A Review of Emma

A Review of Emma

I’ve read Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and most recently Emma. All of them are wonderful, and I can never decide which one is my favorite book by Jane Austen. But definitely Emma is, to me, a very engaging one.

I have no special feeling about this book at first glance. Because of Jane Austen, I choose it and take some patience to read. And finally, the patience is greatly rewarded. Emma is a timeless story which is both funny and compelling. The characters are all really well developed, especially Emma, a 21-year-old girl, who is portrayed as incredibly human.

The story is, briefly, about Emma, who is young, beautiful, rich and witty and lives with her father Mr. Woodhouse. She has vowed herself never to marry, but loves to play a matchmaker. She has just matched her tutor, Miss Taylor, up with Mr. Weston. She is quite proud of her success and finds satisfaction in it. In her arrogance, she believes that she knows what is right for everyone, and determined to appoint herself Cupid for all of her friends. Mr. Knightley, a neighbor and the brother of her older sister’s husband, warns her not to meddle in the other’s affairs, but she doesn’t take it seriously. She takes care of a young girl of unknown parentage named Harriet. Harriet is in love with a farmer named Robert Martin, but Emma thinks that he is beneath her, so she encourages Harriet to set her sights on Mr. Elton, a local vicar, as a future husband. Poor Harriet is completely bowled over by Emma. But unfortunately, everything goes to the opposite side, and finally Emma knows the fact that Harriet and Mr. Elton are completely unsuited, and that Harriet and her farmer are made for each other. Through a lot of hilarious scenes, Emma comes to realize that she doesn’t know as much as she thinks, and learns that it’s better to let other people manage their own lives.

As the other works of Jane Austen, Emma describes the ordinary person and trivial matters. The plot develops around the activities of choosing spouse for the heroines. It reveals the bad habit that people regarded marriage as the economic insurance to woman at that time. In order to raise the economic position, they emphasized the family status but ignored women’s feelings and rights. The main female characters in Emma all seek the equal communication with man, they demand the equal rights in the social position, and insist on the freedom of observing and choosing spouses. It is nearly tantamount to a shout of resistance.

Emma and Mr. Knightley are the two leading characters in this novel. They always help the others on many occasions, but they have different ways to do that. Emma firmly believes that “there is nothing more beautiful than a match well made.” But just because Emma loves matchmaking, it doesn’t mean her attempts are always well made. The way that Emma chooses spouse for the girl is very funny, even a little fantastic. She tries her best to find man with high social status for the girl of low birth. But it’s often that herself is kept in the dark, the result and her expectation are on the contrary, and a lot of stupid jokes are made. For example, Emma thinks that Harriet would be a perfect match for Mr. Elton, so she encourages Harriet to set her sights on him, but everything is ruined because Mr. Elton turns out to be in love with Emma instead. Perhaps we could say that the author wants to lead the readers to laugh at the bad habit in the old British society.

Mr. Knightley helps the others in another way that is different from Emma’s. For example, once in a dancing party, when he saw Harriet receive the scornful cold reception, he stepped forward bravely, defended her self-esteem and helped her out of the extremely awkward situation. He hated and cracked down the conduct that fawned on those above and bullied those below. Although he was deeply in love with Emma, he was against that she helped Harriet claim ties of kinship with someone of a higher social position. He supported the pure and faithful love between Harriet and Robert Marin, and gave them proper help so that they had an opportunity to get married according to their own will. The author puts his role of Mr. Knightley in the respectable position, undoubtedly hoping to reflect his own certain social ideal through this character. The highlight for me is the arguments between Emma and Mr. Knightley which are superbly crafted. Mr. Knightley is definitely my favorite character, and is a perfect gentleman.

Another two characters, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, escape from reality and arrange marriage privately, finally they become the butt of everyone’s jokes. In fact, they hide the painful topic in heart and yield to public opinion pressure. The readers always feel depressed about them. However, the other two pairs of lovers who face the reality of society and pursue the true