FREE ESSAY ON JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA

JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA

Jane Austen's Emma is a novel of courtship. Like all of Austen's novels, it centers around
the marriage plot: who will marry whom? For what reasons will they marry? Love,
practicality, or necessity? At the center of the story is the title character, Emma
Woodhouse, a heiress who lives with her widowed father at their estate, Hartfield. At the
beginning of the novel, she is a self-satisfied young woman who feels no particular need
to marry, for she is in the rather unique condition of not needing a husband to supply
her fortune. 
At the beginning of the novel, Emma's governess, Miss Taylor, has just married Mr.
Weston, a wealthy man who owns Randalls, a nearby estate. The Westons, the Woodhouses,
and Mr. Knightly (who owns the estate Donwell Abbey) are at the top of Highbury society.
Mr. Weston had been married earlier. When his previous wife died, he sent their one child
(Frank Churchill) to be raised by her brother and his wife, for the now-wealthy Mr.
Weston could not at that time provide for the boy. 
Without Miss Taylor as a companion, Emma adopts the orphan Harriet Smith as a protege.
Harriet lives at a nearby boarding school where she was raised, and knows nothing of her
parents. Emma advises the innocent Harriet in virtually all things, including the people
with whom she should interact. She suggests that Harriet not spend time with the Martins,
a local family of farmers whose son, Robert, is interested in Harriet. Instead, Emma
plans to play matchmaker for Harriet and Mr. Elton, the vicar of the church in Highbury.
Emma seems to have some success in her attempts to bring together Harriet Smith and Mr.
Elton. The three spend a good deal of leisure time together and he seems receptive to all
of Emma's suggestions. 
The friendship between Emma and Harriet does little good for either of them, however.
Harriet indulges Emma's worst qualities, giving her opportunity to meddle and serving
only to flatter her. Emma in turn fills Harriet Smith with grand pretensions that do not
suit her low situation in society. When Robert Martin proposes to Harriet, she rejects
him based on Emma's advice, thinking that he is too common. Mr. Knightly criticizes
Emma's matchmaking, since he thinks that the dependable Robert Martin is Harriet's
superior, for while he is respectable, she is from uncertain origins. 
Emma's sister, Isabella, and her husband, Mr. John Knightly, visit Highbury, and Emma
uses their visit as an opportunity to reconcile with Mr. Knightly after their argument
over Harriet. 
The Westons hold a party on Christmas Eve for the members of Highbury society. Harriet
Smith, however, becomes ill and cannot attend. During the party, Mr. Elton focuses his
attention solely on Emma. When they travel home by carriage from the party, Mr. Elton
professes his adoration for Emma, and dismisses the idea that he would ever marry Harriet
Smith, whom he feels is too common for him. Mr. Elton obviously intends to move up in
society, and is interested in Emma primarily for her social status and wealth. Shortly
after Emma rejects Mr. Elton, he leaves Highbury for a stay in Bath. Emma breaks the bad
news to Harriet Smith. 
As of this time, Frank Churchill has not yet visited his father and his new wife at
Randalls, which has caused some concern. Emma, without having met the young man, decides
that he must certainly be a good suitor for her, since he is of appropriate age and
breeding. Another character who occupies Emma's thoughts is Jane Fairfax, the
granddaughter of Mrs. Bates, an impoverished widow whose husband was the former vicar,
and the niece of Miss Bates, a chattering spinster who lives with her mother. Jane is
equal to Emma in every respect (beauty, education, talents) except for status, and
provokes some jealousy in Emma. Jane will soon visit her family in Highbury, for the
wealthy family who brought her up after her parents had died has gone on vacation. There
is some indication that Jane might be involved with Mr. Dixon, a married man, but this is
only idle gossip. 
Mr. Elton returns from Bath with news that he is engaged to a Miss Augusta Hawkins. This
news, along with an awkward meeting with the Martins, greatly embarrasses poor Harriet
Smith. 
Frank Churchill finally visits the Westons, and Emma is pleased to find that he lives up
to her expectations, even though Mr. Knightly disapproves of him. Emma and Frank begin to
spend time together, yet he seems somewhat insubstantial and immature. He makes a day
trip to London for no other reason than to get his hair cut. Soon afterward, Jane Fairfax
receives a pianoforte from London, and Emma assumes that it was sent to her by Mr. Dixon.
As Frank and Emma spend more time together, Mr. Knightly becomes somewhat jealous, while
Emma in turn becomes jealous as she suspects that Mr. Knightly might be in love with her
rival Jane Fairfax. 
Frank Churchill must abruptly leave Randalls when he learns that his aunt is unwell. His
aunt is an insufferable woman, proud and vain, and she exercises great authority over her
nephew. Thinking that Frank was ready to profess his love for her, she convinces herself
that she is in love with Frank, but is unsure how to tell that she actually loves him.
Finally, she realizes that she must not be in love with him, for she is as happy with him
absent as she is with him present. 
Mr. Elton brings his new wife back to Highbury. She is a vapid name-dropper, who compares
everything to the supposedly grand lifestyle of her relatives, the Sucklings and
addresses her new peers in Highbury with a startling lack of formality. Emma takes an
instant dislike to her, and upon realizing this, Mrs. Elton takes a dislike to Emma. 
When Frank Churchill returns, he and Emma sponsor a ball at the Crown Inn. During this
ball, Mr. Elton openly snubs Harriet Smith, but she is saved from his social slight by
Mr. Knightly, who graciously dances with her. After the ball, when Harriet and her
companions are walking home, they are assaulted by a group of gipsies, but Frank
Churchill saves the girl, a situation which becomes the talk of Highbury. This leads Emma
to believe that Frank Churchill, whom Emma is sure she does not love, would be a suitable
match for Harriet. When discussing what happened the next morning, Harriet does admit
that she has some feelings for the man who saved her the night before - yet she does not
explicitly name Frank. Thanks to this new infatuation, Harriet finally gets over Mr.
Elton. 
At an outing at Box Hill, Frank Churchill, whose recent behavior had been questionable,
proposes a game for entertaining Emma, and during this game Emma makes a rude comment to
Miss Bates. Afterwards, Mr. Knightly severely scolds Emma for doing so, since Miss Bates
is a poor woman who deserves Emma's pity and compassion, and not her scorn and derision.
When Emma goes to visit Miss Bates the next day to apologize, she learns that Jane
Fairfax has taken ill. She was preparing to leave for Maple Grove to become a governess
for a family, a situation that she earlier compared to the slave trade. Emma now begins
to pity Jane Fairfax, for she realizes that the only reason that Jane must enter into a
profession is her social status. Otherwise, she would be as highly regarded as Emma
herself. 
There is shocking news for Emma when Mrs. Churchill dies. Freed from his overbearing
aunt, Frank reveals to the Westons that he has been secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. Mr.
Knightly begins to show a greater romantic interest in Emma, but when she attempts to
break the bad news to Harriet Smith about Frank Churchill's engagement (the second
heartbreak for Harriet), Emma learns that Harriet in fact had fallen for Mr. Knightly,
who saved her socially at the Crown Inn ball. Emma now realizes that she is the only one
who can marry Mr. Knightly, and that she has done Harriet a great disservice by making
her think that she can aspire to such unreasonable heights. 
Mr. Knightly soon professes his love for Emma, and they plan to marry. Yet there are two
obstacles: first, if Emma were to marry she would have to leave her father, who dotes on
her; second, she must break the news to Harriet Smith. Emma and Mr. Knightly decide that,
when they marry, he should move to Hartfield, for Mr. Woodhouse cannot be left alone and
would not bear moving to Donwell Abbey. Harriet takes the news about Mr. Knightly well,
and soon after she reunites with Robert Martin. The wrongheaded aspirations that Emma
instilled in Harriet are now gone, and she becomes engaged to her original and most
appropriate suitor. She even learns of her parentage: her father is a respectable
tradesman. 
The novel concludes with marriage: between Robert Martin and Harriet Smith, Frank
Churchill and Jane Fairfax, and between Mr. Knightly and Emma Woodhouse, who has grown to
accept the possibility of submitting some degree of her independence to a husband. 
Bibliography
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