186 Austen, Jane
or welfare, Emma decides to find him a wife, deem-
ing that he should fall in love with Harriet Smith, a
pretty young girl of unknown origins whom Emma
is determined to elevate through improved social
graces and marrying into the gentry. Emma sets
about arranging this romance chiefly by persuading
the gullible Harriet of Mr. Elton’s admiration and
marital intentions. Likewise heedless of the feelings
and hopes of Mr. Martin, Harriet’s farmer suitor,
Emma directs Harriet to refuse him, to leave the
way clear for building up Harriet’s hopes for Elton.
When it transpires that Mr. Elton has no inten-
tion of marrying Harriet, Emma encounters her
first setback as a manager of others’ lives. She is
“concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such
things no more.” However, her repentance is based
only on the failure of her scheme, rather than on
any apprehension of damage to the feelings of those
she has manipulated. Emma soon immerses herself
in the village’s social life with such families as the
Bateses, the Westons, and the Coxes, and decides
to encourage Harriet to think romantically again,
this time of Frank Churchill, the stepson of Emma’s
former governess. Emma imagines Frank is in love
with herself but decides he will get over it soon
enough and attach himself to Harriet. But, as the
novel progresses, Emma discovers Frank has been
secretly engaged for many months to Jane Fairfax, a
young woman living with the Bateses, and then she
finds Harriet is not in love with Frank but with Mr.
Knightley, the family friend whose love Emma has
taken for granted as meant only for herself. At this
point, having insulted Miss Bates, Emma is chas-
tised by Mr. Knightley for her lack of charity and
sensitivity. Realizing the folly of trying to arrange
other people’s feelings and lives, she apologizes to
the Bateses and tries to amend her image in the
eyes of Mr. Knightley. From now on, as a genuinely
mature lady patroness, Emma will allow those
around her to suit themselves with their own choices
without her advice and assistance, and she will
ameliorate her own opinions by conferring with the
always just and correct Mr. Knightley. Ironically, it is
as Emma assumes a position of actual authority that
she relinquishes her active pretensions to managing
others’ lives. She has “learned her lesson” and is now
ready to be a real help to her neighbors rather than
to manipulate their affairs to suit her own desires.
Mr. Elton’s chosen bride, Augusta Elton, serves
as a foil to Emma’s newly matured self, in demon-
strating the folly of assuming to take charge of the
“lesser” characters populating one’s neighborhood.
Devoid of the manners and sense of decorum with
which Emma has been raised, the upstart Mrs.
Elton, heady with the improved status of her recent
marriage, rushes to put herself forward in Highbury.
Uninvited, she arranges Jane Fairfax’s social life and
livelihood, proposes to form a musical club with
Emma, and volunteers to hostess Mr. Knightley’s
parties. Her officiousness is regarded as deplorably
ill-bred by Emma, who only a few weeks previously
was guilty of much the same behavior with regard to
Harriet and Mr. Elton. Seeing Mrs. Elton as others
might have seen Emma herself is an eye opener to
Emma, who has also seen the result of her unwise
encouragement of Harriet’s hopes, and this helps to
raise her consciousness of the wisdom of knowing
one’s place and not exceeding one’s proper authority.
Mrs. Elton, unlike Emma, does not arrive at greater
knowledge or maturity and remains as she is, a con-
stant reminder of ill-bred behavior and immature
egotism.
As readers, we are not allowed to know of
the previous journey that may have brought Mr.
Knightley, the proprietor of Donwell Abbey, to his
current sure-footed status as an infallible arbiter
and example of proper, wise opinions and behavior.
Sixteen years older than Emma, he has guided her
along her journey with advice and criticism since her
infancy. While we may find strange his declaration
of love, “I have blamed you, and lectured you, and
you have borne it as no other woman in England
would have,” we cannot quarrel with the results of
his tutelage. Censuring Emma’s manipulation of
Harriet and Robert Martin, warning her about Mr.
Elton, finding fault with her flirtatious behavior
with Frank and neglect of Jane Fairfax, and excoriat-
ing her for her insult to Miss Bates, Mr. Knightley
has forced Emma to rethink and repent her foolish
and wrongful behavior. Without such necessary cor-
rection, Emma would, like Mrs. Elton, her father,
and Frank, still be wandering the paths of an endless