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Emma Essay

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The reader's response to Emma is often a mixture of sympathy and impatience. Select two episodes and discuss them in regards to this statement. Continually throughout Emma the reader feels a mixture of sympathy and impatience for its main character Emma Woodhouse. The novel illustrates her vast change in maturity, which occurs in one year. Due to Emma's personality and disposition she will always get herself into difficult circumstances, but it is the way she reacts to the circumstances that broadens and matures her character. The first episode takes place when she is in the throws of naivety, and the other is when Emma has begun to mature and grow.

One of the classic episodes in Emma when the reader feels impatience
and …show more content…

She even dictates the answer, and here she is becoming too involved with Harriet's affairs. Even though Emma takes over the narration from
Jane Austen, the reader is able to see through Emma's faults and see that Robert Martin is a very amiable man who would make a very good husband for Harriet. Emma ends up writing Harriet's refusal and this sparks off further impatience because now Harriet, who is doting on
Emma's every word, is turning into a product of what Emma has told her rather than her true self.

Emma also refuses to heed Mr. Knightley's warnings when he states that, 'men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives,' obviously referring to Harriet. Emma is so wrapped up in her created fantasy world that she fails to recognise the fact that Mr.
Elton is unlikely to lower himself to be with Harriet. Emma thinks that she is right and her self-confidence and pride prevent her from listening to an objective source. Whenever Harriet seemed about to think or talk of Robert Martin, Emma made her think of Mr. Elton and so the infatuation grew. Without fully realising it, Emma may have destroyed the possible relationship between Harriet and Mr.

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