Emma

Social class is a very important theme in the book, as it is in all of Jane Austen's works. Regency England was a very hierarchical society with clear boundaries between the respective classes. And...

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...

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 relationship between Emma and Harriet is an interesting one. They certainly have a friendship of sorts, but they do not meet as equals. Both Emma and Harriet seem aware of the power imbalance,...

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,...

Jane Austen's novel Emma is written in the third person. Although the narrator is omniscient, we are generally restricted to Emma's point of view, and therefore, like Emma herself, the readers...

The moral code that is clearly the message of this witty yet thoughtful novel points to the dangers of trusting in our instincts and imagination rather than in the facts of the situation. What...

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...

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 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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Cultural criticism is a branch of theory that takes culture and context as its defining quality. When exploring this novel through the lenses of cultural criticism, we therefore need to be aware of...

Jane Austen's Emma is, like most of her novels, a strongly-stated commentary on the social mores of the time. One of the strongest themes is that of integrity. Emma conducts herself with integrity...

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...

Marxist criticism and Cultural criticism address what is not in the text, what the text hides or neglects to say. Compare this to Structural criticism that addresses what is exactly in the text:...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 matures as a result of the events surrounding the trip to Box Hill and the word games. She begins to understand her place in the community and how privileged she is, learning from her...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

Austen's technique for imputing two meanings to her narratorial statements through verbal irony--remember that in the text, it is the narrator we hear, not Jane Austen (although one of the charms...

Irony is shown when Emma considers her attraction to Mr. Churchill. She is such a match maker toward Harriet that it is ironic she can't tell when she herself is in love. This irony is compounded...

To get a short and comprehensive summary of Emma is a bit of a trick, especially if all characters are of importance. Peripheral characters will of necessity be omitted, yet you can fill them in in...

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...

Such a great question! Clearly, Austen had a lot to say on these topics because she titled a book that way - but the novel "Emma" proves that she had so much to say it couldn't be just contained...

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...

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...

Central to understanding this excellent and witty novel is recognising the very different way in which marriage was though of in Austen's day. Marriage was linked inextricably to social status....