preview

A Women’s Quest for Power in Jane Austen’s Emma Essay

Better Essays

In the ordered English town of Highbury in Jane Austen’s Emma, people live a well constructed life, which shapes the views of social classes in their world. Despite the fact that Emma is a nineteenth-century novel, it represents a time when women depended on economic support from men. This method is observed through the main character Emma, who spends a great deal of her time agonizing about wealth and potential power. In the novel, readers are introduced to Emma as a young prosperous woman who manages her father’s house. Since she is younger than her two sisters, she is introduced to various female characters, which influence her social development and exemplify a range of gender roles available to her. In Emma’s household women are …show more content…

Austen writes, “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lively nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. She loved everybody, was interested in everybody’s happiness, quick sighted to everybody’s merit” (1). Emma’s background demonstrates her passion for power and interest in people. Since the death of her mother, Emma seeks ways to obtain power such as seizing the responsibility of distinguishing her own utopia in a man’s world, where happiness is centered on beauty and wealth. For her first task Emma begins to recruit people that are compatible to live in her utopia. She focuses her attention on Harriet Smith. Harriet Smith is a pretty, but unintelligent woman, who parentage is unknown. Emma assures she is from an aristocratic family and wants to help her find a husband that would raise her social status. Austen writes, “Those soft blue eyes and all those natural graces should not be wasted on the inferior society of Highbury and its connections” (18). Emma believes if she introduces Harriet into her utopia, she will be viewed as superior. Emma decided that she would strength Harriet chances in her world by getting Harriet to pursue a wealthy husband. Austen states, “She would notice her, she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her to good society; she

Get Access