Emma as a character is at the same time very strong, but also she comes across as a bit of a know-it-all, and she acts as though she is superior to every other character in the novel. Emma allows status to interpret her feelings of people, and it affects how she treats them. It is quite obvious that Emma allows herself to mistreat people for her own purposes, whether it is for mere satisfaction, to prove a point, or perhaps it is just a subconscious task for her that is beyond her control until it is too late to be fixable.
Emma is a character who really sees herself as being better than not only everyone else, but believes she is better than she really is. It could be argued that she sees herself as better than Mr. Elton due to the fact that she rejects him, although claims that it is for Harriet’s sake. Mr. Elton throws all of the signs of having feelings for Emma, but she is too oblivious to notice them because he is below her, but above Harriet so he is sufficient for her purposes. She has no concern as to how he feels about her, but only that Harriet has feelings for him. This can be seen as Mr. Elton confronts Emma with his feelings, and she is utterly confused, and almost offended. “I have seen you only as the admirer of my friend. In no other light could you have been more to me than a common acquaintance.” (Page 119) This quote expresses the surprise that Emma feels as Mr. Elton comes onto her in an attempt to win her over. Clearly she has mistreated him as a person, and as a potential lover since being the third son is not “good enough” for someone of her ranking and importance.
Another person to feel the wrath of Emma’s mistreating is Miss Bates while at Box Hill; Emma makes a complete fool out of poor Miss Bates, f...
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...believes is the better, but only seems to end in misery for the characters.
Overall, Tobin’s assessment of Emma’s behavior is correct. Emma is a heartless person who allows her position to manipulate other people; she believes everything she does is right for everybody whether or not that is the truth. It is quite unfortunate that she is unable to see people for what they are, people who are tightly knitted as a community who are suppose support each other, not put each other down; it takes Emma way too long to realize the importance of the people around her, and Box Hill seems to be the turning point for her, the point where a revelation occurs.
Works Cited
Jane, Austen,. Emma complete, authoritative text with biographical, historical, and cultural contexts, critical history, and essays from contemporary critical perspectives. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.
Emma is described as someone “of average height, five four,five five, but weighs nearly two hundred pounds.”(p.1). She is depicted as immovable in her faith in God and in the people in her life. This is shown by her blind faith in the justice system that fails Jefferson and herself and also by her faith that Grant will come through and teach Jefferson humanity. She used her connections to Mr. Pichot, her former employer, to get in contact with Sheriff Guidry, the brother-in-law of Mr. Pichot, who she hoped would do the right thing by her even though she had no way of guaranteeing it. Her strength and love was a catalyst for the only justice that happened to the black people in their Louisiana community during the novel, Jefferson walking to death like a man. His final words were in fact “ Tell Nannan I walked.” This final moment was the only justice she needed. She needed to know that she would see her godson again, that he knew his that he was a man, and that he knew she loved him, which she showed by bringing him her own homemade food, and giving him her unwavering faith throughout his
Emma represents the stereotypical upper class lady: attractive, respectable and wealthy. She actively participates in matchmaking, leading her to a series of moral tests. Emma displays unrespectable traits, including her jealousy of Jane Fairfax and dismissal of the poor. Despite recognising the hardships of the working class, she often ignores them, not realising that her power is due to the existence of the lower social classes. She reveals arrogance and deceit: "she was not… sorry to know her reputation for accomplishment often higher than it deserved". Although she appears to be an accomplished lady, she lacks virtue and skill.
Emma's arrogance shines through when she brags that she is exceptionally skillful at matching couples. She believes that she is in control of fate and must play matchmaker in order for couples to discover their true love. Austen confirms, "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" (Austen 1). Although Emma is so spoiled and overbearing, she truly doesn't realize this fact.
Emma, who had hated Jane since the day she arrived because Jane "tires [her] to death," (Austen 78), actually felt an ounce of sympathy towards her at one point. “She begins to develop in sensitivity, however, as she experiences her own humiliations. While still disliking Jane, she is capable of entering into her feelings and granting a moment of privacy” (Laurence 1989). Granting privacy towards someone is a huge step for Emma because it means she is actually taking into accounts someone else’s feelings and showing respect towards that person for having them, rather than finding fault in them or simply not caring at all. Besides Jane she also shows sympathy for Harriet after finding out things had gone wrong with Mr. Elton, the man Emma essentially forced Harriet to love. Emma felt bad about this and knows Harriet must have felt lachrymose about the situation because she was led to believe things would work out between them and that it they did work out it would finally make Emma respect her as an equal. Later on in the novel when Harriet becomes convinced of Mr. Knightley’s love for her, Emma cuts herself off from him, and chooses to put aside her comfort in the situation and let Mr. Knightley think for himself. Emma seems willing to “suffer anything, endure any “cost” if it helps him to overcome the terrible state of indecision that she imagines him to be in because, as she believes, he is so reluctant to inflict the pain on her that the revelation about himself and Harriet will incur,the pain of his final turning away from her,and of her final loss of him” (Austen lxxvii). Emma is showing awareness for how Mr. Knightley feels which is something that might not have been felt towards him during the beginning of the book when Emma was too focused on herself to realize her true feelings for others. The
... But in fact her powers and beauty cannot change the foundation of her society. Emma’s circumscription within the boundaries of her class kept her world under control. This prevents her from considering another society beyond her existence. The confusion from her failed attempts with Harriet due to her guidance, allows her to embrace reality. Jane Austen uses Emma’s character to reveal the quality in the structures of the nineteenth century society. Based on the conclusion of the novel, when Emma is forced to look beyond the limited power and beauty she has and acknowledge the existing order and structure of the early nineteenth century English society.
Emma also transforms into a proper woman through correcting her original neglect. Trollope states that “[i]n every passage of the book she is in fault for some folly, some vanity, some ignorance, or indeed for some meanness” (7)19. Because of her ignorance toward attitudes of her neighbors, Emma interferes through their lives in a way that makes them unhappy, for “she had often been negligent” (Austen 359)20. Mr. Knightley predicts the outcome of Emma’s plans in the beginning of the novel when he states that “[y]ou are more likely to have done harm to yourself, than good to them by interference” (Austen 8)21 and also that “[v]anity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief” (Austen 53)22. Not only is Emma stubborn toward her actions, but she is also negligent to herself when she convinces herself “I cannot really change for the better” (Austen 73)23. On other matters about her plans for others, Emma’s consideration falls short through her own selfishness and withholding of her pride, for “[t]he longer she considered it, the greater was her sense of its expediency” (Austen 27)24.
Jane Fairfax plays a significant role as a rival towards Emma in terms of intelligence and beauty in the novel Emma by Jane Austen. Jane Fairfax is born to Mrs. Bates youngest daughter and Lieut. Fairfax. Jane’s father Lieut. Fairfax died and Jane was left with a widow mother who also died when Jane was three years old. After the death of Jane’s parents, Jane was took care by Colonel Campbell who was a good friend to Mr. Fairfax where Mr. Campbell believed that Mr. Fairfax has saved his life (p.128). Jane was loved by Mrs. and Miss Bates but if she lived with them, she would have had limited opportunities through her education and her social level. From Campbells kindness Jane was educated at high standards in London by Campbells support taught by the first-rate masters. However, because Campbells could not financially support Jane forever as their fortune belonged to their daughter and from Miss Campbell’s marriage with Mr. Dixon, Jane finally comes back to Highbury where her relatives Mrs. and Miss Bates live. Jane is a character in the book Emma as an only character who could be contrasted to Emma through many natures. This essay will discuss the role of Jane Fairfax through issues such as Jane and Emma’s relationship, Jane’s relationship with Mrs. Elton in contrast to Emma’s relationship with Harriet Smith, Jane’s love relationship with Mr. Frank Churchill and discuss why Jane is the conventional heroine where Emma is not.
In the end, Emma has proven beyond a doubt, that everything in her life was a lie. From her childhood, she created fantasies that she could not act out, and to her marriage, where treachery and betrayal were the foundation of the marriage. Furthermore, her love affairs all ended in lies, and her business transactions were utterly fraudulent. Even her suicide was based on a lie- she lies to get the poison and lies to her husband when he asks what she ate. Thus, the line "everything was a lie!? has enhanced significance when examined in the context of the entire novel.
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 mother passed away at a young age, and her governess, Miss Taylor, became her best friend instead of an authority over her. At the start of the novel Miss Taylor gets married to Mr. Weston, leaving Emma with her despondent and hypochondriac father, Mr. Woodhouse. Although Mr. Woodhouse often confines Emma to the house because of his paranoia of her being harmed, he gives her little guidance. Emma becomes accustomed to being the "princess" of her house, and she applies this role to all of her social interactions, as she develops the ability to manipulate people and control them to advance her own goals. Emma views herself with the highest regard, and feels competition and annoyance with those who threaten her position. Emma has much resentment toward Mrs. Elton, as Mrs. Elton becomes a parody for Emma's mistakes and interactions. Mrs. Elton's attachment to Jane Fairfax is much like Emma's attachment to Harriet Smith; both Mrs. Elton and Emma attach themselves to young women and try to raise their...
Ultimately, Emma is portrayed to be completely fed up of herself and basically her life,
Even before she meets her husband, Charles Bovary, Emma escapes from her dull and monotonous country life by reading stacks of books and magazines, as well as occupying herself with the conventions of religion. She becomes engrossed in the romanticism of religion – the radiant candles, the cool holy water, blue bordered religious pictures – even going so far as to make up sins for confession. By the time Charles Bovary enters the drama that is Emma’s life, she has all but convinced herself that she has no more to experience. This is, again, an over dramatization of her life.
Emma's active decisions though were based increasingly as the novel progresses on her fantasies. The lechery to which she falls victim is a product of the debilitating adventures her mind takes. These adventures are feed by the novels that she reads. They were filled with love affairs, lovers, mistresses, persecuted ladies fainting in lonely country houses, postriders killed at every relay, horses ridden to death on every page, dark forests, palpitating hearts, vows, sobs, tears and kisses, skiffs in the moonlight, nightingales in thickets, and gentlemen brave as lions gentle as lambs, virtuous as none really is, and always ready to shed floods of tears.(Flaubert 31.)
Emma is the main character in the novel. She is a beautiful, smart, and wealthy 21-year-old woman. Because of her admired qualities, Emma is a little conceited. She is the daughter of Henry Woodhouse. Since her mother died, Emma has taken the role of taking care of her father, who is old and often sick.
Author Jane Austen had porttryal of arrogance that existed in upper class society. She uses Emma as a representative of the faults and lack of values of her society. Just as Emma contains these many faults, the upper class society as a whole also contains these many faults. Additionally, in Emma, Austen depicts the distorted views of gentility. Austen depicts her own message of true gentility by creating characters of differing class ranks. Bradbury relates that the characters that are socially high seem to be morally inferior and those of lower rank are "elevated" by their actions (Austen 81). Austen's development of characters, especially Emma, is very effective in relaying her message about the snobbery and lack of gentility that existed in upper class society.
`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 and values of the upper-class in English society, she noticed the corruption of society, that money precedence over everything else, so, important values were being undermined.