Essay: The Epistolary Monologues of Emma Courtney

Mary Hays's novel Memoirs of Emma Courtney features correspondence between its protagonist, Emma, and other characters in the novel's fictional world. Tension ensues between the form of the novel and its content: even though the epistolary genre is inherently concerned with communication between several parties, Memoirs of Emma Courtney does not seem to provide insight into the minds of multiple characters. Hays's self-proclaimed intent in writing the narrative, as detailed in the preface to the book, is "attention to the phenomena of the human mind". However, instead of exploring several characters, the novel repeatedly focuses on a solitary individual – Emma Courtney. Attention to sentence structure, keywords, and thematic focus provides insight into the manner in which Hays harnesses the epistolary genre to explore the psychology of one single character.

The novel does not adhere to the epistolary genre throughout. Aside from letters from Emma to various characters, the novel contains Emma's limited first-person narration. The presence of such narration causes the balance of characterization to shift in the narrator's favor, so that emphasis is given to her perspective on the narrative's events over that of other characters. In addition, her correspondents' letters are usually not included in their complete form. Thus, for example, instead of providing the exact wording of Augustus's response to her expression of passion, Emma modifies his letter, relating that "he was highly flattered by the favorable opinion I entertained of him, it was grateful proof not of his merit, but of the warmth of his friendship, &c., &c." (88). By denying Augustus the first person and uncensored expression of his thoughts, Emma deepens the gap between objective reality and her own subjective perceptions.

It is not only the novel's general structure that narrows the focus of Emma Courtney to its protagonist. The novel's sentence structure, too, betrays this preference of Emma's character to that of others. At the height of the novel's emotional perturbation, that is, when Emma's attachment to Augustus is at its most fervent, her thoughts are revealed to the reader through an internal monologue. Emma reveals: "I would unite myself to a man of worth—I would have our mingled virtues and talents perpetuated in our offspring—I would experience those sweet sensations, of which nature has formed my heart so exquisitely susceptible" (117). Even though Augustus is the ostensible subject of her obsessions, her emphasis is not on him at all. The above sentence can be divided into three segments, separated by dashes. The first two segments, which are shorter than the third, divide their focus equally between Augustus and Emma. "I would unite myself" refers to Emma; "a man of worth" refers to Augustus. Similarly, in the second segment, "I would have our mingled virtues and talents perpetuated in our offspring" Emma and Augustus are equally featured. In the final, and longest, sentence segment, the focus is solely on Emma and her emotions – "I would experience those sweet sensations, of which nature has formed my heart so exquisitely susceptible". The shift of focus throughout this sentence, from Emma and Augustus together to Emma herself is indicative of the hierarchy of importance of subjects for Emma. 

The following sentence, too, although ostensibly centered on Augustus, does not mention him explicitly. "My ardent sensibilities incite me to love—to seek to inspire sympathy—to be beloved!" (117-118). This sentence too is tripartite, and once again, only the first segment contains any outward focus, while the latter two return the focus to Emma. Augustus here seems, then, not to be the actual subject of Emma's obsession; instead, he is the mere source, the mere point of origin from which she commences to explore her own thoughts and sensations.

The passage following Emma's internal monologue reinforces the character's preoccupation with herself. "I considered, and reconsidered, these reasonings, so specious, so flattering, to which passion lent its force" (118). Again, Emma is engrossed not by Augustus, but by her own thoughts. It is not Augustus who is "so specious, so flattering", but the "reasonings" that contemplations of him evoked in her. Emma describes conflicting emotions: "one moment, my mind seemed firmly made up … the next instant, I shrunk … from my own resolves" (118). She inflates the feelings of affection to enormous proportions: "my heart … will at length embrace … the whole sensitive and rational creation … [I] shuddered at the important consequences" (118). Just in the last two paragraphs of Chapter Six, the words "I", "myself", "me", and "my" recur a total of 23 times. It is not Augustus, then, who is her idol; Emma worships at the shrine of her own self, and of the emotions and thoughts and ideas of grandness which he incites in her. Indeed, the sensations he induces are so extreme as to be suggestive of physical gratification. "I shrunk, gasping, from my own resolves, and shuddered at the important consequences which they involved" (118).

These deeply private and self-centered emotions, however, Emma does not keep to herself. "Amidst a variety of perturbations, of conflicting emotions, I, at length, once more, took up my pen" (118). Emma is not contented by simply reveling in the sensations Augustus evokes in her; for Emma, the natural progression from experiencing emotions is to share them. In this manner, a perverse version of the epistolary exchange is perpetuated: Emma writes a letter, and whether or not she receives a response, she experiences powerful emotions that impel her to write another. Even though a correspondence is depicted, there is no real dialogue, and for Emma, the received letters are a mere springboard to indulgence in internal meditation.

You're so vain, Emma Courtney.
Image by Gabriel Silverio