Emma Part VII

When Mr Knightley hears of Frank's engagement to Jane, he is angry and upset, and rushes to see Emma. He fears that she had feelings for Frank and that this news will hurt her. She tells him that she never cared for Frank. Knightley proposes to her. He tells her that although he is many years her senior and saw himself as much older and wiser, he has always loved her and is sorry now for lecturing her as he often did. Emma has realised that she loves Knightley for some time and is happy at his proposal. But she feels she cannot leave her beloved father. He is old and always afraid of change in his life. She feels they must wait a little while to tell the old man and that perhaps she will have to wait till he is gone to marry. Then, Mr Knightley tells her that he has some news about Harriet. He had been friendly with Harriet of late. He made an effort to get to know her, to see if she might re consider her feelings for Robert Martin. He tells her that he encouraged Robert to propose again. This time, Harrriet accepted him, after all her various romances of the previous year. Emma is amused by Harriet's being so persuadable, and realises that she should have married Robert when he first asked. She tells Knightley that she is glad that her protegee has now found a man who is decent, respectable and in love with her, and she will be safe and happy. Mrs Weston has her baby, a daughter, Anna. Mr Knightley tells Emma he would be willing to live at Hartfield with her, as long as she is needed to care for her father. Mr Woodhouse is not entirely happy but he worries about being alone. He is fond of Mr Knightley, and there has been a rash of chicken stealing which alarms him. So he consents to the marriage. Frank takes Jane to Yorkshire, to his home. Harriet marries Mr Martin. Emma then marries Knightley and he moves from his home to Hartfield. Jane Austen later told her family that Mr Woodhouse lived for 2 years after Emma's marriage. Emma is one of the sunniest of Austen's books. The 3 couples seem genuinely happy at the end, and the Westons have their little girl.

Emma VI

Mr Knightley is furious with Emma over her joke and she is ashamed of herself. She decides to go and see Jane and Miss Bates the following day, but Jane won't see her. She blames herself for being unkind, and is ashamed that Mr Knightley whom she now realises she loves, blames her too. She resolves to try and look after her father. She fears that Knightley has grown fond of Harriet Smith or Jane Fairfax, and that she will be left alone more and more, as Mrs Weston is pregnant and she will soon be preoccupied with her baby. She is sad and depressed. She learns that Jane has been offered a good job through Mrs Elton, but she is aware that she has never been the friend to Jane that she should have been. Frank gets called to Richmond to his aunt who is apparently sicker. Then a few days later, Emma gets a message from the Westons to go and see them, and hears astonishing news. Mrs Churchill who was always thought of as a spoiled hypochondriac, had become seriously ill and died suddenly. Now, Frank tells his father and stepmother that he was secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax for some time. With his aunt gone, he can make his engagment public. His uncle is a quiet gentle man and not likely to raise objections. Emma is shocked that he has deceived all his friends in Highbury, and flirted with her. Moreover, he had encouraged her to half believe that Jane was in love with her own friend's husband, as a cover for his secret romance with Jane. She forgives him but she is far from impressed by his behaviour. Frank comes back to Highbury to claim his bride. He apologises for the lies he told and Emma understands that they were in a very difficult position with his aunt being so hostile to the idea of his marrying a poor girl. But she also realises that Frank is not a very admirable character.

Emma V

The Churchills come south to Richmond, to stay because Mrs Churchill, a spoiled and demanding lady, has some health problems. Frank seems annoyed that he now has to stay in attendance on his aunt, but he pays visits to Highbury at times. He rescues Harriet from some gypsy children who are begging from her. She becomes infatuated with him. Emma organises a ball in the local inn, and dances with Mr Knightley there. Mr Elton snubs Harriet, and makes an excuse not to dance with her. Mr Knightley steps in and asks Harriet to dance. Emma is pleased by his kindness. She encourages Harriet's admiration for Frank but is more cautious than she was earlier. She still tries to befriend Jane Fairfax but Frank, who knew Jane at Weymouth on holiday, encourages her in a joky fantasy that perhaps Jane was in love with Mr Dixon, the husband of her friend, Miss Campbell. Emma finds herself joining making jokes about the notion that Jane might have feelings for her friend's husband. Mrs Elton annoys her, because she sees herself as the first lady in the village. She is much richer than the Eltons. She is not best pleased when Mrs Elton talks about organising a music society, and having parties. Emma believes that this is her role as the first lady. Mrs Elton tries to find a job for Jane Fairfax, who tells her she would rather find her own job. Mrs Elton suggests that they all for a picnic at a hill nearby. Emma feels a little resentful, but she goes with the Westons and Mr Knightly and Frank Churchill. She and Frank flirt, but Emma is uneasily aware that she is not really happy with the way her life is going at present. Then, she foolishly makes an unkind joke to Miss Bates, about her being silly and talkative and upsets the good lady very much.

Emma IV

Emma tries to cheer Harriet up, and is glad that Mr Elton has gone away. She feels uneasy about her mistake in believing that he was in love with Harriet, but she still wants to make matches. Mrs Weston is hoping for a visit from Frank Churchill, her step son, who has not yet come to Highbury to meet his father's new wife. He is the heir to the wealthy Churchills. His aunt is a very demanding woman who always seems to make it difficult for her adopted son to get away from home. Mr Knightley criticises Frank, saying it was his duty to pay a visit to his father's wife. He should be able to do it, no matter how difficult his aunt is. Emma has never met Frank but because she is fond of Mr Weston, she tends to think kindly of him. She sometimes fancies that if he were to come to Highbury, and seemed nice, she would consider marrying him. Emma tries to be friendly with Jane Fairfax but as always finds Jane is reserved and not willing to be more than polite. Then Mr Elton comes back from his visit to Bristol, with his new wife, Augusta. He has managed to marry a woman who has a comfortable fortune, but who is vulgar and pushy. Emma takes an instant dislike to her. Frank finally comes to visit his stepmother and Emma finds him charming and likable. The Westons say nothing but they are clearly hopeful that he might propose to her.. Still, they know that Emma has always said she would never marry and she would not leave her father.

Emma III

Emma quarrels with Mr Knightley. She feels that Harriet is a lovely girl and sure to be the daughter of a noble family. She should be able to aspire to a better marriage than marrying a farmer in a country village. She has settled in her mind that Harriet should marry Mr Elton, the new vicar who is handsome and charming, and quite genteel, though his family were in trade. Harriet is prepared to fall in love with Elton, because Emma is encouraging her. Mr Elton visits Hartfield often and seems taken with Harriet. At Christmas, soon after the Westons' wedding, Emma's sister and her family come to stay and Mr Knightley visits to see his brother's children. He and Emma make up their quarrel. Then just before Christmas day, Mr Elton attends a party at the Westons' house, has a little too much wine and makes a proposal to Emma. She is horrified. He tells her that he never thought of Harriet, and she is well below him on the social scale. Emma is furious that he should think of her as a possible bride when the Woodhouses are so much higher in rank than him. She turns him down firmly. Elton goes away from Highbury for a holiday, and Emma has to tell Harriet that they were mistaken and he is not in love with her at all. Harriet takes it badly and is very upset. Jane Fairfax, the niece of the Bates ladies, comes for a visit. Her aunt is Miss Bates, the talkative but kindly spinster lady who lives in a small flat in Highbury, and is quite poor. Her father was the Vicar, who died many years ago. Jane's parents died when she was a baby and she was adopted by Colonel Campbell. He was her father's friend, and he took her into his home and treated her as a daughter. However, Jane has no fortune. Col Campbell has one daughter and he only has a modest fortune which will have to go to his own child.. Jane has planned to become a governess now that she is old enough. Emma has never really liked her, as Jane, while pleasant, is so accomplished and well educated that she makes Emma feel inferior.

Emma II

Mr Knightley is 16 years older than Emma, and he is one of the few people who is critical of her, who can see her faults. She is silly at times and arrogant, and although she is intelligent, she is fickle in her pursuit of learning. Emma feels lost without her governess, and is pleased when she meets a young girl who seems suitable to be a friend to her. Harriet Smith is the illegitimate daughter of "somebody" and lives at a local school, belonging to Mrs Goddard. Mrs Goddard is a friend of the Woodhouses. Harriet is 17 and has just left off schooling. She has become a "parlour boarder" which means she lives with Mrs Goddard and joins her going about socially. Mrs Goddard asks if she can bring her to Hartfield, the Woodhouse home. Emma takes a liking to her as she is sweet, pretty and malleable. She can see that Harriet is not clever but she convinces herself that she is a suitable friend and protegee. She likes to think about matchmaking and she begins to plan to get her friend married off. She learns from Harriet that she has just spent 2 months visiting one of her school friends who lives nearby. The girl, Elizabeth Martin, is from a gentleman farmer's family. They are the Martins who rent Abbey Mill farm from Mr Knightley. Emma looks down on farmers, even ones who are favoured by Mr Knightley. She encourages Harriet to move away from the Martins' society and to look higher for her friends. Harriet is easily influenced, and wants to please Emma. But she then receives a proposal of marriage from Robert Martin, the farmer. She is attracted to Robert but she asks Emma's advice. Emma subtly dissuades her from accepting his offer. Mr Knightley finds out that Robert has been proposing to Harriet and then hears that Harriet turned him down. He is angry with Emma, who admits that she knew about it and that she thinks her friend can marry better. He tells her that Harriet is a silly girl, even if she is pretty and good natured. She has no legal family, and noone knows anything about her people other than that she is illegitimate. For her, a marriage to a respectable intelligent gentleman farmer will give her a secure home and family and she will be much happier than trying to rise higher in society.

Emma

Emma is perhaps Austen's most sunny novel. It is one of the works of her maturity, and I think it is the only one where the herone is well off, compared with the hero. Emma is handsome and rich, and clever, and she is the spoiled younger daughter of a wealthy doting father. She is an heiress, living near to a fictional village called Highbury, which is quite near to London. Emma keeps house for her father, who is a lot older than her and who is constantly worried about his own health and that of all his friends. At the beginning, her governess-chaperone, Miss Anne Taylor, has just married a local squire, Mr Weston. Emma is rather depressed. Miss Taylor was her friend for years and while she loves her father, he is not intelligent. He is not much company for her. Miss Taylor is a mature lady. She has worked for Emma's family since Emma was a child. She fell in love with Mr Weston who owns a small estate nearby. Mr Weston had been married as a young man, to a young lady from a wealthy family. He has a son who lives with his mother's family, the Churchills. When Mrs Weston died, they took care of the child and treated him as their son. Frank has not spent much time with his father, who was busy making his fortune... Emma at 21 claims that she will never marry, but she is lonely now that Miss Taylor has gone. Their other neighbour is Mr Knightley, who owns a large estate, Donwell, and whose brother John is a lawyer who lives in London. He is married to Isabella, Emma's sister. He visits the Woodhouses often..