How Emma drew on A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A documented line of influence: Jane Austen demonstrably engaged William Shakespeare’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare · c. 1595
ShakespeareThe influenced
Emma
Jane Austen · 1815
RomanticismRelevance
7/10
On Emma’s page
- Emma quotes the play outright — "The course of true love never did run smooth" — and jokes that a Hartfield edition of Shakespeare would footnote the line at length
- Austen rebuilds the Dream's matchmaking-folly machinery in a Surrey drawing room: same crossed signals, same comeuppance, no fairies required
- Reading Lysander's line first reveals Emma's joke — she's betting she can undo Shakespeare's verdict, and the novel is her getting proven wrong
On A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s page
- Lysander's line — "The course of true love never did run smooth" — becomes Emma Woodhouse's pet quotation two centuries later
- Austen lifts the play's whole engine: meddling with other people's hearts and watching it tangle hilariously
- Emma is Puck without the magic, certain she can make love run smooth where Shakespeare swore it never could