- Emma is a novel about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings, written by Jane Austen. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, with its title page listing a publication date of 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners.
- Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” In the first sentence, she introduces the title character as “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition… had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.” Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people’s lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.
- Emma, written after Austen’s move to Chawton, was her last novel to be published during her lifetime, while Persuasion, the last complete novel Austen wrote, was published posthumously.
- Plot:
- Emma Woodhouse’s friend and former governess, Miss Taylor, has just married Mr. Weston. Having introduced them, Emma takes credit for their marriage and decides that she likes matchmaking. After returning home to Hartfield with her father, Emma forges ahead with her new interest against the advice of her friend Mr. Knightley, who is also brother-in-law to Emma’s elder sister Isabella. She attempts to match her new friend Harriet Smith to Mr. Elton, the local vicar. Emma persuades Harriet to refuse a marriage proposal from Robert Martin, a respectable, educated, and well-spoken young farmer, though Harriet likes him. Mr. Elton, a social climber, mistakenly believes Emma is in love with him and proposes to her. When Emma reveals she believed him attached to Harriet, he is outraged, considering Harriet socially inferior. After Emma rejects him, Mr. Elton goes to Bath and returns with a pretentious, nouveau-riche wife, as Mr. Knightley expected he would do. Harriet is heartbroken, and Emma feels ashamed about misleading her.
- Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston’s son, arrives for a two-week visit and makes many friends. Frank was adopted by his wealthy and domineering aunt and has had few opportunities to visit before. Mr. Knightley tells Emma that, while Frank is intelligent and engaging, he has a shallow character. Jane Fairfax also arrives to visit her aunt, Miss Bates, and grandmother, Mrs. Bates, for a few months before starting a governess position due to her family’s financial situation. She is the same age as Emma and has received an excellent education by her father’s friend, Colonel Campbell. Emma has remained somewhat aloof with her because she envies Jane’s talent and is annoyed by everyone, including Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley, praising her. The patronising Mrs. Elton takes Jane under her wing and announces that she will find her the ideal governess post before it is wanted. Emma feels some sympathy for Jane’s predicament.
- Emma decides that Jane and Mr. Dixon, Colonel Campbell’s new son-in-law, are mutually attracted, and is the reason she arrived earlier than expected. She confides this to Frank, who met Jane and the Campbells at a holiday resort a year earlier; he apparently agrees with Emma. Suspicions are further fuelled when a pianoforte, sent by an anonymous benefactor, arrives for Jane. Emma feels herself falling in love with Frank, but it does not last to his second visit. The Eltons treat Harriet poorly, culminating with Mr. Elton publicly snubbing Harriet at the ball given by the Westons in May. Mr. Knightley, who had long refrained from dancing, gallantly asks Harriet to dance. The day after the ball, Frank brings Harriet to Hartfield, as she fainted after a rough encounter with local gypsies. Emma mistakes Harriet’s gratitude to Frank as her being in love with him. Meanwhile, Mrs. Weston wonders if Mr. Knightley is attracted to Jane, but Emma dismisses the idea. When Mr. Knightley says he notices a connection between Jane and Frank, Emma disagrees, as Frank appears to be courting her instead. Frank arrives late to a gathering at Donwell in June, while Jane departs early. The next day at Box Hill, a local scenic spot, Frank and Emma are bantering when Emma, in jest, thoughtlessly insults Miss Bates.
- When Mr. Knightley scolds Emma for insulting Miss Bates, she is ashamed. The next day, she visits Miss Bates to atone for her bad behaviour, impressing Mr. Knightley. During the visit, Emma learns that Jane accepted a governess position from one of Mrs. Elton’s friends. Jane becomes ill and refuses to see Emma or receive her gifts. Meanwhile, Frank has been visiting his aunt, who dies soon after his arrival. Now he and Jane reveal to the Westons that they have been secretly engaged since autumn, but Frank knew his aunt would disapprove of the match. Maintaining the secrecy strained the conscientious Jane and caused the couple to quarrel, with Jane ending the engagement. Frank’s easygoing uncle readily gives his blessing to the match. The engagement is made public, leaving Emma chagrined to discover that she had been so wrong.
- Emma believes Frank’s engagement will devastate Harriet, but instead, Harriet says she loves Mr. Knightley, and though she knows the match is too unequal, Emma’s encouragement and Mr. Knightley’s kindness have given her hope. Emma is startled and realises that she is also in love with Mr. Knightley. Mr. Knightley returns to console Emma from Frank and Jane’s engagement, thinking her heartbroken. When she admits her foolishness, he proposes, and she accepts. Harriet accepts Robert Martin’s second proposal, and they are the first couple to marry. Jane and Emma reconcile, and Frank and Jane visit the Westons. Once the mourning period for Frank’s aunt ends, they will marry. Before the end of November, Emma and Mr. Knightley are married with the prospect of “perfect happiness.”
- Characters
- Principal characters
- Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist of the story, is a beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and somewhat spoiled young woman from the landed gentry. She is twenty when the story opens. Her mother died when she was young. She has been mistress of the house (Hartfield) since her older sister got married. Although intelligent, she lacks the discipline to practise or study anything in depth. She is portrayed as compassionate to the poor, but at the same time has a strong sense of class status. Her affection for and patience towards her valetudinarian father are also noteworthy. While she is in many ways mature, Emma makes some serious mistakes, mainly due to her lack of experience and her conviction that she is always right. Although she has vowed she will never marry, she delights in making matches for others. She has a brief flirtation with Frank Churchill; however, she realises at the end of the novel that she loves Mr. Knightley.
- Mr. Knightley is a neighbour and close friend of Emma, aged 37 years (16 years older than Emma). He is her only critic. Mr. Knightley is the owner of the estate of Donwell Abbey, which includes extensive grounds and farms. He is the elder brother of Mr. John Knightley, the husband of Emma’s elder sister Isabella. He is very considerate, aware of the feelings of the other characters, and his behaviour and judgment are extremely good. Mr. Knightley is furious with Emma for persuading Harriet to turn down Mr. Martin, a farmer on the Donwell estate; he warns Emma against pushing Harriet towards Mr. Elton, knowing that Mr. Elton seeks a bride with money. He is suspicious of Frank Churchill and his motives; he suspects that Frank has a secret understanding with Jane Fairfax.
- Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston’s son by his first marriage, is an amiable young man, who, at age 23, is liked by almost everyone, though Mr. Knightley sees him as immature and selfish for failing to visit his father after his father’s wedding. After his mother’s death, he was raised by his wealthy aunt and uncle, the Churchills, at the family estate of Enscombe. His uncle was his mother’s brother. By his aunt’s decree, he assumed the name Churchill on his majority. Frank is given to dancing and living a carefree existence, and is secretly engaged to Miss Fairfax at Weymouth, although he fears his aunt will forbid the match because Jane is not wealthy. He manipulates and plays games with the other characters to ensure his engagement to Jane remains concealed.
- Jane Fairfax is an orphan whose only family consists of her aunt, Miss Bates, and her grandmother, Mrs. Bates. She is a beautiful, bright, and elegant woman, with the best of manners. She is the same age as Emma. She is extraordinarily well-educated and talented at singing and playing the piano; she is the sole person whom Emma envies. Colonel Campbell, an army friend of Jane’s father, felt responsible for Jane, and has provided her an excellent education while she has shared his home and family since she was nine years old. She has little fortune, however, and is destined to become a governess – an unpleasant prospect. The secret engagement goes against her principles and distresses her greatly.
- Harriet Smith, a young friend of Emma, just seventeen when the story opens, is a beautiful but unsophisticated girl. She has been a parlour boarder at a nearby school, where she met the sisters of Mr. Martin. Emma takes Harriet under her wing early on, and she becomes the subject of Emma’s misguided matchmaking attempts. She is revealed in the last chapter to be the natural daughter of a decent tradesman, although he is not a gentleman. Harriet and Mr. Martin are wed. The now wiser Emma approves of the match.
- Robert Martin is a well-to-do, 24-year-old tenant farmer who, though not a gentleman, is a friendly, amiable and diligent young man, well esteemed by Mr. George Knightley. He becomes acquainted and subsequently smitten with Harriet during her 2-month stay at Abbey Mill Farm, which was arranged at the invitation of his sister, Elizabeth Martin, Harriet’s school friend. His first marriage proposal, in a letter, is rejected by Harriet under Emma’s direction and influence, (an incident which puts Mr. Knightley and Emma in a disagreement with one another). Emma had convinced herself that Harriet’s class and breeding were above associating with the Martins, much less marrying one. His second marriage proposal is later accepted by a contented Harriet and approved by a wiser Emma; their joining marks the first of the three happy couples to marry in the end.
- Philip Elton is a good-looking, initially well-mannered, and ambitious young vicar, 27 years old and unmarried when the story opens. Emma wants him to marry Harriet; however, he aspires to secure Emma’s hand in marriage to gain her dowry of £30,000. Mr. Elton displays his mercenary nature by quickly marrying another woman of lesser means after Emma rejects him.
- Augusta Elton, formerly Miss Hawkins, is Mr. Elton’s wife. She has 10,000 pounds, but lacks good manners, committing common vulgarities such as using people’s names too intimately (as in “Jane”, not “Miss Fairfax”; “Knightley”, not “Mr. Knightley”). She is a boasting, pretentious woman who expects her due as a new bride in the village. Emma is polite to her but does not like her. She patronises Jane, which earns Jane the sympathy of others. Her lack of social graces shows the good breeding of the other characters, particularly Miss Fairfax and Mrs. Weston, and shows the difference between gentility and money.
- Mrs. Weston was Emma’s governess for sixteen years as Miss Anne Taylor and remains her closest friend and confidante after she marries Mr. Weston. She is a sensible woman who loves Emma. Mrs. Weston acts as a surrogate mother to her former charge and, occasionally, as a voice of moderation and reason. The Weston and the Woodhouse families see each other almost daily. Near the end of the story, the Westons’ baby Anna is born.
- Mr. Weston is a widower and a business man living in Highbury who marries Miss Taylor in his early 40s, after buying a house called Randalls. By his first marriage, he is father to Frank Weston Churchill, who was adopted and raised by his late wife’s brother and his wife. He sees his son in London each year. He married his first wife, Miss Churchill, when he was a captain in the militia, posted near her home. Mr. Weston is a sanguine, optimistic man, who enjoys socialising, making friends quickly in business and among his neighbours.
- Miss Bates is a friendly, garrulous spinster whose mother, Mrs. Bates, is a friend of Mr. Woodhouse. Her niece is Jane Fairfax, daughter of her late sister. She was raised in better circumstances in her younger days as the vicar’s daughter; now she and her mother rent rooms in the home of another in Highbury. One day, Emma humiliates her on a day out in the country, when she alludes to her tiresome prolixity.
- Mr. Henry Woodhouse, Emma’s father, is always concerned for his health, and to the extent that it does not interfere with his own, the health and comfort of his friends. He is a valetudinarian (i.e., similar to a hypochondriac but more likely to be genuinely ill). He assumes that a great many things are hazardous to his health. His daughter Emma gets along with him well, and he loves both his daughters. He laments that “poor Isabella” and especially “poor Miss Taylor” have married and live away from him. He is a fond father and fond grandfather who did not remarry when his wife died; instead he brought in Miss Taylor to educate his daughters and become part of the family. Because he is generous and well-mannered, his neighbours accommodate him when they can.
- Isabella Knightley (née Woodhouse) is the elder sister of Emma, by seven years, and daughter of Henry. She is married to John Knightley. She lives in London with her husband and their five children (Henry, ‘little’ John, Bella, ‘little’ Emma, and George). She is similar in disposition to her father, and her relationship to Mr. Wingfield, (her family’s physician) mirrors that of her father’s to Mr. Perry.
- John Knightley is Isabella’s husband and George’s younger brother, 31 years old. He is an attorney by profession. Like the others raised in the area, he is a friend of Jane Fairfax. He greatly enjoys the company of his family, including his brother and his Woodhouse in-laws, but is not a very sociable sort of man. He is forthright with Emma, his sister-in-law, and close to his brother.
- Minor characters
- Mr. Perry is the apothecary in Highbury who is never shown directly speaking but spends a significant amount of time responding to the health issues of Mr. Woodhouse. He and Mrs. Perry have several children. He is also the subject of a discussion between Miss Bates and Jane Fairfax that is relayed in a letter to Mr. Frank Churchill that he inadvertently discloses to Emma. He is described as an “…intelligent, gentlemanlike man, whose frequent visits were one of the comforts of Mr. Woodhouse’s life.”
- Mrs. Bates is the widow of the former vicar of Highbury, the mother of Miss Bates and the grandmother of Jane Fairfax. She is old and hard of hearing, but is a frequent companion to Mr. Woodhouse when Emma attends social activities without him.
- Mr. & Mrs. Cole have been residents of Highbury for several years, but have recently benefited from a significant increase in their income that has allowed them to expand the size of their house, number of servants and other expenses. Despite their “low origin” in trade, their income and style of living have made them the second most prominent family in Highbury, next to the Woodhouses at Hartfield. They host a dinner party that is a significant plot element.
- Mrs. Churchill was the wife of the brother of Mr. Weston’s first wife. She and her husband, Mr. Churchill, live at Enscombe and raised Mr. Weston’s son, Mr. Frank Churchill. Although never seen directly, she makes demands on Frank Churchill’s time and attention that prevent him from visiting his father. Her disapproval is the reason that the engagement between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax is kept secret. Her death provides the opportunity for the secret to be revealed.
- Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were friends of Jane Fairfax’s late father. Since Jane was their guest for extended visits, they took over her education in preparation for her serving as a governess when she grew up. They provided her every advantage possible, short of adoption, and were very fond of her.
- Mrs. Goddard is the mistress of a boarding school for girls in which Harriet Smith is one of the students. She is also a frequent companion to Mr. Woodhouse along with Mrs. Bates.
- Mr. William Larkins is an employee on the Donwell Abbey estate of Mr. Knightley. He frequently visits the Bateses, bringing them gifts, such as apples, from Mr. Knightley.
- Principal characters
Emma (1816) – Jane Austen
About the Author: Abirlal Mukherjee (Mukhopadhyay)
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