We have our main character Emma, who is a confused young lady, who refuses the idea of marriage under any case, in the first part of the novel. She is skilled as a gentlewoman to a certain extent, but has no worries of marrying, as the estate in which she lives in belongs to her. She is considered as a very desirable lady, having a high position, a lot of finance to back her up and a stunning face. Though she is attempting to join Mr. Elton and Harriet together, her plan goes dreadfully wrong, ending with a proposal from the vicar, to Emma herself. She refuses his proposal, and hurts Harriet greatly. She does not truly see of her wrong doings, and continues to load her friends head with nonsense of her being socially worthy to gain an admirable, respectable husband. As Mr. Elton’s pride is greatly damaged, he decides to go to bath for a holiday, and returns with an offensive, vulgar woman, who will soon be his wife. Mrs. Elton is a rude, dull woman, but has a high social status, which is the reason Mr. Elton chose her. From this love-match, Austen shows us how wrong it is to marry for anything but love. Though it is a highly amusing situation, and Mrs. Elton herself is a very comical character, it in fact causes very serious and severe circumstances, in which these two people will be unhappily married for most probably the rest of their lives.
In addition, the novelist provides us with many diverse roles of women. Women did not have careers, simply marriage offers. We are soon introduced to Harriet Smith, who is an illegitimate orphan, with no options but to hope for a marriage proposal. She does not seem to have a great personality, has a bad background, and no dowry whatsoever, so it is a strange case when the young farmer, Robert Martin, proposes to her. Though instead of being grateful, she listens to Emma and refuses his proposal which is seen as an enormous shock and appalling judgment by her. We are then presented with Miss Taylor, who was a governess for the Woodhouse household. Though Miss Taylor marries, and moves away, she is still considered as a very close relation to the Woodhouse’, which is again an odd case for this society. A lady would become a governess, if they were brought up well, but had no dowry or means to make them desirable. When we meet Jane Fairfax, it is assumed that she will too become a governess. She is a highly skilled woman with many talents, especially as a pianist, has been brought up by a commendable family, but has no financial background to facilitate to a marriage.
In the novel, we are given a lot of dissimilar women, with different minds and crafts. It seems as though the narrator is trying to demonstrate everyone’s similar but different needs, and capability. Many of the women in this society, learnt a musical instrument, wrote poetry, or had several different talents. The reason for this would mainly be that it would be easier for them to achieve a rich, valued husband. Austen is showing us why women did this, which helps us understand the pressure in which this society put them under. They had no qualifications, and were simply there to marry. We can also see that unless you were blessed into a rich family, your ideas and believes were not truly heard, maybe not even spoken of, which is offensive and quite disturbing.
