Emma by Jane Austen _ Summary _ Analysis

In the introduction to Emma, a romantic comedy set in England in the early 1800s, the beautiful, clever, and rich Emma Woodhouse lives with her hypochondriac father and was raised primarily by a governess, Miss Taylor, as Emma's own mother died when she was five. Miss Taylor recently married Mr. Weston, a widower with a grown son, and Emma and her father miss her terribly, mourning the loss of her in their home. The other key person in Emma's life is Mr. Knightley, an English gentleman and close family friend who lives on a nearby estate. Mr. Woodhouse's other daughter, Isabella, is married to Mr. Knightley's younger brother. In the rising action, Emma befriends Harriet Smith and essentially recruits her as a protege and tries to play matchmaker for her. Harriet is being courted by a young, respectable farmer, Mr. Robert Martin, but Emma thinks Harriet can marry him. Emma begins interfering, first by convincing Harriet to reject a proposal of marriage from Mr. Martin, and then by introducing her to the handsome, young vicar, Mr. Elton. Mr. Knightley is angry when he finds out, as he is a friend to Mr. Martin. He and Emma argue about it. A misunderstanding develops, in which Mr. Elton thinks he is courting Emma, and Emma thinks he is courting Harriet. Emma is mildly chastised by this fiasco and vows to never attempt matchmaking again. Frank Churchill comes to town, the son of Mr. Weston and his late wife. He was raised by Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, his rich aunt and uncle, on his mother's side. Frank has come to visit his father because he is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax, the niece of a local spinster, Miss Bates. Jane has recently come home to spend time with her family before going to work as a governess. Frank soon begins flirting with Emma as a way to cover up his real love interest. Mr. Knightley dislikes Frank, partly because Frank has been courting Emma, whom Mr. Knightley is secretly in love with, but mostly because he sees through the charming younger man. When Frank comes back a second time, a ball is held. Emma notices how handsome Mr. Knightley is. At one point during the ball, Harriet needs a partner, and when Mr. Elton refuses to dance with her, Mr. Knightley steps in to dance with Harriet and saves her from humiliation. In the climax of Emma, at a picnic on Box Hill, home of Mrs. Elton's sister, Frank begins flirting with Emma because he is quarreling with Jane. Emma makes a cutting remark to the defenseless spinster, Miss Bates. Mr. Knightley rebukes Emma afterward with stern words. Emma is crushed. As a result, she begins to pay more attention to the feelings and needs of others. In the falling action, Frank and Jane reconcile and get engaged. Emma realizes it is Mr. Knightley, not Frank, that she loves. Emma and Mr. Knightley reveal their mutual love for one another, and she accepts a proposal of marriage. In the resolution, Mr. Martin marries Harriet, Mr. Knightley marries Emma, and Frank is set to marry Jane as soon as the mourning period for his Seven characters are lucky in love, some more than others, in Jane Austen's beloved classic novel, Emma. Protagonist Emma Woodhouse is a smart, beautiful, rich gentlewoman. Because she's naturally assertive and headstrong, she is accustomed to getting her way and giving other people advice in strong terms. While she's been coddled throughout her life, her matchmaking zaniness causes her to grow and mature throughout the novel. Mr. George Knightley is a gentleman and a longtime friend of the Woodhouse family, who has known Emma since she was little. Mr. Knightley has the manners of a perfect gentleman. Mr. Knightley is landed gentry, meaning that he owns property that is farmed. He is Emma's counselor and friend, who has the courage to reprimand her and tell her when she is wrong, and call her out on her meddling. Mr. Woodhouse is Emma's father and a widower, pampered and humored by both family and friends, in part because of his high social status in the community. He has an estate, but does not own as much land as Mr. Knightley. He's also a hypochondriac who is fearful and strongly resistant to change of any kind. Miss Harriet Smith is beautiful, but not very intelligent. No one in Highbury knows anything about the 17-year-old's background, except that she is the illegitimate daughter of some wealthy person. With encouragement from Emma, she begins to aspire to rise above her class and station in life. Emma meddles incessantly in her love life, but is able to reconcile with her in the end. Mr. Philip Elton has somewhat lately entered the Society of Highbury as the town vicar or clergyman. He gets a small living, as well as the vicarage house, in return for ministering to the spiritual needs of the congregation. Although he owns some property, he hopes to marry a woman of means to increase his fortune. Emma's attempt to match him up with her pal Harriet is disastrous. Mr. Frank Churchill is the son of Mr. Weston, but he was raised by his aunt and uncle, the Churchills. Frank is handsome, charming, and witty. He is revealed over the course of the novel to be a scheming, insincere, and even somewhat cowardly man. His primary concern is with his inheritance, and he is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. Jane Fairfax is an orphan and also the niece and granddaughter of Miss Bates and Mrs. Bates, respectively. A native of Highbury, she was educated and nurtured by the Campbells, who had been friends of her father. Jane, same age as Emma, is also beautiful and smart, but she is also much more accomplished than Emma because she has applied herself to her studies. Because the Campbells have limited means, everyone expects her to take a position as a governess. She is secretly engaged to Frank Churchill. Parties, carriages, music, and good old-fashioned charades and word puzzles are the key recurring symbols in the game of love that is the novel Emma. For their part, parties and social gatherings are symbols of community members coming together. Several parties in Emma allow people to meet and check out possible marriage partners. For example, Frank Churchill is keen on hosting a ball with Emma and Mrs. Weston, two pillars of the community. Symbolically, this party is a sort of official baptism through which he will be accepted as a member of local society. Another example is the picnic at Box Hill. Unlike the ball, the picnic is a flop. Frank and Jane are hiding their secret and unresolved feelings exist between the Eltons, Emma, and Harriet. During this gathering, the community's shared values are sidelined and it is not surprising that Emma breaks a cardinal social rule by cruelly insulting Miss Bates. In the novel, carriages are enclosures that symbolize the desire of the upper classes to reinforce class boundaries and keep themselves apart from what is unpleasant or not to their liking. A carriage gives the person inside the ability to greet or not greet those on foot and also allows the rider to know what is going on in the community without having to put themselves out. Not surprisingly, Mr. Woodhouse always takes a carriage while Mr. Knightley prefers to walk or ride horseback. At one point, Mrs. Elton gloats about her family's fancy top-of-the-line carriage, a representation of her fixation with being better than others. Music is an important symbol that speaks to a woman's ability to play an instrument and sing, as well as a man or woman's ability to dance, which are factors in courting rituals and, therefore, symbolize courtship and marriage. In Emma, women take the opportunity to perform in the drawing room to show off their talents and charms and possibly attract a suitor. Both Emma and Jane play the piano and sing at the Coles party, and Frank sings with both women. At the ball, Mr. Elton refuses to dance with Harriet, even though he's now married. Mr. Knightley then dances with Harriet to save her from humiliation, and Emma notices that he is an excellent dancer. What a catch! Charades and word puzzles play out not just in common parlor games, but are used to symbolize misunderstandings, both deliberate and unintended, among the characters. For example, Mr. Elton writes a riddle for Emma, which is a love poem. She mistakenly believes he intends it for Harriet. Later on, Frank plays a word game to create misunderstanding, trying to communicate in code with Emma. These games are used to highlight the emotional and mental games of love that the characters are all playing. Marriage, self-knowledge, and class and gender oppression are the central themes that underscore the plot and interactions in Jane Austen's Emma. Marriage is a linchpin of civilized society. The choice of a marriage partner is dictated by class, beauty, wealth, and affection, but it's hard to make right choices given the severity of social constraints and community obligations from the time period. The novel follows three couples who enter the marriage ordeal and emerge victorious. One critic actually remarked that Emma is really about marriage as an ordeal. Emma must go through some trials before she realizes that Mr. Knightley is essential to her happiness. Harriet wins the marriage lottery early on when Mr. Martin proposes to her, but almost loses the prize because of her friends meddling. Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill are in love, but they lack the courage and independent means to flout convention. It's all about marriage. Self-knowledge is a theme around every corner in the novel. When people face up to their character flaws, they mature in their understanding of themselves and others, and thus have a greater chance at happiness. Emma is a conceited young woman who overestimates her powers of observation and discernment, and she takes it upon herself to find a match for her friend Harriet, who will raise her social standing. Emma claims she will never marry, but in fact, she loves Mr. George Knightley. When Harriet claims she is in love with Mr. Knightley, Emma realizes how much she loves him. Through her self-knowledge, love helps her grow. Another way in which Emma grows in self-knowledge is through the instruction of Mr. Knightley, who points out her follies and flaws. Through many situational matchmaking and social cue missing foibles, Emma learns that her perceptions about other people are sometimes far off the mark. By the end of the story, Emma is willing to own her limitations and ready to follow the dictates of her heart. Class and gender oppression is a powerful theme in Emma, where a woman's livelihood and ability to make choices are constrained by their obligations to marry well. The women of the Regency period in England, in which the novel takes place, had few legal rights and were essentially treated as children. Their own children did not legally belong to them, they couldn't inherit property, and any money possessed by their families would pass to their husbands upon marriage. Job opportunities for middle-class women were limited, and if a woman did not have any money, which essentially served as a dowry, she could not expect to marry well. If she was lucky, and especially if she was considered physically attractive, another problematic topic in and of itself, she might be able to marry someone in her class or even above her class. Love was often the last consideration in marriage, but by Jane Austen's time, ideas about love and marriage were changing, and the marriageable women in Emma expect to, and do achieve, matches that are based on affection. In context, the novel was extremely progressive.