How Does Jane Austen Present Emma's Character

Never having learned to think before she speaks, Miss Bates is quite defenseless to Emma's verbal parry on Box Hill. Had anyone else been the target of Emma's wit, we would not be so stricken by the magnitude of Emma's thoughtlessness. It is Emma's shame that really marks the end of her career as a supercilious little snoot. She has been forced, through Knightley's admonition, to see Miss Bates not as a caricature but a real human being, one as capable of pain as Emma herself. (Austen means this as a revelation for her readers, too -- too bad Sir Walter Scott didn't pick up on it.)

Jane Austen begins the novel Emma by stating, “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 lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (1) immediately giving readers the impression that Emma is a young woman whom the readers should respect and grow to love throughout the novel. As we continue reading, however, we learn that while Emma has a good reputation and a circle of people who love her and want the best for her, she is extremely flawed. In the article, The Darkness in Emma, Anita Soloway states, “for Emma, beauty, cleverness, and wealth prove to be mixed blessings at best, for they foster the conceit of arrogance that lead her to hurt others and threaten her own happiness” (86) which ties into my argument that Emma’s good reputation is not necessarily based on her character, but instead, the lifestyle she lives, which is a similar concept for Tom in Tom Jones.

Chantal Fauconier This essay shall explore Jane Austen’s novel, Emma. Jane Austen’s writings were greatly influenced by the society she came from. She grew up in the Victorian era whereby the status of women was very limited. Women could not vote, they received inferior education to their male counterparts and were limited to domestic occupations

Jane Austen's Approach to the Character Emma in Pride and Prejudice 'Handsome, clever and rich' are the complimentary words Jane Austen lavishes upon Emma; accurate as they may be, they paint a picture contrary to the Emma portrayed during the first half of the novel. Set against the nineteenth century patriarchal society, structured by the privileges and constraints of money and status, both of which she acquires, a complex mental journey faces her. The journey, however is one she is oblivious to and one to which the predominate barrier is her apparent good fortune. Jane Austen plays the role of an omniscient narrator providing dialogue whilst also supplying constant commentary into the thought

However much we insist it is not true, our choices, actions, and thoughts are rarely uninfluenced by the conditions we are born into. Our culture and society play a huge role in the person we become, shaping our opinions and worldviews from birth. This truth is illustrated no better than in Jane Austen’s Emma. In Emma, Austen uses narrative style, characterization, and the plot device of word games to illustrate the ever-present power of hierarchical control. Emma's plot seemingly hovers around the superficial theme of strategic matchmaking. But while this is an important aspect of Emma, it serves primarily as a catalyst to illustrate the much bigger idea of societal authority present in the novel.

title of the novel is itself a clue to Austen’s view of the life that surrounded her: the prejudice of

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

Emma becomes a likeable character through her marriage to Mr Knightley. Mr Knightley is someone which everyone respects and agrees with. Whenever he visits Highbury he is “always welcomed” (p41). Austen portrays Mr Knightley as a knowledgeable character who is not afraid to confront Emma; when Emma boasts about her match between the Weston’s, Mr Knightley tells her that she has done more harm than good by meddling and when she tries to match Harriet with Mr Elton Mr Knightley is furious that Emma has selfishly set Harriet up for disaster.

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a classic comedy that took place in the nineteenth-century near London, England. Emma tells the tale of a heroine attempting to be the matchmaker for everyone, and ultimately herself. Emma Woodhouse, the main character, loses her dear friend and governess, Miss Taylor, to Miss Taylor’s marriage, in which she becomes Mrs. Weston. Emma, in search of another cherished companion, comes across Harriet Smith. Although Harriet comes from a lower class in society, Emma admires her beauty and takes it upon herself to improve Harriet in order to make her acceptable to the upper class. For instance, Mr. Martin, a local farmer, seems to have fallen in love with Harriet, yet Emma suggests that she

Austen creates a scenario where she allows the reader to identify a variety of persons, each of

Similar to Sheridan, Austen reimagines several stock characters such as the braggart soldier (in the form of Mrs Elton) and the killjoy (in the form of Mr Woodhouse), however she takes it one step further as she combines several comic roles to form her main protagonist Emma. This is a key reason why ‘Emma’ is an innovative comic novel as Austen subverts the idea that ‘the obstacles to a [protagonists] desire … form the action of… comedy and the overcoming of them the resolution’ by combining the role of the trickster, the ingénue, the fool and the blocking character to characterize Emma. In doing so Emma becomes the obstacle to her own happy ending as the mischief she creates is caused by her own self-inflicted restriction on herself of being unable to love as ‘it is not my way, or my

Jane Austen uses characterization in order to slowly reveal the characters' role in the book and to add a sense of humor to understand her novel. "Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick

As in all of Austen’s novels, courtship and marriage play major roles in “Emma.” The entire novel is structured around various courtships and romantic connections, from Harriet and Robert Martin to Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill to Emma and Mr. Knightley. All of the conflicts in the novel also revolve around this topic, particularly in terms of characters striving to find appropriate matches. In this way, Austen presents marriage as a fundamental aspect of society during the time period. While marriage promotes families and serves romantic purposes, it also upholds the class structure of the community by ensuring that individuals marry appropriately (such as Harriet and Robert Martin, who are in the same class). At the same time, Austen also uses marriage to highlight the social limitations faced by Emma and other characters: in their small village, marriage and courtship are the sole catalysts of excitement or conflict.

With the turn of the century and the rise of Romanticism, the early 19th century placed significance on exploring human relationships with greater emotional intricacy. Establishing connections with cultural values was a societal norm as they served as broad guidelines for all situations in daily life. The world saw a sophisticated array between artistic and restraint, it was the beginning for the Romantics. Jane Austen’s comedy of manners, Emma reveals the inner workings of the mind of the ‘handsome, clever, and rich’ whilst focusing on the perils of misconstrued romance and the social status of Highbury. Through Emma’s vanity and pride in her powers of discernment, the novel presents observations on societal expectations of marriage and courtship

`Emma' was written by Jane Austen in 1816. In all her novels, she is primarily a moral writer, striving to establish criteria of sound judgement and right conduct in human life. In Emma she presents her lesson so astutely and so dramatically, with such a minimum of exposition, that she places extreme demands upon the reader's perceptiveness. Emma was her fourth novel. Lord David Cecil described it as `Jane Austen's profoundest comedy'. It has frequently been applauded for its `engaging, dear, delicious, idiotic heroine', moving in `a place of laughter and nonsense', and excoriated because `it does not instruct ... does not teach the modern reader... how to be and move in our world'. In her novel, Jane Austen criticizes the manners