"Time Passed On": Prehistory, Education, and Community Identity in Jane Austen's Emma

Abstract: Traditional readings of Jane Austen's Emma dismiss Miss Bates as an idle progenitor of gossip whose tittle-tattle overruns a frustratingly large portion of the novel. However, this article argues that Miss Bates acts as Highbury's community historian whose own past serves as the prehistory conditioning the ethos and actions of the other characters. Over the course of the novel, primarily at Box Hill, Emma deliberates her acceptance of the type of history that Miss Bates represents: one constituted by the emotions, routines, and commonplace activities seemingly at odds with more overt historical data immanent to public records. Her relationship to Miss Bates intersects with issues of historical transmission, historical time, and historical consciousness, warranting careful critical examination.