Emma

*spoiler alert*

Emma is perhaps the most modern of all Austen novels. The heroine Emma Woodhouse, is a high class girl of one and twenty, who hasn't had much troubles in her life. She is extremely flawed, but these are the flaws that make her Emma. Emma has control over her own life, and being a high class, rich woman, she has plenty of opportunities to rule. But still, she is kind hearted, and despite her mistakes, she always means well.

 The two major themes in this novel, class separation and marriage, are intertwined.  At the beginning of the novel, her governess, Ms Taylor gets married to Mr Weston and is thus referred to Mrs Weston for the rest of the novel. Emma thinks that her matchmaking skills brought this happy marriage to take place, and hence starts matchmaking. She herself plans on remaining single as long as possible.

 She takes under her wing, a young, beautiful but relatively stupid girl Harriet Smith. Harriet’s origins are unknown, but Emma thinks that she has to be the daughter of a gentleman. In the meantime, Emma misreads a suitor, Mr Elton’s affections, thinking that they are meant for Harriet not herself. She tries to push them together, but to do this, Emma first asks Harriet to refuse the proposal of Robert Martin, a poor but respectable farmer because she feels that Mr Martin is beneath Harriet. This angers Mr Knightley, who is Emma’s friend and biggest critic, who asks her to stop interfering.

When Mr Elton proposes to Emma, she is disgusted and refuses. She repents for misleading Harriet and promises to never interfere. Mr Elton, like the leech he is, goes and marries someone who is at his social level. The new Mrs Elton is rude, mannerless and shows how money cannot buy class. 

There are two characters, which are important to the flow of the story, Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill. Jane Fairfax is the niece of Miss Bates, a poor but chatty and friendly woman, whose mother Mrs Bates is Emma’s father’s friend. Jane is beautiful, well mannered, and elegant, the only woman who Emma is jealous of. Frank Churchill is the son of Mr Weston, who lives with his aunt. Frank Churchill is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax, and to keep this engagement secret, he flirts with Emma. Emma flirts back, but she isn’t much attached to him. In any case, when Frank Churchill saves Harriet from a bunch of gypsies, Emma thinks that he and Harriet are meant to be.

The Eltons continually snub Harriet for her low birth. When Mr Elton specifically refuses to dance with Harriet on one occasion, Mr Knightley, ever the gentleman, stands up to dance with her. Mr Elton considers himself gentility, while Mr Knightley shows what a true gentleman is like. This one incident, shows the difference between class and class. 

When Emma unknowingly insults Miss Bates for her tiresome chatter, Mr Knightley scolds her, saying that Miss Bates’ situation alone should bring about pity from Emma, whose behavior is looked up to by the others. Such words coming from Mr Knightley, who is one of the richest men in Highbury, shows that he is one of Austen’s true heroes.

As much as this book plays with the themes of class distinction and marriage, in the end, all the marriages are within their classes. Harriet Smith and Robert Martin form the lowest rung, Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill above them, and our heroine Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightley at the top. Which makes us wonder, had these people fallen in love outside their respective classes, would the marriages have taken place? I want to say yes.

Emma’s high birth and wealth gives her independence to do as she wants. She is respected by her neighbors and looked up to. She might have gotten carried away sometimes, but Mr Knightley acted as her grounding force. Emma wanted to be unmarried forever, till Harriet told her that she was in love with Mr Knightley. This shocked Emma, who realized she was in love with Mr Knightley and wanted him for herself. True love exists, folks.

This heartwarming story is deeper than you think.