Emma quotes Flashcards
Emma opening scene, Quote 2:
“seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence.”
importance of gentility in the opening line
“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition.”
Emma myopic view on marriage
“I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry”
When Mr Elton saw Emmas portrait of Harriet, he promptly says
“I cannot keep my eyes from it.”
Mr Elton confession to Emma
“I’ve never thought of Miss Smith in the whole course of my existence… if she has fancied otherwise, her own wishes have mislead her, and u am very sorry… Who can think if Miss Smith when Miss Woodhouse is near!”
Emma comments on the yeomanry
“are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I have nothing to do”
An education in empathy, By Keelindes Rosiers
We judge Emma for matchmaking, but in wanting Emma to transform in order to deserve Mr. Knightley, we too are making a match between transformed Emma and Knightley. Austen has intentionally made us hypocrites in order that we might realize that we must practice the very empathy we so longed for Emma to learn; we must see the novel Emma as Mr. Knightley sees the character Emma —“faultless in spite of her faults.”
Roger Sales critical analysis
The narrative trajectory explores the changing identity of the English nation, challenging the consensual acceptance of hierarchical social exclusiveness with the possibility of greater horizontal inclusivity.
Manners, Mobility, Class, and Connection in Austen’s Emma and Pride and Prejudice, Frances Koziar (2015)
Emma is reluctant to acknowledge virtue in the lower class, making an exception only for Harriet. Keymer explains that Emma “has no time for Knightley’s unsettling idea” (393) that Robert Martin might possess gentility because she does not want to face the unpleasant truth that the gap between herself and those below her is shrinking.
Stuart Tave views Mr. Knightley as the voice of reason, who corrects Emma’s mistakes of an overactive imagination (208).
Not only does Mr. Knightley use his rationality to judge Emma’s behaviour and seek to act as her moral guide, but in doing so he neglects to understand her emotional experiences. Through the dynamic between Mr. Knightley and Emma, Jane Austen shows the challenges of emotionally connecting with or sympathizing with people who are different from you.
Before Emma and Mr. Knightley can marry,
Mr. Knightley needs to abandon his attempts to be the impartial judge and objective moral guide of Emma and develop his sympathetic imagination to feel her emotions accurately, especially her loneliness and loss.
Mr Knightly as Emmas moral guide critics
Several critics argue that Mr. Knightley shaped Emma’s internalized “impartial spectator” (Smith 110), or her conscience, because his approbation or disapprobation of her behaviour becomes her guide for what is morally right.
Erik Erikson- theory of physical social development
Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.
According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self.
Emma in Erik Erikson’s theory of physical social development
After placing Emma in Erikson’s developmental stages, the study revealed that she did not really mature neither she realized her own identity. This paper proposed that Emma should not be classified as bildungsroman because the heroine distorted the real meaning of maturity and social integrity. The education of Emma plays a major role in shaping her character and in depicting her relations with other characters.
