Emma is a witty and intelligent woman, trapped in a society which is unable to fulfil her needs.'In the light of this quotation, explore Austen's presentation of Emma.

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Stephanie Michaelides

English Literature                      Emma

‘Emma is a witty and intelligent woman, trapped in a society which is unable to fulfil her needs.’

In the light of this quotation, explore Austen’s presentation of Emma.

‘Emma is a witty and intelligent woman, trapped in a society which is unable to fulfil her needs.’ I agree with this statement to a certain extent. Though in the beginning of the novel, Emma is portrayed to be a very happy, swaggering young lady ‘handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition’, Austen slowly but efficiently, shows the reader the concept of misjudgements, the irony of first impressions and the misconceptions we and other’s receive of people’s happiness and capability.

Initially, Emma appears to be very proud and even arrogant. From chapter one, we can see Emma is immature and vain. She predicts Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston’s love match, and feels very proud of her ‘success’.  Here Emma undervalues others, in thinking only she could bring couples together. Though at the time, we do not understand how bored and lonely Emma is, we soon come to realise that she is not absolute with herself and seeks for happiness and companionship, but is too blinded by her status and   underdeveloped mind to comprehend this; which makes her continue to interfere and hurt many people, without wishing or knowing shes doing so.

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Austen presents Emma in a very truthful and straightforward way, which helps the reader to understand Emma’s imperfections, whilst also showing her slow, but fine development. For the most part of the novel, some would say that it was hard to spot the heroin qualities in Emma. She meddles on  numerous occasions, swaying Harriet’s mind on many events; Persuading her to decline Mr. Martin’s proposal, convincing her of Mr. Elton’s love for her, and completely confusing the situation of Frank Churchill and George Knightley. The reader gets agitated with Emma, and wonders why she is so interfering; using Harriet as ...

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