Mrs. Elton Character Traits

A big nose, crooked teeth, and a comically skinny head are all things ten year old me hadn’t even thought were that different from anyone else. Until a stranger in a mall drew me a picture of these things about myself. The artist that drew that picture exaggerated many of my physical features much like Jane Austen created Mrs. Elton to exaggerate many of Emma’s personality traits in her novel titled Emma. Mrs. Elton is a caricature of Emma, which is shown in the way she portrays herself with her actions and personality. Emma is controlling but Ms. Elton reflects that tenfold. Mrs. Elton’s “great fancy to Jane Fairfax” (Austen 242) is similar to Emma’s obsession with Harriet earlier in the novel. Mrs. Elton believes Jane to be “absolutely charming” and to have “very extraordinary talents” (242). She wants Emma and herself to save her from her “[suffering] to remain unknown” (242). She is consumed with the idea of her being able to fix Jane, much like Emma wanted to

Elton’s actions are ignorant and even somewhat annoying to the reader. She has bad manners, such as her constant use of improper names like “Knightley” and “Mr. E” (239), even though they are in a higher class than Mrs. Elton. Although a biased source, Emma quickly judges her to be a vain and self-satisfied, much like how Emma was described at the beginning of the novel by the narrator. Mrs. Elton attempts to be superior, but many of the characters agree with Emma because of Mrs. Elton’s “manners which had been formed in a bad school [and] drawn from one set of people” (213). She acts as though she has been raised in high society but in reality the only reason she has her money is because of her sister who married rich. Her attempt at portraying herself as wealthy is ruined when she is impressed by Mrs. Weston’s and Mr. Knightley’s manners. Emma always takes their manners for granted and to her, it seems obvious that their manners would be perfect because they are members of a high society