As a character Emma matures towards the end and realises the folly and misguidance of her actions towards other people. At the beginning of the novel Emma Likes To Think Of Herself as independent and doesn’t want to marry this could be because she`s comfortable with her status in society. We are made to think that Emma is a selfish young woman who is proud of herself and feels no need to marry. Later on in the novel we begin to realize that Emma`s match-making and interfering is causing no good and Emma Realizes this too. She then comes to realize her feelings for Mr. Knightly and starts to see the possibility that she needs to marry. There`s a lot of irony in Emma`s beliefs as she is the centre of everyone`s attention and interferes in other peoples relationships so much that she doesn’t realize her feelings for Mr. Knightly.
Mr. Knightly is the only person in the whole novel that criticizes Emma other characters don’t really talk much about Emma except chapter 5 were Mr. Knightly and Mrs. Weston Discuss Emma. Emma thinks of herself completely different what others think of her, this also makes the novel more ironic. Emma thinks so highly of herself she doesn’t take any notice of what others might think this is a very cleaver device that Jane Austen uses. Emma and Harriet become friends so Emma tries to fins Harriet a husband that she thinks will be suitable. Emma doesn’t take any notice that Harriet if from a different class to her and looks for a husband for Harriet of her own class. Emma also carelessly starts a rumour about Jane Fairfax whilst flirting with Frank Churchill. However, Emma doesn’t do this on purpose and towards the end of the play Jane Austen shows us that Emma learns from her mistakes. Emma has many weaknesses and one of them just as Mr. Knightly had predicted “She will never submit to anything requiring industry and patience and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding” (Volume 1, Chapter 5). Emma is the cleverest in her family and is idolized by a lot of Highbury, this may be why she is so confident and convinced that she`s always right. Emma always seems to see the need to reshape things to suit herself this shows that Emma`s imagination has too much impact on her actions.
Jane Austen makes it clear to us that Emma has a lot of imagination and this causes a lot of problems. Mr. Knightly states that imagination is nonsense; this is ironic as it opposes “sense” against “imagination”
Jane Austen lets poetic justice take place in the novel towards the disclosure at the end, as this shows the procedure Emma needs to go through and the developments that need to be made in order to get the ‘perfect ending’. There were quite a few times in the novel when Jane Austen made Emma go through emotional and frustrating situations, which had been caused by herself, in these situations Emma, had to look back on her actions and be remorseful. Jane Austen shows us that the greatest threat to achieving happiness is ourselves.
Towards the ending of the novel, there are quite a few examples when Emma has to me sorry for her actions. Mr. Knightly rebukes Emma for her bad-mannered conduct towards Miss Bates and Box Hill, He says, “I will tell you truths while I can”, she was “vexed beyond what could have been expressed,” and then she weeps. “Emma felt the tears running down her cheeks almost all the way home, without being at any trouble to check them, extraordinary as they were” (Page 376)Because Emma is crying this shows that she is starting to realize her mistakes and that she is feeling pain. It is only when something bad happens when Emma reacts to her bad actions, and when she realizes that she may lose Mr. Knightly she changes “...My blindness to what was going on, led me to act in a way that I must always be ashamed of, and I was very foolishly tempted to say and do many things which may well lay me open to unpleasant conjectures”. This shows that Emma feels embarrassed and humiliated and realizes her faults and mistakes and tries to fix them. We begin to see that Emma is slowly changing from being strong-witted, proud of herself, patronizing and confident to a more compassionate and honest character. Jane Austen has Emma go on an emotional rollercoaster towards the ending to create the ‘perfect happiness’ through poetic justice.
In the end Emma is rewarded with the ‘perfect happiness’ and not the punishment she is afraid to get. We admire Emma as a character because of her flaws at the beginning and how they were changing throughout the novel, towards the end of the play she realizes her faults and mistakes and tries to fix them and changes her ways. Towards the ending we begin to see the more compassionate and honest side of Emma that wants to help people rather than the patronizing and self absorbed Emma she was in the beginning. This helps us appreciate Emma and lets us see that she has learnt from her mistakes and that she is maturing. Emma isn’t a typical woman of her time and tha`s why we love her because of her imperfections and her mistakes and the way she is able to turn things around to get her ‘perfect happiness’ that she has being searching for.
Paulina Palowczyk
10 Aloysius