A further theme of the novel is patronage and how Emma abuses it. When Harriet refuses Mr Martin’s proposal, we can see that Harriet realises that she is in no position to do so, but Emma does not realise this, portraying Emma as being quite ignorant of this issue. Mr Woodhouse – Emma’s father – is satirised by Austen to be a worrier, and is oblivious to what goes on around him. He, therefore, does not see Emma’s matchmaking and management of people. He is one of the main people of whom Emma manages. Through this we see that Austen characterises Emma to abuse her own patronage.
The position of women was an issue in Austen’s time and is highlighted in this novel. At this time, women had very much a lower position in society than men but, because of Emma’s inheritance and family history, she is an exception to the rule. With the power this gives her, we see yet another contrast between Harriet and Emma. Emma’s intelligence and Harriet’s lack of it is another contrast. Emma has this intelligence because she has been educated and many other women in this time period did not have this, including Harriet. This gives her the power to control and manage people however she wants. All these contrasts combine to show how class and status help Emma to be able to control Harriet.
Emma sees Harriet as a project. ‘She was not struck by anything remarkably clever in Miss Smith’s conversation, but she found her altogether engaging.’ In this quote we see how Emma is analysing and planning to make Harriet her next project.
Austen expresses her views on women and marriage. There is a key quote in the novel which I feel expresses Austen’s feelings – ’Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid, and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must b a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! The proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else. And the distinction is not quite so much against the candour and common sense of the world as appears at first.’ Here Austen is saying how stereotypical society was at that time, she is raising what she feels were the key issues of her time.
Emma controls Harriet so much that she is sometimes unable to voice her own opinions. One example of this is when Harriet is writing to Mr Martin to reply to his marriage proposal, Emma more or less writes the letter for her. Harriet is loyal to Emma and looks up to her thinking she knows everything, therefore does as she says. The friendship is based on how Emma controls Harriet. There are many quotes in the novel that show Harriet’s reliance on Emma and how she can’t make decisions without Emma’s approval, one example is this – ‘But she was not wanted to speak. It was enough for her to feel. Emma spoke for her.’ The reader sees how reliant she is on Emma and how she cannot say how she feels or what she wants to do. As the reader we can look at this as a positive or a negative point of their relationship. We can see it as Emma protecting Harriet and doing what she feels is best for her. We could also see it as Emma being controlling and ignorant of Harriet’s feelings this could make her appear callous.
As the text goes on we see Emma’s character developing. Emma, like most of the other characters in the book, cannot see her faults. She thinks this because she is always being praised by everyone and she has been brought up to think she has no faults. The only person who sees through this is Mr Knightly. He also sees how the friendship between Harriet and Emma could not work. He shows integrity and intelligence when talking to, and about Emma. He sees how the social class divide could affect their friendship and he is right. By having his own opinion and being different to the other characters he stands out to us as the reader and raises important issues connected with Emma’s character.
We see Emma’s self-realisation as the novel goes on; she begins to see how she has misjudged situations. One example of this, and the first point where she begins to realise is when she attempts to match make Harriet and Mr Elton. Emma is very naïve in this situation; she disregards Harriet’s social position. Mr Elton is much higher in class than Harriet, but Emma does not see this. When Mr Elton ‘Makes violent love’ to Emma this makes her realise how naïve she has been. ‘But her mind had never been in such perturbation, and it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet reflection.’ I feel this quote shows how shocked Emma is to realise she was wrong. Although this is the beginning of her self realisation, she is still slightly ignorant – she makes excuses to make out that it wasn’t her fault, an example of this is when she says ‘His manners, however, must have been unmarked, wavering, dubious, or she could not have been so misled.’ This is ironic because the reader knows that Mr Elton’s feelings for Emma were very obvious. These errors in Emma’s judgement concerning Harriet raise a key issue in the novel – Emma’s self realisation and development of character.
This leads to the next main theme in the novel – comedy and irony. Austen uses irony numerous amounts of times in this book to create humour. Austen uses irony a lot with the character Emma. One big area of irony concerning this character is her attitude to marriage, which brings out Austen’s view on marriage. From the start of the book Emma has a view that she will not be married, yet we know that in the end this happens. One quote that would satisfy this issue is ‘Oh! Harriet may pick and choose. Were you, yourself, ever to marry, she is the very woman for you.’ This is a ridiculous thing for Emma to say to Mr Knightly, for a number of reasons. The first reason is that Harriet has no right to pick and choose who she marries at all – her position in society is not high enough. Also, Mr Knightly is of a higher class than even the Woodhouse’s, therefore she Harriet is in no position whatsoever to marry him. This quote also creates humour through irony as the reader knows that Emma will end up marrying him.
Austen portrays the character of Emma to be a matchmaker and a poor judge of situations and people. As the novel goes on we see, through her self realisation, who she really is. Through doing this Austen puts across her issues and issues/ morals. These are; Emma’s/Austen’s views on marriage and the position of women in the 1800’s, and the way Austen uses irony creates humour through how naïve Emma is when trying to control Harriet’s affairs.