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$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of Jane Austen
Character Analyses}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Austen, Jane}
$Affiliation{Instructor Of English, Rutgers University}
$Subject{emma
mrs
emma's
jane
harriet
knightley
elton
frank
herself
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$Date{}
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Title:       Works of Jane Austen
Book:        Emma
Author:      Austen, Jane
Critic:      Fitzpatrick, William J.
Affiliation: Instructor Of English, Rutgers University

Character Analyses

Emma Woodhouse:

     "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" (I). "The real evils indeed of Emma's situation were
the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think
a little too well of herself. The danger, however, was at present so
unperceived, that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her" (I).

     The very opening of the novel sums up Emma's character and indicates
that her environment has placed too much power in her immature hands. She is
the mistress of her simple father's household and far the superior of her
married sister in beauty and wit; she is flattered by an indulgent friend
(her former governess, Mrs. Weston) and is the dominant personage in Highbury
society. Lacking thus a firm hand to put her in her proper place, to call down
her vanity, Emma must therefore learn through the bitter experience of trial
and error: in a sense, the novel is the story of the completion of her
education.

     Emma's egotism - as well as her blindness - is most ironically indicated
by her resolve never to marry: "And I am not only, not going to be married,
at present, but have very little intention of ever marrying at all" (X). The
picture of a young, blooming, healthy girl of twenty (V) resolving never to
marry reveals her ludicrous lack of realism about herself (as anyone can see,
she has to marry) and her refusal to give of herself generously, to commit
herself to others, to participate in (rather than dominate) society, to
surrender part of her power to direct things and persons. In marriage she
could not be "so always first and always right" (X). Thus, we see that her
decision to remain single indicates a moral failing!

     Emma's false idea of herself - her exaggerated sense of her own
importance, her own infallibility - prevents her from correctly perceiving the
social reality outside of her. She deceives herself about others as well as
herself. And because her exaggeration of her own moral and social worth is
immoral, her treatment of others is immoral as well. She gets everything
wrong, and causes suffering to others and herself in the process. It is only
when she has paid for her mistakes with a good deal of emotional suffering -
when she appears to be in danger of losing the one thing that would bring her
true self-fulfillment -that she arrives at a clear perception of "her own
heart" (XLVII) and of the true order of happenings around her. Then, when she
denounces her own blindness, arrogance, vanity, misjudgment, madness, blunders
(XLVII), she is able to take the measure of the reality around her and assume
her proper role (a role both less and more than the one she has aspired to) in
society. The movement of Emma's psyche (and the novel is in good part the
moral psychology of Emma) is from vanity and egotism through the humiliation
of self-discovery to humility, clarity of judgment, and successful fulfillment
in marriage.

     While Emma's egotism is seen primarily in her resolve to remain single,
her improper attitude to others shows itself chiefly in two ways: in her
snobbery and her matchmaking. Emma claims to have arranged the match between
Mr. and Mrs. Weston (I); she takes complete charge of Harriet's social life;
she builds an imaginary life for Jane. The point to see here - as everywhere
in Jane Austen - is that Emma's treatment of others is an index of a failure
in self-understanding. Matchmaking gives Emma a sense of power ("One matter of
joy to me ... I made the match myself" [I].) Emma's real motive for her
"willful intimacy with Harriet Smith" (LIII) is revealed in the very fact of
Harriet's intellectual inferiority to her. Harriet offers Emma no challenge to
her supremacy, as an equal would; therefore, Emma is required to surrender
none of her social power: on the contrary, Harriet is "a valuable addition to
her privileges" (IV) The fact that Emma is arranging engagements for Harriet
instead of for herself is a foolish (and immoral) misdirection of her own
emotional energies. Emma is doubly insincere: she cannot summon the discipline
required for really "improving her little friend's mind" (IX). Emma's fanciful
construction of Jane Fairfax's hidden life may be even more reprehensible, for
it may be provoked by envy of Jane's superiority at "playing and singing"
(XXVII), by a sense of rivalry with a person who is perhaps Emma's equal in
intelligence, education, and sensibility. Jane reminds Emma that - in the
words of Mr. Knightley - she has never been able to "submit to anything
requiring industry and patience and a subjection of the fancy to the
understanding" (V). Even when Emma appears to be indulging her natural
emotions in the relationship with Frank Churchill, she is using her own self
falsely, not really tapping her emotional reservoir. Emma's snobbery is seen
in her unjust treatment of Robert Martin and her dislike of the Coles. (For
more on Emma, see under Mrs. Elton.)

     Emma's redeeming quality is her inquisitive intelligence. She had begun
with a frank acknowledgment of her motive for remaining single (X). Events -
the effects of her blunders - together with the criticism of Mr. Knightley,
force her to scrutinize herself. She comes to an incomplete awareness after
the hilarious scene in the coach with the inebriated Mr. Elton (XV, XVI). This
awareness grows intermittently until she looks truth in the face in Chapter
XLVII: "With common sense, I am afraid I have had little to do." (Some of the
principal occasions on which Emma examines herself are in XVI, XX, XXVII,
XXXI, XLIII, XLIV, XLV, XLVII, XLVIII, XLIX.) When Emma finally decides to
accept her deserved (because self-inflicted) fate -the loss of Mr. Knightley
to Harriet -and resolves that she shall henceforth be "more rational, more
acquainted with herself" (XLVIII), she has completed her spiritual education,
purged herself of the unnatural enlargement of ego, come of age morally, and
is ready to take her proper place in society. And because Jane Austen is
writing a comedy - that is, a story of success - Emma is able to achieve her
fulfillment.

     Of course, though Emma's faults are emphasized throughout the book, she
is by no means a moral monster. It is just because she has a sense of
right, a profound desire to be guided by unselfish principles, that Emma is
able to respond to Mr. Knightley's numerous rebukes, is able (as she does
frequently in the novel) to rebuke herself (for her behavior to Jane Fairfax,
her treatment of Harriet). Unlike Mrs. Elton, who is incapable of learning
from experience, Emma has the moral resources to experience a kind of
spiritual rebirth under the impetus of self-knowledge. Thus, we can say that
the problem for Emma is to acknowledge the truth about herself, so that she
can be herself. One of the lessons Jane Austen teaches us is that there is an
identity between self-fulfillment and virtue. This is what her heroines strive
to achieve. Those characters who do not (e.g., the Eltons) are shown to be
warped and ridiculous.

     Emma lives at Hartfield in Highbury, in Surry. She is the heiress of
thirty thousand pounds (XVII).

George Knightley:

     "A sensible man about seven or eight-and-thirty, was not only a very old
and intimate friend of the family, but particularly connected with it as the
elder brother of Isabella's husband" (I).

     Mr. Knightley has three functions: he is Emma's critic and moral tutor;
he is an exemplar or standard of right judgment and good conduct; he undergoes
an analogous movement of self-discovery.

     Mr. Knightley is "one of the few people who could see faults in Emma
Woodhouse": "Emma knows I never flatter her" (I). Mr. Knightley speaks the
truth and he is always (with one exception) right. He is the only person
capable of rebuking Emma and making her examine her conscience. He criticizes
her matchmaking at the outset, points out the incongruity of her associating
with Harriet Smith and of her ambitious plans for Harriet's marriage (VIII),
disagrees with Emma about Frank Churchill (XVIII), criticizes her for a lack
of discipline and industry, chastizes her for her neglect of Jane Fairfax
(XXXIII) and her insult to Miss Bates (XLIII), warns Emma of an attachment
between Jane and Frank Churchill, and, in general, helps to coax and browbeat
her into honest behavior. He thus helps the reader to see Emma's faults for
what they are.

     Mr. Knightley is not only right about Emma; he is invariably right in his
judgments of persons and events. His sketch of Harriet Smith (VIII) contrasts
with the illusion Emma is creating. Because he is not blinded by egotism or
vanity, he is able to detect a bond between Frank and Jane, and he can see
the merit in Robert Martin. Because he is secure in his own social identity,
he is free of the snobbery which characterizes the Eltons and, occasionally,
Emma. Emma cannot count on him to put the Coles in their place (XXIV), and he
is happy to rescue Harriet from the humiliation that Mr. and Mrs. Elton would
inflict on her (XXXVIII). He is at ease on all social levels. In George
Knightley, the social graces and the social virtues join. "You might not see
one in a hundred with gentleman so plainly written" (IV). His treatment of
Mrs. and Miss Bates is a model of "unostentatious kindness" (XXVI). In his
judgment of Frank Churchill (XVIII and elsewhere), we see a mature sense of
duty and honor. And Mr. Knightley will never substitute flattery for the hard
truth. Significantly, it is he who quite firmly puts Mrs. Elton in her place,
where a less mature man might have compromised his self-esteem by letting
Mrs. Elton take over his party (XLII). Always ready to do "anything really
good-natured, useful, considerate, or benevolent" (XXVI), Mr. Knightley is
the moral center of the book.

     And yet he is a flesh-and-blood man, in love with Emma, and Frank
Churchill's rival for her affections. The only time Mr. Knightley is proved
wrong is when he understands Emma to be in love with Frank Churchill (XLIX).
He was misled as were the Westons by Emma's flirtation with Frank at Box Hill.
Although he has known Emma since she was a child, he, too, has to "become
acquainted with his own heart": under the pressure of what appeared to be
rivalry for Emma's love, he comes to acknowledge the nature of his own
feelings for her: "He had been in love with Emma, and jealous of Frank
Churchill, from about the same period, one sentiment having probably
enlightened him as to the other" (XLIX). (See Question 3 below.)

     Finally, in his relationship with Emma we see a model of true friendship:
he always has her interests in mind, and never flatters her or uses her as
Mrs. Elton uses Jane and Emma, Harriet.

Frank Churchill:

     Mr. Weston's son by his first wife was adopted by his mother's family
after she died. He took the name of Churchill when Mr. and Mrs. Churchill made
him their heir. Although he has never come to visit his father and is quite
late in paying his respects to his father's new wife, Frank takes after his
father in his extreme sociability, in his marrying a governess (at least, Jane
is about to become a governess), and in a certain superficiality of temper.

     Though Mr. Knightley's judgment of Frank is rather bitter (XVIII) because
he resents Emma's interest in him, it is nonetheless essentially sound. Frank
has neglected his father and Mrs. Weston (the reader will recall that he does
not find the time to come to Highbury to visit his father until Jane Fairfax
arrives). He has used his sick aunt as an excuse. Furthermore, he made his
fiancee suffer the humiliation of a secret engagement. He encourages Emma to
criticize Jane (XXIV, XXVI). His rather adolescent (he is twenty-three)
remarks about Jane's beauty in Chapter LIV embarrass her and remind Emma of
how superior Mr. Knightley is to him. Although he writes a long letter of
apology for his conduct, he never reveals the depth and maturity of feeling
we see so often in Mr. Knightley and, eventually, in Emma.

     Frank is united to the central themes by his eventual revelation of the
truth about himself and by his living an illusion rather than a reality.
However, he and Jane have chosen to deceive others. (His self-deception
perhaps consists in not fully realizing the extreme unfairness of what he has
persuaded Jane to do.) "His object was to blind all about him" (XLIX). He has
built "a system of hypocrisy and deceit-espionage and treachery . . . To come
. . . [among them] with professions of openness and simplicity" (XLVI).

     Frank is almost totally lacking in seriousness. His temporary attraction
for Emma is an indication of her lack of self-knowledge.

Jane Fairfax:

     Jane comes to Highbury to visit her grandmother and aunt, Mrs. and Miss
Bates. She has been brought up and given an excellent education by Colonel and
Mrs. Campbell (XX). She has had "every advantage of discipline and culture."
Having had the benefit of London society, Jane is "very elegant, remarkably
elegant. Her height was pretty . . . her figure particularly graceful . . . a
style of beauty in which elegance was the reigning character."

     Jane's accomplishments make her the logical companion for Emma. And no
one can doubt that it is because Emma has not wished to cultivate the
friendship that Jane is not more often present at Hartfield. Like Frank, Jane
consents to live a lie. Just as Emma suffers the humiliation of self-scrutiny,
Jane suffers the pain of acknowledging her deceit. She seems to be more aware
of the unfairness of the conspiracy than Frank is. Her sensitivity and
strength of character are revealed in her decision to break the engagement
after Frank publicly flirts with Emma at Box Hill (XLIII) and in her
preparation to assume the career of governess to which her lack of fortune
would condemn her. Emma considers her difficult position in life (i.e., her
lack of fortune) as perhaps explaining her agreement to the humiliation of a
secret engagement.

Mrs. Philip Elton (nee Augusta Hawkins):

     "There was no elegance - ease, but not elegance . . . Mrs. Elton was a
vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of her
own importance; . . . she meant to shine and be very superior, but with
manners which had been formed in a bad school, pert and familiar; all her
notions were drawn from one set of people, and one style of living; . . . if
not foolish she was ignorant (XXXII).

     Emma is able to characterize Mrs. Elton perfectly (see also XXII). But
Emma is unable to see that Mrs. Elton is only doing (in her own vulgar way)
what Emma herself is doing. Mrs. Elton is a snob and refuses to have anything
to do with Harriet Smith, in fact encourages her husband to humiliate Harriet
by refusing to dance with her at the Crown Inn (XXXVIII). But Emma's treatment
of Miss Bates at Box Hill (where she alludes to her habit of silly chatter) is
even worse because of Miss Bates' age and condition. And Emma's snobbish
dismissal of Mr. Martin as not being good enough for Harriet (i.e., not good
enough for an associate of Emma's) matches in affectation - if not in
vulgarity - Mrs. Elton's phony airs. Mrs. Elton's attempt to play the queen of
Highbury society is only a parody of Emma's imperious rule. Although Emma is
highly insulted by Mrs. Elton's offer to introduce her into Bath society and
is shocked at the way that she tries to hurry Jane into taking a job with
friends of her sister's family, her own management of Harriet's life is no
less presumptuous. Emma's unkindness to Jane, especially in spreading gossip
about her to Frank Churchill, is surely as malicious as anything Mrs. Elton
does. At times, Emma, too, is "self-important, presuming, familiar, ignorant,
and ill bred" (Emma on Mrs. Elton, XXXIII)). But whereas Emma has a basic
honesty which permits her to gain an insight into her own arrogance and
littleness, Augusta never is able to see that talk of the Sucklings, Bath,
Bristol, Maple Grove, and Selina's Barouche-Landau is no substitute for
genuine cultivation and good manners. Her last comment in the novel is a
criticism of Emma's wedding (LV).

     Mrs. Elton has ten thousand pounds. She is the youngest of two daughters
of a Bristol merchant. She talks almost as much as Miss Bates.

Mr. Philip Elton:

     Mr. Elton is the Vicar of Highbury. His essential small-mindedness is
revealed in his treatment of Harriet at the dance at the Crown Inn (XXXVIII).
When he proposes marriage to Emma (XVI), she "thought nothing of his
attachment, and was insulted by his hopes. He wanted to marry well, and having
the arrogance to raise his eyes to her, pretended to be in love . . . There
had been no real affection either in his language or manners. He only wanted
to aggrandize and enrich himself and if Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the
heiress of thirty thousand pounds were not quite so easily obtained as he had
fancied, he would soon try for Miss Somebodyelse with thirty or with ten"
(XVI). A few weeks later he is engaged to Augusta Hawkins, whom he met while
vacationing at Bath.

Harriet Smith:

     "She is the natural daughter of nobody knows whom . . . parlour-boarder
at (Mrs. Goddard's) school. She is not a sensible girl, nor a girl of any
information. She has been taught nothing useful, and is too young and too
simple to have acquired any thing herself. At her age (seventeen) she can have
no experience, and with her little wit, is not very likely ever to have any
that can avail her. She is pretty and she is good tempered, and that is all"
(VIII). But later (XXXVIII) Mr. Knightley modifies his judgment: "Harriet
Smith has some first rate qualities, which Mrs. Elton is totally without. An
unpretending, single-minded, artless girl -infinitely to be preferred by any
man of sense and taste to such a woman as Mrs. Elton."

     Harriet "was not clever, but she had a sweet, docile, grateful
disposition . . . only desiring to be guided by any one she looked up to"
(IV). Harriet is emotionally, as well as intellectually, shallow: she manages
to be in love with three quite different men in one year: Robert Martin, Mr.
Elton, Mr. Knightley, Robert Martin (one more time). She is indecisive,
flighty, and sentimental. Her saving mementos of Mr. Elton (a piece of court
plaster, the end of an old pencil) is childish and silly (XL).

     Her lack of will (the good side of which is "unpretentiousness") permits
Emma to rule and almost ruin her life (VIII). She lacks the perception to see
that Emma is, merely using her. Emma's real opinion of Harriet is strikingly
revealed when riding home in tears after Mr. Knightley's rebuke for the insult
to Miss Bates, she considers herself as good as alone: "There was only
Harriet" (XLIII). Later, in the clarity of her new perception, Emma is happy
to exclude her friend from Hartfield (LI). She sees that Harriet would be
"rather a dead weight than otherwise." "The friendship must change into a
calmer sort of goodwill" (LV). Emma's conjecture that Harriet's father is of
gentle birth turns out to be another of her mistakes. Robert Martin discovers
that her father is just a merchant. Harriet and Emma have nothing in common.
There is absolutely no equality, and where there is no equality there can be
no genuine friendship. Emma's cultivation of Harriet is bad for both of them.
Harriet, who had been "totally free from conceit" (IV), grows, under Emma's
perverse tutelage, into a vain creature who thinks that "I may deserve him
[Mr. Knightley]; and if he does choose me, it will not be any thing so very
wonderful" (XLVII). (This provokes one of the most honest and dramatic
revelations in the book: Emma thinks, "Oh God! that I had never seen her!") As
in Emma's case, the pressure of events forces Harriet to see that she has been
"presumptuous, and silly, and self-deceived" (LV) -that is, she has repeated
the delusion, conceit, and errors of her "guide." ("Harriet's hopes had been
entirely groundless, a mistake, a delusion, as complete a delusion as any of
her own" [XLIX].)

Miss Hetty Bates:

     "I am a talker, you know; I am rather a talker; and now and then I have
let a thing escape me which I should not" (XLI). "Nobody is afraid of her:
that is a great charm" (X).

     Miss Bates is almost obsequiously deferential. After the death of her
father, sister (mother of Jane), and brother-in-law (Lt. Fairfax), she has
suffered a decline in fortune. This is the reason Mr. Knightley is so angry at
Emma for alluding to her dull conversation (XLIII): "You, whom she had known
from an infant, whom she had seen grow up from a period when her notice was an
honor." She is the object of Mr. Knightley's and the Woodhouses' charitable
gifts of food and society. Although Miss Bates seldom completes a sentence,
she does function as a very useful informer; and thereby advances the plot.
For example, it is she who mentions Mr. Dixon's quick action in keeping Jane
from falling in the water at Weymouth (XIX - see also XXXVIII). The reader who
skips over her speeches, therefore, will miss a certain amount of useful
information.

Mrs. Weston (nee Ann Taylor):

     Before she married Mr. Weston, she was Emma's indulgent governess and
friend. Her easy temper and good sense and manners make her a fit companion
for Emma and Mr. Knightley. It is ironic (though plausible) to hear her (a
governess) say of her foster son's engagement to a would-be governess, "It is
not a connection to gratify " (XLVI). She proves to be almost as bad a
matchmaker as Emma: both her guesses (Mr. Knightley and Jane Fairfax, Frank
and Emma) prove false.

Mr. Weston:

     "A native of Highbury, and born of a respectable family, which for the
last two or three generations had been rising into gentility and property
. . . He had an active cheerful mind and social temper" (II).

     He had married Miss Churchill of Enscombe while a captain in the army.
His wife died after three years of marriage. His son was then adopted by his
aunt and uncle. Mr. Weston's chief traits is his sociability. Lacking any
very strong convictions, he is able to get along with everybody. He is
especially easy on his son Frank, who has neglected his father for many
years. It is no doubt from his father that Frank gets his flightiness and
social instinct. Emma has more than one occasion to criticize Mr. Weston's
excessive open-heartedness. "To be the favourite and intimate of a man who had
so many intimates and confidantes, was not the very first distinction in the
scale of vanity. She liked his open manners, but a little less of
open-heartedness would have made him a higher character. General benevolence,
but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be" (XXX). And Emma
is angry at his thoughtless initiative in joining Mrs. Elton's group to her
own for the outing to Box Hill (XLII).

John Knightley:

     "Mr. John Knightley was a tall, gentleman-like, and very clever man;
rising in his profession, domestic, and respectable in his private character;
but with reserved manners which prevented his being generally pleasing; and
capable of being sometimes out of humour. He was not an ill-tempered man, not
so often unreasonably cross as to deserve such a reproach; but his temper
was not his great perfection; and, indeed, with such a worshipping wife, it
was hardly possible that any natural defects in it should not be increased
. . . He had all the clearness and quickness of mind which she wanted, and
he could sometimes act an ungracious, or say a severe thing. He was not a
great favorite with his fair sister-in-law . . . Perhaps she might have passed
over more had his manners been flattering to Isabella's sister . . . that
greatest fault in her eyes which he sometimes fell into, the want of
respectful forbearance to her father" (XI).

     John Knightley is the only person who is rather abrupt with Mr. Woodhouse
(XII). His comments on the danger of the snow help to diminish everyone's
pleasure on the visit to the Westons (XIII-XIV). He cannot see the point in
spending "five dull hours in another man's house." And yet, he is a Knightley.
He perceives that Mr. Elton is really interested in Emma (XIII).

Mrs. John Knightley (Isabella):

     The mother of five children, Isabella is a "worshipping wife." Emma is
not overly fond of Isabella's husband. "Nothing wrong in him escaped her. She
was quick in feeling little injuries to Isabella, which Isabella never felt
herself" (XI). Isabella passes her life with "those she doated on, full of
their merits, blind to their faults, and always innocently busy . . . a model
of right feminine happiness" (XVII). Lacking Emma's quickness of mind,
Isabella is her father's daughter - always sensitive to the remotest threats
to health (XII). In Isabella's marriage, we get a glimpse of what a real
marriage, is like.

Henry Woodhouse:

     "A nervous man easily depressed; fond of everybody that he was used to,
and hating to part with them; hating change of every kind . . . for having
been a valetudinarian all his life, without activity of mind or body, he was
a much older man in ways than in years; and though everywhere beloved for the
friendliness of his heart and his amiable temper, his talents could not have
recommended hit at any time" (I).

     Mr. Woodhouse's relatively harmless egotism ("his habits of gentle
selfishness" [I]) has a comic quality. His only purpose in life seems to be
to keep out of drafts and in over-heated rooms. He is really a big baby. It is
hard to believe that this dull spirit, who can talk of nothing but health, is
the father of Emma. Mr. Woodhouse is an enemy of marriage. He insists on
calling Mrs. Weston "poor Miss Taylor" for having let herself be taken away
from Hartfield in marriage. Indeed, Emma's devotion to his simpleton almost
prevents her marriage in the end to Mr. Knightley (LV).

Robert Martin:

     Mr. Martin is a reliable farmer of common sense, whose only folly is to
fall in love with Harriet Smith. He never appears directly in the novel,
though his presence is felt in a number of scenes. His letter of proposal to
Harriet is so well-mannered and sensible that Emma regrets the "necessity" of
keeping Harriet from him. Mr. Knightley's approval of him is a severe
indictment of the foolish snobbery of Emma's notion that he is not good
enough for Harriet. Harriet is in fact barely worthy of him. Robert Martin
lives at Abbey-Mill Farm with his mother and two sisters.

Mr. And Mrs. Cole:

     The Coles were "settled some years in Highbury, and were very good sort
of people - friendly, liberal, and unpretending; but,on the other hand, they
were of low origin, in trade, and only moderately genteel . . . The last
year or two had brought them a considerable increase of means. They added
to their house, to their servants, to their expenses of every sort; and by
this time were, in fortune and style of living, second only to the family
at Hartfield" (XXIV).

     It is probably this last fact which especially annoys Emma. The Coles
are seen as a social threat to the family at Hartfield. Emma wishes to put
them in their place - to refuse their invitation and thus remind them that
Emma Woodhouse of Hartfield and a very distinguished family is still far
above them. But it is Emma who learns a lesson instead. Mr. Knightley and
the Westons are delighted to accept an invitation, and Emma is at last happy
to receive her own (XXV). The Coles thus play a small part in the chastisement
of Emma's snobbery.

Colonel And Mrs. Campbell:

     This couple raised and educated their dead friend's orphan daughter
(Jane Fairfax). Their unselfish devotion to Jane's well-being parallels Mrs.
Weston's and Mr. Knightley's devotion to Emma. They have one daughter who is
married to Mr. Dixon and who is the heir of her father's twelve thousand
pounds.

Mr. And Mrs. Churchill:

     Their importance in the novel consists in providing Frank Churchill,
their nephew and adopted heir, with a motive for his secret engagement to
Jane. When Mrs. Churchill conveniently dies, Mr. Churchill offers no
obstacle to Frank's marrying a person of no distinguished "connections."

Mr. Dixon:

     The husband of the Campbell's daughter provides Emma with the opportunity
to speculate maliciously that he and Jane Fairfax are in love (Emma assumes
that the piano Jane receives is from him) and that he married Miss Campbell
only "for the sake of the future twelve thousand pounds" (XX).

Mrs. Bates:

     Jane's grandmother (and the mother of the talkative Miss Bates) is
virtually deaf. She is the widow of the Reverend Mr. Bates, who had been
Vicar of Highbury.

Mrs. Goddard:

     "Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of . . . a real, honest, old-fashioned
Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at
a reasonable price, and where girls might be sent to be out of the way and
scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming
back prodigies" (III). Harriet boards at Mrs. Goddard's.

Mr. And Mrs. Suckling:

     Mrs. Elton's sister and brother-in-law live at Maple Grove, near Bristol.
Augusta Elton considers Selina and Mr. Suckling the models of gracious living.
She is forever trying to impress her hearers in Highbury with talk of Maple
Grove and the Suckling's barouche landau (an elegant carriage).

William Larkins:

     Mr. Knightley's steward, who runs his estate.

Donwell Abbey:

     Mr. Knightley's estate, not far from Hartfield and Highbury.

Mr. Perry:

     Highbury's apothecary, a natural friend of Mr. Woodhouse's.

Mrs. Smallridge:

     Jane almost goes to work as a governess of Mrs. Smallridge's children.
Mrs. Elton had obtained the appointment (XLIV).

The Tupmans:

A family from the neighborhood of Maple Grove. Mrs. Elton (whose own very near
origins are "in trade") complains about their low connections (XXXVI).