Emma Darwin: a great woman behind a great man

摘要

El 1839, quan Emma Wedgwood (1808-1896) va casar-se amb el seu cosí germà, Charles Darwin, ella tenia ja trenta anys, un més que ell. Era una edat en què una fadrina ja era considerada conca. Emma havia nascut en una família benestant í, tot I viure lluny de Londres, a casa seva es respirava un ambient intel·lectual I força liberal. Josiah Wedgwood, pare d'Emma, va ser qui va donar suport a Charles Darwin quan el jove va rebre la proposta d'embarcar-se en el Beagle en un viatge al voltant del món. Emma havia rebut una bona educació, a Anglaterra I a París I Ginebra. Els dietaris que va escriure des de que tenia 16 anys fins al mateix dia de la seva mort, el 7 d'octubre de 1896, han permès saber moltes coses de la història de les famílies Wedgwood I Darwin. Són un valuós testimoni de l'ambient social d'una classe mitjana-alta I intel·lectual a l'Anglaterra del segle xix. A més, constitueixen un registre detallat de la salut de tota la família, incloent-hi la del seu marit, que era un home malaltís, motiu pel qual van decidir deixar Londres I anar a viure al camp. Emma era una dona creient, mentre que Charles havia perdut la fe. Una de les principals preocupacions que ell tenia era la possibilitat de ferir la sensibilitat de la seva esposa amb les seves idees revolucionàries. És possible que aquest fos un dels motius pels quals va trigar tant de temps a fer públiques les seves idees sobre l'evolució. A més d'una esposa I mare dedicada, Emma va ser per a Charles una gran amiga, cuidadora I també secretària, era qui escrivia als científics amics del seu marit quan ell no es trobava bé. És indubtable que, si Charles Darwin va ser un gran home, Emma va ser una gran dona.%In 1839, when Emma Wedgwood (1808-1896) married her first cousin, Charles Darwin, she was already 30 years old, almost a year older than her husband and an age at which a single woman was already considered a spinster. Emma came from a well-to-do family, and despite of living far from London, her home had an intellectual and quite liberal atmosphere. Josiah Wedgwood, Emma's father, had supported Darwin when he accepted the proposal to embark on the Beagle in a journey around the world. Emma herself was well-educated, both in England and in Paris and Geneve. The diaries she kept beginning at the age of 16 until a few days before her death, on 7 October 1896, reveal many details of the Wedgwood and Darwin family histories. They are also a valuable social record of prosperous middle-class intellectual life in England during the 19th century. Furthermore, they constitute a detailed register of the family's health, and especially of her husband's, whose frequent illness was the main reason for the Darwins' move from London to the countryside. Emma was a religious woman, whereas Darwin had progressively lost his faith. His deep concern that his revolutionary ideas would offend Emma's sensibility may explain Darwin's hesitance to publicize his ideas about evolution. Besides being a dedicated wife and mother, Emma was Darwin's great friend and caretaker, as well as his secretary, maintaining her husband's correspondence with his friends and colleagues when his health prevented him from doing so. It is without a doubt that, if Charles Darwin was a great man, then Emma was a great woman.