"Harriet Smith...whom she could summon...valuable addition to her privileges". How is this quotation (chapter 4) an evocation of the relationship between Emma and Harriet?

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Harriet Nash L6MF

Wednesday 16th March 2005

“Harriet Smith…whom she could summon…valuable addition to her privileges”.  How is this quotation (chapter 4) an evocation of the relationship between Emma and Harriet?

“Emma,” by Jane Austen was published first published in 1816 in the Regency Age.  The novel mainly focuses on central character, eponymous heroine, Emma Woodhouse and her many flaws.  Emma’s unusual friendship with lower class Harriet Smith helps emphasise this and also shows how class and status provided a barrier between people when forming relationships.

Austen uses language effectively to portray the relationship between Emma and Harriet at the beginning of the novel.  Emma sees Harriet as somebody she can “summon” and this symbolises how, at the start of the novel, Harriet is just a “valuable addition to her privileges.”  This quotation is a recollection of the way the two girls’ friendship ends up as Emma, in her immaturity, fails to value Harriet’s feelings and ends up distorting her view on her place in society, causing drastic consequences at the end of the novel and giving her a false sense of “superiority.”

There are many factors which may have led to Harriet and Emma’s unlikely friendship, despite their difference in social “set”. Harriet is a convenience to Emma, after “Mrs Weston’s marriage” Emma looks to find a new companion and she chooses Harriet.  Harriet appeals to Emma’s egotistical nature, she is certainly “not clever” but begins the novel with a “sweet, docile, grateful disposition” only desiring to be guided “by anyone she looked up to,” basically providing Emma with somebody to mould and manipulate.  

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As Harriet is of a lower class and intelligence to Emma, she fits in perfectly with Emma’s meddlesome romantic games as she is too naïve and inclined to fit in to object.  As soon as Emma befriends Harriet, she tries to create an unlikely match between Harriet and Mr Elton, a “respectable vicar of Highbury,” and somebody unsuitable for Harriet, a girl of no “respectable relations,” an important factor when selecting a partner in the Regency Age.  Austen gives certain clues to the reader signifying the fate of Harriet and Mr Elton’s relationship.  One of these clues is in ...

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