“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]
She was the second daughter of Mr. Woodhouse and
after her sister’s marriage she became the mistress of the house from a very
early period because her mother died long time ago. Her mother’s place was
taken by Miss Taylor, a governess who, by the time, became her friend. She is
also sensible in the fact that she, as her father, doesn’t like changes that
take people that she loves away from her:
“sorrow came- a
gentle sorrow-…Miss Taylor married. It was Miss Taylor’s loss which first
brought grief…It was a melancholy change; and Emma could not but sigh over
it…How was she to bear the change?” [2]
The change took place at the moment when Miss Taylor
got married and that’s when an array of events starts to be produced because,
in order to bear the change, Emma tries to replace Miss Taylor’s place with
Harriet.
Emma is very intelligent and active, but the best
use that she makes of these qualities is to guide other people’s lives and this
fact is what will get her into troubles. “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 too well of herself…”[3]
These traits produce many conflicts in the course of the novel. Emma makes a
lot of mistakes on her course of development, but what is more important is the
fact that, in the end, she learned something from it. Staying at home, in the
previous centuries, wealth women could get bored and they had to find some
modes of entertain themselves such as planning balls, social gatherings,
painting, playing piano and singing and so on. Emma starts arranging Harriet’s
and other people’s life because she is bored. She attempts to make Harriet the
wife of a gentleman even if it was not a possible match because Harriet’s
social position was not adequate for him but for the farmer Mr. Martin who
really loves her. Then, Emma starts somehow flirting with Frank Chuchill even
if she doesn’t love him; she makes different comments about Jane Fairfax and
she didn’t realize until towards the end of the novel that she is in love with
Mr. Knightley and that she would like to marry him. Through these mistakes
which are the consequence of her self-will and too much confidence on her own,
Emma harmed Harriet and also it represented an obstacle in her own achievement
of love.Emma should understand that matching is not a game that one plays when
gets bored. We can see that she plays with people’s destiny like a puppeteer
and she does it only in order to occupy her time and for entertainment: [4]
“ - I promise
you to make none for myself, papa; but I must, indeed, for other people. It is
the greatest amusement in the world!... I planned the match from that hour; and
when such success has blessed me in this instance, dear papa, you cannot think
that I shall leave of match-making.”[5]
Through the development of events it is confirmed
the idea that matchmaking is not a game. This idea of matching came to her mind
after claiming that she was the one who planned the match between Miss Taylor
and Mr. Weston: “… I made the match
myself. I made the match, you know, four years ago…”[6]
Emma starts the matchmaking game with Harriet and Mr. Elton. She made
Harriet fall in love with Mr. Elton and forget Mr. Martin. The consequence was
breaking Harriet’s heart; she didn’t listen to Mr. Knightley when he told her
not to interfere in other people’s lives. Then, seeing that it was a failure, Emma
tries again but this time she plays the game with Frank and Harriet that also
doesn’t work and she does nothing than to almost hurt herself because she
didn’t realized that actually Harriet started to think to Mr. Knightley. [7] It
is said that love is blind but in Emma’s case, love is the one who opens Emma’s
eyes. At the moment when Harriet told her that she was thinking at Mr.
Knightley, Emma realizes that she loves him and she doesn’t want to lose him.
Only when she suffers herself she realizes many things and that she did
everything wrong because she had too much confidence in herself.
Even if Emma prepared a list of books that she would
read she never did it along the novel, she rather play the matching game than
reading a book and cultivate her mind. She is more interested in game.
“- Emma has been
meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old…But I have done with
expecting any course of steady reading from Emma. She will never submit to any
thing requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the
understanding.” [8]
Emma seems to live in her proper world being
somewhere between reality and imaginary. This fact reflects Emma’s immaturity.
She is a victim of her illusions and the world that she creates herself to live
in, is not the real one. Instead of make use of her time to cultivate her mind
and to widen her knowledge, Emma is interested in matchmaking. After her
sister’s marriage and Miss Taylor’s departure, she depressed in intellectual
solitude whose consequence was the inappropriate mode of using her time and she
uses her own imagination. Self-conceit makes Emma acting irrationally and
blinds her not to see what is the reality. ‘The solution’ to this, is Mr.
Knightley who all along the novel tries to open Emma’s eyes to see that she
doesn’t do anything well and he is the only one who tells her the truth even if
it hurts her.
“Mr. Knightley,
in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and
the only one who ever told her of them: and through this was not particularly
agreeable to Emma herself, she knew it would be so much less so to her father,
that she would not have him really suspect such a circumstance as her not being
thought perfect by everybody.”[9]
Mr. Knightley tells her not to deceive herself and
when Emma says that she will arrange a marriage for Mr. Elton he tells her: “-Invite him to dinner, Emma, and help him
to the best of the fish and the chicken, but leave him to chuse his own wife.
Depend upon it, a man of six or seven-and-twenty can take care of himself,”[10]
but she doesn’t listen to him. When Emma claimed that she made the Miss Taylor
and Mr. Weston’s match, Mr. Knightley disapproved saying that they themselves
made the match and not her. Self-conceit blinds Emma not to see what the others
can see, even Mr. John Knightley sees that Mr. Elton is actually in love with her
and to Harriet and when he told her he disagreed, she was sure that Mr. Elton
loves Harriet, she was blinded to see the truth. The self-deception is the
result of intellectual solitude. There are characters who contribute to Emma’s
problem because of their confidence and praising her intelligence and good
qualities.[11]
Her father considers her almost perfect and it seems that he lets her to do
whatever she wants to. Even Emma believes herself to be almost perfect and to
know exactly what is best for everyone.
She also believes that she can find for each of her
friends a good partner. We can see that Emma is also kind hearted because she
cares about her friend Harriet and wants to help her to improve her social
condition, she is interested in well-being of her friends but she didn’t
realize that it doesn’t mean that she has to interfere too much in other
people’s lives and to get involved in everything. She advises Harriet as she
thinks that is better for her. Emma seems to choose Harriet to be her friend
just because she is not equal and this fact makes Emma feel superior not only
socially but also intellectually and she can do whatever she wants with Harriet
as if she was a puppet. Emma becomes Harriet’s friend with the goal of
improving Harriet by making her part of the high society and finding her a
wealthy husband. Even is Emma made Harriet suffer a lot, she didn’t blame her
and they remain friends.
Emma tries to find a good partner for Harriet and to
make her fall in love with the person she thinks that is better for her, but
Emma decides never to apply it to herself. She affirms that she will never
marry. She considers that if the girl has money she doesn’t need a man. Being
wealth and having whatever she desires, Emma seems that she wants for the
moment only a bit of excitement in her life. She doesn’t know if she wants
love, but she imagines a romance between herself and Frank Churchill; she
didn’t know how love manifests and at some point she believed that she is in
love with him. Emma Woodhouse is at the top of society and this privilege makes
her fell as if she was the queen of the Highbury society. She organizes dinner
parties, balls and social gatherings.[12]Almost
nothing is organizes without her ‘fingerprints’. Emma organizes her father
dinner parties and when it is decided the organization of the ball, Mr. Weston
tells Emma to come earlier and gives her opinion on the organization. And she
is also accustomed to be the one who opens the balls by singing, playing piano
and dancing.
Emma’s relationship with Mr. Knightley is that
between a disciple and his mentor. Mr. Knightley loves Emma and he dislikes
Frank because she thought that Emma has feelings for him. Emma, also, realizes
her feelings for him in the moment of her jealousy on Jane Fairfax and Harriet
and when Mrs. Weston told Emma that she thinks that there is something between
Jane Fairfax and Mr. Knightley she totally disagree. He is also Emma’s mentor
and moral guide and he is the one who reproves Emma for what she is doing wrong
and even for her treatment of Miss Bates at Box Hill:[13]
“-Emma, I must
once more speak to you as I have been used to do: a privilege rather endured
than allowed, perhaps, but I must still use it. I cannot see you acting wrong,
without a remonstrance. How could you be so unfeeling to Miss Bates? How could
you be so insolent in your wit to a woman of her character, age, and situation?
Emma, I had not thought it possible.”[14]
Miss Bates is a poor spinster, but she has the
respect and admiration of everyone. Emma finds her quite annoying because she
is always talking too much and even insults her, but the next day Emma visits
her and seeks forgiveness.
The relationship between Emma and Mrs. Weston is
like that between two sisters. They love each other and they are close friends.
She was also like a mother for Emma, often giving her advice, but even so, she
couldn’t hold her in the reins and like Emma’s father, she let Emma to do
whatever she wanted. Emma and Mr. Woodhouse’s relationship is a special one.
She loves her father and she always thinks to please him. She almost refuse to
marry Mr. Knightley because she doesn’t want to leave her father, she knows
that he would suffer if he loses her. After Isabella’s marriage, Emma decided
to remain at Hartfield and take care of her father. Emma loves her family and
she takes care of her old father without complaining, finds guests for dinner,
eases his worries and looks after all her father’s needs. She often imagines
that it must be annoying for Jane to live with her grandmother and aunt, but
she doesn’t realize that it is almost the same case as her because she loves
her father unconditionally. Jane Austen gives a special attention for parents
in her novel. If her predecessors murdered many parents, she didn’t think it
necessary. “There is no complete orphan
among her heroines and only one father and two mothers have died…”[15]
Emma’s father lives with the fear of any change
especially that of marriage, he doesn’t like to be alienated from people he
loves. We can observe that Jane Austen goes for the idea of young people’s
right to choose for themselves. Emma chooses herself to marry with Mr.
Knightley and they even keep it in secret until Mrs. Weston gives birth, Frank
Churchill and Jane Fairfax also got engaged in secret. They choose for
themselves without the implication of their parents. Thus, instead of murdering
parents, Jane Austen dares to face reality, she deals with it openly. The
parents only helped their children to social success, while they were looking
for something different such as a marriage of love. [16]
Regarding her relationship with Jane, Emma doesn’t
like her. If Emma doesn’t like Jane, Austen seems to do; there are few
characters in the novel that are so elegant and talented as she is. Even Emma
argues this fact and there are things that make her jealous on Jane: her
elegance, her features – her white skin, her face – her talent of singing and
playing piano. Emma didn’t like that she was very reserved and Emma couldn’t
retain control also over Jane. “Emma is
put off by Jane Fairfax’s reserve, but the passivity is Austen’s way of
depicting the only socially acceptable behavior available to dependent women.”[17] Everybody believed that they would be very
fond of each other because they were the same age. Even though Jane is poor,
instead of her situation, she has much more qualities than Emma has.
Mr. Knightley is the only character who tries to
correct Emma’s behavior and he expresses his opinion regarding the friendship
between Harriet and Emma:
“- I do not know
what your opinion may be, Mrs. Weston, of this great intimacy between Emma and
Harriet Smith, but I think it a bad thing… I think they will neither of them do
the other any good.”[18]
Mr.
Knightley is aware that Harriet is inferior to Emma, is ignorant and this fact
inflates Emma’s ego. And Emma’s pride increase as she guides Harriet. Mr.
Knightley believes that the friendship with Emma is the worst choice that Emma
did. Being inferior, Harriet doesn’t know much and she is looking at Emma as if
she knows everything. “How can Emma
imagine she has any thing to learn herself, while Harriet is presenting such a
delightful inferiority?”[19]
Regarding Harriet, this friendship will bring her only sufferance and “she will grow just refined enough to be
uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances have placed her
home.”[20]
Emma’s irrationality is also seen when she affirms that Harriet is the daughter
of a gentleman: “-There can scarcely be a doubt that her father is a gentleman – and a
gentleman of fortune.”[21]
Along the novel Emma makes many wrong decisions and Mr. Knightley tries
always to guide her to the right way, but she never listen to his advices. The
intellectual solitude makes Emma to think irrationally. She thinks herself a
good matchmaker. Emma must learn that people have their own lives and she
doesn’t have to interfere in their lives.
“The moral development in the novel
suggests the need for the diminishment of Emma in the social sphere, a new
position for her, but an appropriate place in the scale of value, rather than
one defined by her self-aggrandizing ego.”[22]
Only
towards the end of the novel, after she harmed Harriet, she achieved some
maturity. We don’t have the certitude that after her marriage with Mr.
Knightley, Emma would change but she definitely learned the lesson.
Thus, the novel is about character’s development
from immaturity towards maturity by taking many wrong decisions that are
lessons of the life. Emma has to get through this way in order to achieve her
maturity. And all the story centers around the character of Emma following her
in the process of self development. “Her
fancy, her imagination, and her manipulation of people’s lives are all based on
a false perception of reality, despite her grandiose trust in her own
judgement.”[23]
[5] Jane Austen,
Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 (chapter I, page 11)
[6] Jane Austen,
Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 (chapter I, page 11)
[7] Jane Austen's
Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html, 25.02.2014
[8] Jane Austen,
Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 (chapter V, page 31)
[10] Jane Austen,
Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 (chapter I, page 13)
[11] Jane Austen's Emma: Themes, http://educationcing.blogspot.ro/2012/11/jane-austens-emma-themes.html, 27.02.2014
[14] Jane Austen, Emma, Open Road Media, 2014 (chapter XLIII page 303)
[15] Philippe Séjourné, The Feminine
Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 (page 62)
[16] Philippe
Séjourné, The Feminine Tradition in English Fiction, Institutul European Iasi,
1999 (pages 61-63)
[17] Jane Fairfax’s Choice : The
Sale of Human Flesh or Human Intellect, www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol28no1/hall.htm, 09.03.2014
[19] Jane Austen, Emma, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 ( chapter V, page 32)
[20] Jane Austen, Emma, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 ( chapter
V, page 32)
[21] Jane Austen, Emma, Institutul European Iasi, 1999 ( chapter VIII, page 51)
[22] The Dilemma of
Emma: Moral, Ethical, and Spiritual Values, www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol21no2/jackson.html, 17.03.2014
[23] The Dilemma of
Emma: Moral, Ethical, and Spiritual Values, www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol21no2/jackson.html, 17.03.2014
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