Emma

There are many examples which show the themes of love and marriage in the novel Emma. Emma considers herself to be a skilled matchmaker. She seeks to make those around her happy by finding them a...

The setting of Emma is the village of Highbury and its environs, where Emma has lived her entire life. Major settings within or near Highbury include Hartfield, the grand home Emma shares with her...

Jane Austen's novel Emma has a central character criticized as sheltered and overly concerned with status, place, and marrying well, all the things well off women were supposed to be and do. In her...

Jane Austen's Emma demonstrates various forms of irony, often with the character of Emma herself. At various points in the novel, Emma and situations in which she finds herself reveal verbal,...

The novel's setting has the biggest impact on Emma, through whose eyes we see the story. The novel is placed entirely in Highbury and the adjoining Hartfield, where Emma and her father live, as...

Though formally hired as Emma's governess, Miss Taylor, or Mrs. Weston as she later becomes, acts as more of an older sister towards her young charge. Among other things, this means that Miss...

The overall tone of Emma is ironic, but within that, it is also sympathetic and comic. At the end of the novel, the tone is romantic. Emma is filled with situational irony (which is when events...

The climax of Jane Austen's novel Emma can be found towards the ending chapters, namely chapter 45. It is the moment when, after a rough encounter with Mr. Knightley, she realizes that she has...

Something that is didactic is something that intends to purposefully instruct with moral instruction. One step further, a didactic piece of literature intentionally subordinates aesthetic qualities...

An example of gender stereotyping is provided by the relationship between Emma and Mr. Knightley. Mr. Knightley is presented as unfailingly calm, rational, and sensible, in contrast to Emma's...

The film and the novel both follow the same strict plot, Emma, the rather arrogant protagonist, fumbles the affairs of various friends and acquaintances because of her meddling, until she...

Humor is the term used to refer to what is funny, that which makes us smile or laugh. In literature, it often is shown in exaggeration or hyperbole. Some situations are so outrageous or...

Austen portrays marriage as patriarchal in Emma, but also as an important way for women to achieve social and economic status and security. The novel opens with Mr. Woodhouse grieving the marriage...

Though Emma discusses her reasons for never marrying in a couple of places throughout Austen's novel, a neat encapsulation of it occurs in Chapter 31, or Chapter XIII of Volume II. Emma is...

We are at the start of Jane Austen's novel, Emma. Austen is introducing the character of Emma Woodhouse, who is: handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed...

The story is told from the point of view of Emma Woodhouse, a rich, snobbish (but in the end lovable) young woman whose life is upended as the novel begins with the marriage of her governess Miss...

Gossip in Jane Austen’s Emma is how information is circulated and how perceptions are constructed throughout the novel. Austen provides ample entertainment by satirizing a social circle of landed...

Emma is, in part, a critique of upperclass women's education. More than one scholar has traced Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, a work which argues for better education...

One thing that can help in understanding this passage is that Jane Austen the author chose not to marry, and when she wrote this passage was already 39 years old: certainly the sign of an "old...

Emma is round a character for two reasons. First, she has many facets to her character and personality. She has likable traits and many flaws, just as a real person does. Second, she is rounded...

In the first sentence of Emma, Austen says that her heroine is beautiful, smart, and wealthy and has a good personality and that she has lived her 21 years without much to disturb her. The first...

On the face of it, there seems to be very little way in which a novel that spends so much of its time poking fun at the central female character because of her belief that she is a matchmaker could...

Emma is filled with important quotes, and various readers will pick and rank various quotes differently; however, I think a safe bet is to pick quotes that highlight particular themes in the book...

Emma by Jane Austen is a book almost entirely focused on the education or maturation of Emma Woodhouse, its eponymous heroine. At the beginning of the novel, Emma is portrayed as a clever and...

There are three broad kinds of references to governesses in Emma: Miss Taylor as governess to the Woodhouses Jane Fairfax's potential position as a governess general mention of governesses applying...

Miss Bates in Jane Austen's Emma keeps up a constant stream of conversation, and this drives Emma crazy. The novel doesn't specifically explain why Miss Bates talks all the time, but it does give...

Since our society is vastly different from 19th century English society, you need an external resource in order to thoroughly classify Austen's characters according to their rank. You can tell by...

Mr. Knightley tells Emma quite forcefully that whatever she might think, Mr. Elton will not marry Harriet. First, he notes that Harriet is the illegitimate daughter of nobody-knows-who. Being...

This is a big question, but in brief, through her depiction of the village of Higbury as seen through Emma Woodhouse's eyes, Austen offers a sharp outline of class distinctions in Regency society...

The typical coming-of-age novel tends to focus on a person even younger than Miss Emma Woodhouse. She is only twenty-one, which is certainly plenty youthful, but she is not exactly a child in the...

Jane Austen's politics are highly contested (was she high Tory or secret radical sympathizer: see Marilyn Butler on Austen as Tory and the new book by Helena Kelly: Jane Austen: The Secret Radical...

It is relevant, for in this scene, Emma, for the first time ever, genuinely regrets being cruel to Miss Bates. She makes a public joke at Miss Bates's expense, implying that is rare for Miss Bates...

Emma is a snob because of the manner in which she treats others. She is condescending toward Miss Bates (a kindhearted but eccentric spinster) and ends up reducing Miss Bates to tears because of...

Austen presents many layers of social status in each of her novels, and Emma and Pride and Prejudice are no exceptions. One of the most memorable representations of social status in Emma is where...

You are correct when you suggest that you need to materially alter the plot to develop a different ending. The way Austen constructs her novel, there is no ending but the one she has written. There...

Romance and marriage are definitely topics in Emma. In the nineteenth century when Emma was published, women had very few opportunities to earn money to support themselves; there were very few jobs...

The setting in Emma is important to the novel as it represents a microcosm of society at the time. Each social class from the landed gentry (Mr Knightley) to the poor have their place. The...

Jane Austen's attitude to Emma could be described as lovingly and playfully amused about her limitations early on and then encouraging of her growth as the book progresses. Emma blunders throughout...

The strangest connection between marriage partners and social status is in that between Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill. Jane is the daughter of Miss Bates's sister, who was Mrs. Bates's younger...

The theme of control is evident in 'Emma' implicitly and explicitly. Austen's novels take place in a strictly regimented society, where social position impacts on the opportunities and level of...

Jane Austen’s Emma ends with two weddings in quick succession, both performed, perhaps without any particular enthusiasm, by Mr. Elton. The first unites Harriet with Robert Martin; the second, Emma...

The social expectation in Emma is that women will marry. Anything else is unacceptable. Women are also expected to marry a person of their own class. Harriet shows how unacceptable it is for a...

Social structure in the novel is used to reveal Emma's pride and arrogance, and it is the central theme in her misguided matchmaking attempts. Emma experiences a change and becomes a more humble...

Jane Austen's Emma has a great deal to offer to the modern audience because Emma is a modern character. This is most certainly the case with other of Austen's protagonists as well because Austen...

To answer this, it is necessary to clarify historical time periods. Jane Austen lived the first part of her life (1775-1817) during the reign of King George III, the King against whom the American...

The reason Mrs. Elton amuses rather than disgusts or irritates, for that matter, is precisely because of Jane Austen's ironical approach to drawing her character in Emma. This is well...