Hi, Emma fans. Alas, yes, this post is almost a week later than I promised, and I also read only half as much! What can I say? Life has been too medical around here (nothing life-threatening or picturesque, just time-consuming.) Plus, I underestimated my Emma Resistance Level.
Also, I underestimated the length of the book—I figured with 55 chapters, we’d better keep moving, but I forgot how long they are, so we’re now doing 5 chapters/week until roughly Easter. So, yes, if you’re just now joining us, grab a copy of Emma and snark away in the comments!
Chapters 1–5: The Exposition. In which we meet most of the main characters. Emma adopts the beautiful but dim Harriet Smith as her friend project, and is concerned that Harriet’s crush is beneath her.
- I can’t get over the first few lines. Jane, you want us to hate Emma, don’t you? You are deliberately setting her up to be unsympathetic—I see where this is going!
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
- Interesting that Emma’s mom died “too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct remembrance of her caresses.” Apparently that did not distress or vex her?—or maybe it was too common to be a big deal? In the recent BBC version (Romola Garai) they did this emotional intro about all the kids losing their mothers. Clearly trying to thwart Miss Austen’s plans for how we view Emma.
- I know I’ve got to get past the first page, but Jane makes this big thing about Emma being sad over Miss Taylor’s marriage, and I can’t decide if we’re supposed to think she’s being selfish or what? Or just has complex emotions like a normal person!
- Oh Mr. Woodhouse! I do love Mr. Woodhouse! I do love that I don’t have to live with him, because I’d go crazy. I’m remembering now how much chitchat there is in this book—how vividly Jane gets people talking on and on about the most trivial things. (That never happens in real life of course.)
- Jane really has Views on schools, doesn’t she? “not any thing which professed, in long sentences of refined nonsense, to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality upon new principles and new systems…” She doesn’t usually get this worked up, does she? (BTW, I work in education, and unfortunately this is still very pertinent!)
- And so it begins—the Harriet Smith trauma. Ouch ouch ouch, this gets so hard to read! I do love how Harriet is struck Mr. Martin’s birthday being “just a fortnight and a day’s difference! which is very odd!” 😉 Poor little Harriet!
- Also, I am always struck by “the real good-will of a mind delighted with its own ideas.” When you are happy, you do more good in the world. Very true, I think, but so debated!
- Emma attacks Mr. Martin for having no “air,” not being “genteel,” and compares the air and manners of the other men in the book. I’ve read this a dozen times, but I realized I don’t really know quite what this means! I certainly can’t put it into words. Can anyone explain what she means by this? We know it isn’t that Mr. Martin is rude…
- And then, when Mr. Knightley says, “I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good.” Ooh, the first time I read that, I was so mad! (I had never been in love myself, and was always in control.) Now I don’t know what I think. It still seems kind of callous—the sort of thing that’s easy to joke about, but hard to experience yourself… I don’t know.
What did you think of Chapters 1–5?
I am not looking forward to Chapters 6–10 (AKA Emma the Manipulative B-word), but I promise to forge ahead!
austenacious 
I can tell this read-along is going to be fun! Re: Emma’s attitude towards Miss Taylor’s marriage, which she was so keen to bring about but now that it’s happened she’s really sad about it, I think you’re right that we’re meant to think she’s selfish but also that she herself recognises that she’s being selfish. After all, she knows that in the long run Mrs Weston will be very happy, but that doesn’t change the fact that Emma has lost a maternal figure of whom she really does have a lot of happy memories (unlike her actual mother). I think it’s right that her emotions are a bit tangled up, especially when you consider that this is the first major thing that has happened to ‘distress or vex her’ (aside from possibly Isabella’s marriage – I wonder if this is why Emma doesn’t want to get married herself). Emma is very resistant to change, and I think the opening lines capture the reasons why perfectly; she thinks she has everything she wants, so from her perspective she has not much to gain and everything to lose.
As for Mr Knightley’s remark, I agree that it is a bit mean. I think the problem is that Emma’s privileged position has insulated her completely from all the hard knocks that other people have to experience and that are usually ‘character building’. Essentially, he wants Emma to grow up a bit and have some empathy for the people whose lives she is meddling in, but it’s hard to wish that on someone without also implying that they deserve to be unhappy. Not to spoil the rest of the novel for everyone, but also: foreshadowing ahoy!
A final note on Mr Martin: is it just a class thing? Emma certainly seems predisposed to dislike him just because he’s a farmer and therefore outside her social sphere. I always got the impression that Mr Martin is a good guy who’s just a bit rough around the edges, in contrast with Mr Elton who is much more ‘refined’ but also not half as sincere. Perhaps Emma is mistaking affectation for gentility?
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I’d never gotten very far with Emma before this, so thanks because I’m having loads of fun this time around! The snark is awesome! I threw on the Kate Beckinsale version last night for kicks. My 13 year old daughter watched the first bit and decided Emma was so mean, she couldn’t watch any more!
I’m looking forward to seeing how Austen improves her main character. Emma is dreadful in these first few chapters, especially regarding Robert Martin. “So very clownish.” Unbelievable! Reading Austen’s description of him, it’s impossible to figure out how anyone could find fault with the poor guy. I think Sophie is absolutely right- it’s just a class thing with Emma. Emma’s feelings about Robert Martin smack so much of Caroline Bingley’s feelings about Elizabeth Bennet (although their motives are different). Because Martin’s a farmer, he can’t possibly be genteel, and because Lizzie’s hem is six inches deep in mud, she’s not fit to associate with Caroline’s set.
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I think Mr. Woodhouse is far worse than Emma! She is sad to have lost the companionship of someone who’s been part of her daily life since she was a child, but at least she recognizes the marriage as being a happy thing for her friend. Her father, on the other hand, thinks it is a terrible tragedy, just like the marriage of Emma’s sister, because it takes her away from him. It’s ALL about him!
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Yes! I think this is why I like Emma despite her flaws, because although she has those selfish feelings she is able to put them aside for the sake of someone she loves. A truly self-absorbed person, like Mr Woodhouse (whom I love dearly, but you’re right, he is also terrible) would be unable to separate the reality of the situation from its effect on him.
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This has to be the fifth time I’ve read “Emma”, and during every reading it becomes easier to see Jane Austen’s intent. She does want us to recognize that Emma’s character does NOT unite the best blessings of life. She only SEEMS to. Jane intends for us to recognize how much Emma deceives herself in every situation throughout the novel because of her–not selfishness, but self-centeredness (which really are different). As other commenters have noted, she is entirely insulated from the rest of the world, aside from those directly within her social set, so she has very little experience of the broader world. Yet she truly believes that she alone knows what is best for everyone else with whom she comes in contact. But even when her well-intended plans for others come to fruition, e.g. Miss Taylor, she’s not completely satisfied because the event is a detriment to her personally. Naturally, she would regret the daily loss of the person who fills her mother’s place (rather than being what one would really expect of a governess), but I think it weighs more heavily with Emma because Miss Taylor was really like a fond older sister or best friend who never found fault with Emma and never expected her to improve her character or mind. Miss Taylor, like Mr. Woodhouse, was far too indulgent. Mr. Knightly says it all when he confirms that Miss Taylor couldn’t have counted on him for a good recommendation to another family and that she is best suited as a wife. Jane intends us to recognize that Miss Taylor certainly didn’t help Emma overcome her self-centered leanings and can’t be counted on to steer Emma down a less strong-willed path that wouldn’t tamper with other people’s happiness.
Moreover, Emma thinks extremely highly of her own position in society and takes every opportunity presented to accept anything that can be construed as a compliment towards herself. She despises Robert Martin as being too far beneath her social level to even acknowledge his very real claims to respect. But because she has chosen to make a pet of Harriet, she chooses to believe that Harriet’s illegitimacy is irrelevant to her social standing because she is well-supported and therefore must be the daughter of a gentleman (or at least someone wealthy enough and kind enough to overlook the problem of her existence). And of course, because Harriet now associates with Miss Woodhouse, she must be far above a mere farmer. Emma is so self-willed that she believes her patronage makes an illegitimate young woman, beautiful but with no family or fortune, worthy of marrying the vicar!
And then, Emma puts down Mr. Elton’s proposals to herself because she believes him to be reaching too high in aspiring to marry her. So Emma is not just ignorant, willful, and self-centered, she’s also a hypochrite.
She despises Miss Bates because she is poor, not only because she is silly and talks too much, when as the daughter of Highbury’s former vicar, Miss Bates deserves far more respect. Emma says herself that though she will never marry, and will therefore become an old maid in the eyes of the world, she will be wealthy and will always be respectable because of her wealth. Poor old maids are always silly and contemptible. It’s not Emma’s actions or character that will keep her respectable: it’s her money.
I’m getting ahead of the chapters 1-5 here, but she believes Frank Churchill to be very much in love with her because, naturally, he would be. She’s Miss Woodhouse, she’s handsome, clever, and rich, and who wouldn’t be in love with her? She doesn’t recognize what’s going on under her eyes between Frank and Jane Fairfax, because she dislikes Jane and believes Frank when he professes to dislike her, as well, and yet is constantly finding ways to be in Jane’s company. Emma believes what she wants to believe at every moment, and believes everyone either agrees with her or isn’t as wise and clear-sighted as she is (at 21).
While Mr. Knightly’s wish of seeing Emma in love and in doubt of a return seems a little mean-spirited, it’s really in her best interest. It would be a character-building experience, because she would be forced to consider whether she might be lacking in some way that would prevent the object of her affection from reciprocating–which (getting ahead again here) is exactly what happens in the end. But then we see just how short-lived her uncertainty about herself is. It’s amazing how resilient she is, after receiving so many proofs of her foolishness and ignorance. She bounces right back.
I love this novel, but I dislike Emma as a person. She just blunders through her social circle like a bull in a china shop.
Sorry for the very long post!
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I still love Emma. I’ve always found her incredibly relatable in her obvious human flaws. (Or maybe I’m a bit of a stuck up brat and just didn’t realize it?) The scene with her and her father each lonely in their different ways just makes me truly feel for her. Emma is now truly alone intellectually in her house. For years she’s had Miss Taylor to support at least some part of an intelligent conversation, to help her comfort her needy-but-precious father in all of the little things that upset his nerves, to tell her she’s right (because as you read, you’ll notice that Emma really craves the approbation of others).
As for Mr. Knightley’s rather harsh comment, I never found it that harsh. It’s not only well-meant, but well-worded so as not to be too harsh. He says “in doubt of some return,” not “with no hope of return.” The doubt would be character-building enough. There’s no need to wish her into a situation of unrequited love.
Emma’s dislike of Robert Martina’s air, I think, is supposed to be utter nonsense. It means nothing at all. Emma has decided that he is below Harriet and now must have something to base it on.
Finally, I’d just like to say that most of Emma’s trouble comes from an overactive imagination. She professes perfect happiness at her situation and life, but I think she really finds it too boring. She must invent interesting stories for the mundane life around her.
While you took your time reading the first 5 chapters, I’m already halfway done with the book! Once I start in on Emma, I just can’t stop.
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