Jane Austens Emma - Rebel or Conformist? Essay -- Austen Emma Essays

Emma - Rebel or Conformist? Near the town of Highbury, a village located in the eighteenth century English countryside, sits the realm of Hartfield where Emma Woodhouse resides with her health conscious father who finds fault with all of lifes necessities. When Emmas governess and close comrade, break loose Taylor, marries Mr. Weston, an affluent neighbor, and moves to his nearby estate, sociable Emma is forced to find herself a pertly companion. Harriet Smith, a naive teen who lives at Mrs. Goddards boarding school, though of a lower class due to her illegitimacy, seems desperately in need of Emmas heed and counsel. Sure that she was the cause of the perfect match between Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston, Emma is fit(p) to find an equally exceptional match for Harriet. The boylike rector, Mr. Elton, seems the perfect prognosis for a future husband, and Emma sets out to match her new friend with the young clergyman. The imaginative Emma views Mr. Elton as falling deeply in love with Harriet and greatly encourages Harriets feelings for him to inflame. When an old friend of Harriets, Robert Martin, who is equal to her in social status, sends her a spousal relationship proposal, Emma quickly discourages it and helps Harriet write the letter of refusal. Mr. Knightely, Emmas neighbor and close friend is greatly disappointed by this action and tells Emma that Harriet made a formidable fracture in refusing such an offer. Emma does not care for this response for in her eye Mr. Eltons feelings for Harriet are blossoming beautifully and are quickly being reciprocated. On the eve of a dinner held at the Westons estate, Harriet comes down with a crisp and Emma is disappointed in Mr. Eltons lack of sympathy for the invalid. The sno... ...y were so rigid of social system that a persons respectability was tarnished if they broke one of the standards. Emma Woodhouse tries to defy some of these codes, hardly finds that it is much easier to live up to the standards society determines. Works Cited and ConsultedAusten, Jane. Emma. Ed. Stephen M. Parrish. New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1993. Brown, Julia Prewitt. subtlety and the Contentment of Emma. Modern Critical Views Jane Austen. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 87-108. Johnson, Claudia L. Not at All What a Man Should Be Remaking English humanity in Emma. Equivocal Beings Politics, Gender, and Sentimentality in the 1790s. simoleons U of Chicago P, 1995. 191-203. Litz, A. Walton. Limits of Freedom Emma Emma. 1972. Norton Critical ed. New York, NY W.W. Norton & Company, 1993, 369-377