Emma door Jane Austen

Author : Jane Austin
Title : Emma
Publisher : Penguin English Library
1st edition : 1816
pages : 451

First reaction :

I chose this literary work because I had to read a novel which was written before the year 1930. And a friend recommend me this book to read. He said it was a nice book to read.
It was a confusing story because there were so many people in the story. I wrote down all the important persons so I could understand the story better. Sometimes the language was quiet difficult, but I liked the book. It was a nice story to read. And it was very detailed !

Summary

Emma woodhouse is the beautiful daughter of Mr. Woodhouse. They live on the country-seat Hartfield in a town called Highbury. Suddenly Miss Taylor leaves the house and everyone is sad. She was the governess of Emma and they had a strong relationship with each other.
Emma wants to have a new friend. This girl named Harriet Smith is a beautiful girl from the lower parts of the community and Emma wants to help her. She suggests that Harriet should not spend time with the Martins, a local family of farmers whose son, Robert, is interested in Harriet. Instead, Emma wants to match Harriet and Mr. Elton, the vicar of the church in Highbury. Emma seems to have success trying to bring Harriet Smith and Mr. Elton together.
Robert Martin , has asked Harriet to marry him but Emma tells her not to do that because he is a farmer, a “normal” person. Mr. Knightley is very mad when he hears that Harriet has done what Emma told her to do, because he thinks Harriet and Robert would be a great couple.
There is a party of the Westons for he members of Highbury society. Harriet cannot join the party because she is ill. Mr. Elton tells Emma that he loves her on there way home in a carriage. Emma says she doesn’t love Mr. Elton. Emma told Harriet what happened that night and Harriet becomes really sad. Mr. Elton, leaves Highbury for a stay in Bath.
Mr. Elton returns from Bath with a new wife, Miss Augusta Hawkins. Harriet Smith is disappointed.
Emma is interested in Frank Churchill. They are spending time togehter. And Emma thinks she is in love with him. Mr. Knightly becomes jealous and Emma becomes jealous when she thinks that Mr. Knightly is in love with Jane Fairfax. Jane Fairfax is a beauiful, intelligent girl. She is the cousin of Miss Bates ( an old friend of the Woudhouses ). Emma likes to gossip about Jane because she is the one who can get also the “good”men.
There is organised a dance by Emma and Frank Churchill. After the ball, Harriet and her friends were “attacked” by a group, Frank Churchill saves Harriet. This is a reason for Emma to match Harriet and Frank, because she is not in love anymore with Frank. Harriet tells Emma that she has feelings for Frank.
It is a big shock when Emma hears that Mrs. Churchill died.
Frank tells that he has been secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. Mr. Knightly begins to show that he is interested in Emma, but when she wants to tell the bad news to Harriet Smith about Frank Churchill's engagement, Emma sees that Harriet had fallen in love with Mr. Knightly. Emma now realizes that she ( emma ) is the only one who should marry Mr. Knightly.
Mr. Knightly soon tells Emma that he is in love with her, and they plan to marry. But there are two bad things that are going to happen if she would marry with Mr. Knightly. She would have to leave her father and she must tell the news to Harriet. And Harriet will dislike the news. Emma and Mr. Knightly decided that he will move to Hartfield, because Mr. Woodhouse cannot be alone. Harriet hears the news she doesn’t like it but later on she becomes angaged with Robert and she is in love. Emma was wrong, she didn’t knew who belong together.The book concludes the marriages of Robert Martin and Harriet Smith, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, and between Mr. Knightly and Emma Woodhouse.

The way of writing was old-fashioned. It was difficult to read, because sometimes the sentence structure or the words were different but if I read the pages very carefully it was good to understand. The novel containes 55 chapters.
The story takes place in a small town in England, Highbury. Hartsfield is the most important place in the whole novel. I think the novel takes place in one year.

The characters :

Emma Woudhouse: Emma is the maincharacter of the book. She's a 20 year old, beautiful and intelligent girl. Emma lives with her father at Hartfield. She has a sister called Isabelle. Emma is a bit arrogant. She thinks that people who aren’t from the “upper class” are lower people then she is. She wants to match everyone. She wants to find the perfect partner.

Mr. Woodhouse: He is the father of Emma. He has a bad health. He doesn’t like it that Emma wants to match everyone he thinks it’s not good to do that.

Mr. Knightely: He is a good friend of Emma. He's 38 years old. His brother is married with
Emma's sister. He is very honest to Emma and he tells her what she was doing wrong, like telling Harriet that she mustn’t marry Robert because he is too common and to match people. That was wrong according to Mr Knightly

Mr. Elton: He is a young man. Emma wants to match him with Harriet but actually he is in love with Emma. Later he will marry another women.

Harriet Smith: She is a 17 year old girl. She becomes Emma’s best friend. She was on the Mrs. Goddard's school. She is also beautiful. She does everything Emma says she has to do. Like not to marry with Robert the farmer because he is just a normal person. She hasn’t got her own opinion.

Miss Bates: She's an older friend of the Woodhouses.

Frank Churchill: He is the son of Mr. Weston. A lot of women find him very attractive. At the end of the story he marries Jane Fairfax. For a short time he likes Emma to.

Jane Fairfax: A very pretty and intelligent young woman, like Emma. She's a cousin of Miss Bates. Emma likes gossiping about Jane.

The theme

I think the theme of this story is that you can’t predict your life. You must not plan your love- life or lifes of other people. You must be happy with who you are and not trying to be better then other people. Everyone is the same nobody is better then the otherone. And the love will come if it comes.
The link between the title and the theme is very clear. Emma is the person who tries to match everyone and she wants to control the love-lifes of other people and herself. At the end she finds out that you can’t control your life.

Judgement :

It was an interesting story. It was a historic novel about the nobility and about the love-lifes of a lot of different people. But all the different characters made it difficult for me. It was confusing because sometimes I didn’t knew which person was mend but I wrote down the most important characters so I could understand the story.
I think the book was long-winded. There are a lot of details prescribed and that made the story tedious. Like in the beginning there is a whole chapter written about Miss Taylor who’s leaving and how sad Emma and Mr. Woodhouse were. I think that could be a much shorter chapter.
I found the theme pretty interesting. The differences between classes of the community is much less nowadays then it was at that time, but the fact that people want to control love-lifes of other people and themselves is still happening.
I would not recommend this book to classmates because it is too long-winded and that made it very tedious. The theme is interesting but the book is too detailed. Altough I liked the story bu it could be much shorter.