Time in Jane Austens Novels :: Time Austen Essays

Time in Jane Austen's Novels Let’s think about the function of time in Jane Austen’s Emma. As it turns out, time is pretty important for Austen, but also quite problematic. For example, in Emma, Austen uses the word â€Å"time† 278 times within this 160,416 word novel. To make a random comparison, in Wuthering Heights 78,983 words, â€Å"time† is used 84 times, about half as often. Actually, that trend line is fairly representative of most of Austen’s novels. And certainly the novel Emma is fixed in time. It is, after all, the story of a year, from an October of naà ¯ve ignorance to a following October of knowledge and wedded bliss. In other words, not surprisingly, things have happened over time. Yet time is not always a happy advantage for the characters. Note, for example, some of the collocates for the word time. These are words that appear within five words of â€Å"time† in the novel. The Z-score represents a probability factor. The higher the Z-score, the less likely it is that the word is just a random occurrence or, put another way, the more likely it is that the word is directly connected with time. EMMA COLLOCATES OF TIME Collocates Sel. Collocate Type Z‑score Node Freq Freq some 38 265 15.670 at 72 1032 12.911 draws 2 3 8.574 fly 2 3 8.