Emma Woodhouse
Handsome, clever, and rich—and therefore free to err at leisure.
Realism & Victorian · Novel · 1815
Emma
Jane Austen
Emma Woodhouse manages other people’s love affairs and bungles her own seeing. The novel is a comedy of surplus imagination in a small place.
Comedy of manners
Characters
Mr. Knightley
The neighbor whose correction is a form of intimacy.
Harriet Smith
The protégée who reveals the politics of Emma’s kindness.
Themes
Misreading
Matchmaking is a fantasy of control over other interiors.
Class
Who may marry whom is the novel’s quiet law.
Motifs
Games that expose how people encrypt desire.
A parish small enough that every visit is plot.