nothing – and she sat musing on the difference of woman’s destiny.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 44. Emma ponders on the differing destinies of women, which is dependent on what class they belong to. She has just learned that Jane Fairfax has accepted a governess position that Mrs. Elton found for her. And Frank Fairfax has rushed back to Richmond after being summoned by Mrs. Churchill. Emma contrasts the power of the privileged Mrs. Churchill and the talented but financially dependent Jane. When it comes to importance in the world, one has everything, the other nothing.

She could have no doubt – putting every thing together – that Jane was resolved to receive no kindness from her. She was sorry, very sorry. Her heart was grieved for a state which seemed but the more pitiable from this sort of irritation of spirits, inconsistency of action, and inequality of powers; and it mortified her that she was given so little credit for proper feeling, or esteemed so little worthy as a friend: but she had the consolation of knowing that her intentions were good, and of being able to say to herself, that could Mr. Knightley have been privy to all her attempts of assisting Jane Fairfax, could he even have seen into her heart, he would not, on this occasion, have found any thing to reprove.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 45. Jane Fairfax makes it clear that she doesn’t want a friendship with Emma. When Emma reaches out a number of times, she is rebuffed. As a result Emma feels wounded and embarrassed. If Mr. Knightley knew all that Emma had done to help Jane, he would find nothing to reproach her with, she believes. Emma views Mr. Knightley as her moral guide. But as usual, Emma is operating under wrong assumptions. As far as she is concerned Frank Churchill has affections for her and no interest in Jane. She has no clue that Frank and Jane are an item and are secretly engaged. And Jane sees Emma as a threat because of the flirtatious behavior that has taken place between Emma and Frank.

“If a woman can ever be excused for thinking only of herself, it is in a situation like Jane Fairfax’s. – Of such, one may almost say, that ‘the world is not their’s, nor the world’s law.'”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 46. Emma makes this comment about Jane Fairfax’s behavior on learning of her secret engagement to Frank Churchill. As Emma expresses understanding and admiration for Jane, she references a line from Romeo and Juliet. It refers to the world and its laws being stacked against the apothecary and preventing him escaping poverty. With Frank a wealthy man and Jane having no fortune of her own, Jane will now have financial security. Reflected here are the limited options available to women with no wealth in Austen’s England. The quote also reveals a significant shift in Emma’s perception of Jane. In the past she tended to Judge Jane and view her with a mixture of dislike and jealousy. This is an important step in Jane’s personal growth and maturing as a woman.

“She is a complete angel. Look at her. Is not she an angel in every gesture? Observe the turn of her throat. Observe her eyes, as she is looking up at my father.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 54. Frank Churchill uses a hyperbolic metaphor to describe how Jane Fairfax embodies angelic qualities. His romanticized, idealized attraction, as if he were worshipping her, is shown in the language used. Jane’s elevation to a heavenly being may be Frank camouflaging the fact that orphan Jane is of lower social standing than he is. His superficial side also comes across, with his infatuation of Jane focused entirely on her physical beauty and gestures.
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