Emma and her father
Little information is given about Emma’s mother, who has died when she were a child. After her sister married and left Heartfield, Emma has developed a rare and close relationship with her father, which is the main source for Emma’s sense of independence and control. Therefore, with the mother gone, similar to Emma in temperament and talent, Emma lost the sole person who had a position of control over her. As demonstrated by Mr. Knightley’s observation: “ever since she was twelve, Emma has been mistress of the house and of you all. In her mother she lost the only person able to cope with her. She inherits her mother’s talents, and must have been under subjection to her” (48).
Therefore, Emma is not under subjection to Mr. Woodhouse, as we are told “He could not meet her in conversation, rational or playful” (24). His peculiarities, and proclivity to excessive hypochondria “a nervous man, easily depressed” (5), allow Emma to develop a relationship of dependency with the elderly man,
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Indeed, Emma diminishes any reason for marrying. As Emma explains to Harriet, she has fortune enough to support herself for the rest of her life; thus she need not seek financial gain from marriage. As far as love goes, Emma realizes that her relationship with her father is rare, and the entire second half of Emma’s statement reflects upon their relationship. First, Emma explains that in her relationship with her father, she has independence in that she is a true mistress of Hartfield. Second, she explains that she has love and respect with her father; she is always beloved and
As stated in the book, “I sit on her lap, put my head on her chest and put my arms around her and we start rocking. She holds me tight like Mama used to” (Lester 36). This is being told by Sarah Pierce and just shows the kind of person Emma is. She cares for her young ‘masters’ and acts as a mother figure when their actual mother cannot. Although slaves are frowned upon when having a relationship with white masters, Emma takes it upon herself to love and make sure Frances and Sarah are in good hands. According to the novel, it also asserts, “(She hugs her father tight.) Tell Mama I won’t forget nothing she taught me. Tell her I’ll be alright. And I’ll be strong Papa. I’ll be strong” (Lester 94). This demonstrates the courage and perseverance Emma possesses, even when she is being ripped away from her loving family. When she’s being sold, she keeps her head up and tells herself not to look defeated. Emma is very strong and will not let anything show her (very few) weaknesses. As demonstrated, this protagonist has positive characteristics based on what thirteen years of ups and downs she has gone through. Emma Henry is simply an
The central argument that Emma uses to justified her actions is based on the fact that she has depression, but instead of communicating it immediately at the beginning of the play, she looks for an easy way to evade her problems manipulating Shelley and Oscar to get their affection at any price. In the scene 12, she confesses that she “was depressed” and for this reason deserves compassion (Schreck 96, 97). Nevertheless, this confession occurs until she is yet in problems due all the previous lies that she uses to evade all the problematic situations she must face. For instance, when Shelley starts scolding her, she spontaneously tries to avoid it by lying saying she has cancer (Schreck 18) and lies about her mother is driving her “like crazy” (31). So, Shelley takes a more compassioned attitude to her. Later, to redeem her lack of self-esteem, get Oscar´s attention leading Oscar to be unfaithful to his girlfriend. Then, when he has troubles with Rosa, Emma just evade the situation by lying again saying, “since I´ve been sick Everything feels so out of my control.” (Schreck 78) This way, Emma achieves to feel better about herself and fix
Marriage, a broad theme in this book, can be broken down throughout. Emma’s sister has gone off after getting married and left her alone. After her sister’s marriage, Emma proclaimed that she was not destined for love and made herself the town’s unofficial matchmaker. The entire novel is built around relationships and matchmaking, with Emma and Mr. Knightly, Harriet and Robert Martin/ Elton, and Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill.
Clueless is a 1995 film loosely based on the famous Jane Austen’s 1816 novel Emma. Set in Beverly Hills, Cher who is almost 16 is the most popular girl in school as well as rich and pretty. Her father is a lawyer and her mother died from a liposuction surgery when she was a baby. Cher plays matchmaker throughout the film and begins with two nerdy teachers. This starts by her just trying to boost her grades, but she then sees how much happiness she is bring people so she decides to adopt the new girl, Tai, and give her a makeover. She tries to get Tai and Elton who is the most popular guy in school together but that backfires when Elton tries to make moves with Cher.
Comparisons of Emma and Clueless pose critical explorations into the importance of context and its role in shaping social values. Heckerling’s appropriation of Jane Austen’s 19thC Emma, provides contrasting social ideals regarding gender and class which can be accredited as a result of their differing contextual settings. Values surrounding the importance of social hierarchy, gender disparities and education are prevalent themes addressed within each text. Due to shifts in social standards during the 2 centuries separating these texts, there are particular distinctions between the mechanisms underlying these themes. However, a key similarity linking these texts are their critiques on the morality behind the actions of those in privileged
“Emma could not resist. Ah! Ma’am but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me- but you will be limited as to number- only three at once”; Emma insults Miss Bates, who is a dear friend, in order to quench her desire for social credit. When Mr Martin’s proposal arrives for Harriet, Emma shakes her head with disdain. Emma has the highest social status, apart from Knightley, and uses this to diminish those of lower class. Chapone asks us to “Observe her manner to servants and inferiors” and whether she treats “them always with affability”, but we know, Emma does not. Emma thinks Mr Martin is a “very inferior creature” and when Harriet asks for advice Emma says “the letter had much better be all your own” but sneaks in “You need not to be prompted to write the appearance of sorrow for his disappointment”. Harriet refuses Martin, and Emma proclaims that Harriet, if she accepted, would have been “confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar” and “could not have visited Mrs. Robert Martin” since she deems the lower class as unsophisticated primitives. Emma would have lost her latest amusement and her chance to prove her intelligence. Emma’s subtle manipulations illustrates the absence of inner morality, and is thus, an ill-qualified mentor.
Cher is one of the most popular girls at her school with a father that is a litigation lawyer, a prestigious occupation in one of the most wealthiest cities in the world. Cher has everything a young lady dreamed off: money and a huge wardrobe (Clueless 1:00-1:30). However, both Emma and Cher shares the same situation where both mothers passed away. Emma and Cher's lack of maternal figure resulted from them to think highly of themselves. Emma's arrogance can be seen when she brags about being successful in matching couples. Emma believes that she has control over fate and must play matchmaker in order for couples to discover true love. Austen states that "The real evils indeed of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little well too of herself" (Austen 5). Emma and Cher seemed to have endless power and wealth, in which they acquire the idea that they are the perfect model for everyone in the
Emma is preparing Harriet for society, she adopts the role of Harriet’s mentor to instruct her in life choices, which is not very difficult with Harriet, who is easily manipulated. Emma has another suitor in mind for Harriet, and her pride will not give in to any other option. This second suitor then turns his attentions to Emma, and she is horrified. Her purposes are being destroyed by others' autonomy. Emma is too ignorant to fully understand why Harriet and Mr. Elton do not want each other. She likes to take the credit
Emma gains her provincial ideals early on in her life. When she receives news at the convent that her mother has died, she weeps for several days as a show of how sad she is (or should be). When her father comes to see if she is okay, she is “...inwardly pleased to feel that she had so quickly attained that rare ideal of a pale, languid existence, beyond the reach of mediocre spirits...she was finally surprised to discover that she felt quite tranquil again and that she had no more sadness in her heart than wrinkles in her forehead.” (Flaubert, 38). Flaubert paints her as a maiden who is obsessed with how romantic she looks to other people at all times of the day in all situations. Even when her own mother dies, she puts on a show to make sure
Emma's personality is largely shaped by the nature of her upbringing. Emma had no motherly figure guiding her as she grew up, due to the fact that her
Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and
Though the characterizations of both Emma and Harriet are undoubtedly crucial to the development of meaning and purpose in the passage, that of Emma assumes greater importance and overall relevance, due to the narrator's seemingly direct ties with Emma as opposed to Harriet, the distinct division of the paragraphs accordingly with their emphases of Emma's and Harriet's internal and external traits, the inclusion of detail regarding Emma's passions and the exclusion of detail regarding Harriet's background, other than the fact that she has had unfavorable acquaintances in the past, and the specific diction used to establish tone in characterizing Emma's fervent desire to influence Harriet's views of
Her relationship with the wealthy, charming Rodolphe Boulanger is a diversion from tedious country life as well as an intentional subversion of the establishment of marriage and an attempt to undermine her husband’s authority. After her first conjugal transgression, Emma distinctly feels “the satisfaction of revenge” and “savoured [sic] it without remorse, without anxiety, without worry” (161). Though her husband Charles is guiltless of cruelty or vice he is representative of a patriarchy that is entirely neglectful of the emotional, psychological, and intellectual needs of women and assertive of its superiority and power. She is expected to fulfill the duties of a simple-minded, submissive, and sexless creature who is devoted to the comfort of her family and upkeep of the home. By pursuing a sexual relationship with Rodolphe, Emma invalidates the authority of the prohibitive government institution over her actions and demands autonomy in the face of a banal provincial life.
Emma Bovary allows herself to be destroyed by the people she encounters and her obsession with falling in love. Emma is not happy with herself and her relationship so she looks for other people to fill the void. Emma never really realizes that she is the root of all of the troubles in her life. If she were more in touch with reality, she would realize that she needs to work on herself before blaming her love interests for not being like the men that she has read about in the past. Emma has a very unrealistic perception of love. Emma is unable to fall in love with anyone because she will always be dissatisfied. She destroyed her own marriage before it even started because of her preconceived idea of love. Charles is absolutely in love with Emma and would do anything for her but she does not feel the same way about him due to her fairytale idea of love. It seems as if she is not capable of separating her real life romances from the romance novels that she read when during her time at the convent.
This image and atmosphere of mundane imperfection is a far cry from what Emma expects after reading the romantic novels she smuggled in at the convent. From those foppish texts she gathers the impression that ladies such as she should be “lolling on carriages” or “dreaming on sofas,” or perhaps embracing some dashing “young man in a short cloak” (Flaubert 32). Yet such is not the reality in which she lives.