Examples Of Vulnerability To Error In Jane Austen's Emma

Jennifer Flippin

Mr. Nantz

English IV

30 March 2017

Emma’s Vulnerability to Error.

Emma by Jane Austen is usually stereotyped as a novel of manners involving a young girl who has been fortunate enough to have little to vex her, and who allegedly has a forte for matchmaking those around her not realizing the mistakes she is making along the way seeing as she is not really helping anyone so much as hurting them and herself. Although, “A more adequate answer might be that Emma is about the process by which Emma Woodhouse, motivated by love of power and pride in her own intellectual and social superiority meddles arrogantly and ignorantly in the affairs of various people both in her circle and out of it, at the risk of their happiness and ultimately

her own, until a series of humiliations reveals her as mistaken” (Lauber 1987). Emma follows the journey of Emma Woodhouse as she matures and advances to understanding those around her. Emma's vulnerability to error can be attributed to her inexperience in human sympathy because she has been continuously sheltered her whole life and not given a sense of reality.
Throughout the book we continuously hear about Emma Woodhouse and how perfect her life is seeing as she is “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition” (Austen 3). Emma’s life seems to be wonderful seeing as she has been sheltered and brought up privileged at the top of her society’s hierarchy. “Her father and governess have raised Emma with great affection and equal indulgence. Restraint and authority have been close to absent from her experience, and she has, within this atmosphere of tenderness, permissiveness and admiration, grown up “doing just what she liked; highly esteeming Miss Taylor’s judgement, but direction chiefly by her own.” (Austen xvii). Emma was never reprimanded for her actions or decisions because no one ever felt it was their place to do so. While this seems like a good thing in hindsight, it is ultimately bad because it led to Emma being vulnerable to error seeing as her situation involved her having “the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too much of herself.” (Austen 3). Since Emma had so much power and never got to experience failure firsthand she is now shocked when things suddenly don’t end up the way she wanted them to. Emma remains vulnerable to anything going wrong as she never experienced mistakes firsthand.
Emma is implied throughout the book to be “basically deficient in human sympathy, categorizing people as second or third rank in Highbury or analyzing them to display her own wit” (Laurence). Emma doesn’t value people unless she knows she can get something out of them almost for her own pleasure or enjoyment. “Vain, egotistical, overbearing, Emma seems almost too flawed to be a proper heroine. As if realizing this, she tries instead to create a heroine of her own, Harriet” (Lauber 1987), Emma knows that she wouldn’t be satisfied with just herself and instead likes to take up matchmaking others to pass the time. Emma chose Harriet as a victim and tried to morph her into something she was not so Emma could gain enjoyment and feel better about herself, turning this girl into essentially a doll that Emma could do whatever she pleases with. Emma claimed she was “helping” this girl because she felt bad for her and genuinely wanted to help her get married and recognized as a high member of society but instead Emma chose to lack sympathy and change Harriet into someone unrecognizable. For instance, when she told Harriet she couldn’t marry Mr. Martin because he was beneath her, or when she tried to change Harriet’s mind and make her fall for Mr.Elton who Harriet was tricked into wanting. There is no sympathy shown by Emma for any of the wrongdoings she has knowingly caused as she chooses to avoid them and not feel remorse because she is deficient in feeling anything she thinks is beneath her to feel.
Eventually Emma gets absorbed into reality where things do not go her way and after many mishaps she grows and becomes sympathetic and aware of others.

Emma, who had hated Jane since the day she arrived because Jane "tires [her] to death," (Austen 78), actually felt an ounce of sympathy towards her at one point. “She begins to develop in sensitivity, however, as she experiences her own humiliations. While still disliking Jane, she is capable of entering into her feelings and granting a moment of privacy” (Laurence 1989). Granting privacy towards someone is a huge step for Emma because it means she is actually taking into accounts someone else’s feelings and showing respect towards that person for having them, rather than finding fault in them or simply not caring at all. Besides Jane she also shows sympathy for Harriet after finding out things had gone wrong with Mr. Elton, the man Emma essentially forced Harriet to love. Emma felt bad about this and knows Harriet must have felt lachrymose about the situation because she was led to believe things would work out between them and that it they did work out it would finally make Emma respect her as an equal. Later on in the novel when Harriet becomes convinced of Mr. Knightley’s love for her, Emma cuts herself off from him, and chooses to put aside her comfort in the situation and let Mr. Knightley think for himself. Emma seems willing to “suffer anything, endure any “cost” if it helps him to overcome the terrible state of indecision that she imagines him to be in because, as she believes, he is so reluctant to inflict the pain on her that the revelation about himself and Harriet will incur,the pain of his final turning away from her,and of her final loss of him” (Austen lxxvii). Emma is showing awareness for how Mr. Knightley feels which is something that might not have been felt towards him during the beginning of the book when Emma was too focused on herself to realize her true feelings for others. The

readers begin to sympathize and admire Emma as she begins to learn the correct way to treat and respect others.
“The course of Emma is Miss Woodhouse's education in judgement, a process achieved through repeated mistakes and humiliation” (Magill 122). Emma is remarked as a stuck up girl who is set in her ways refusing to face the facts and accept her mistakes and faults, yet throughout her constant downfalls in this novel, “she begins to develop in sensitivity, however, as she experiences her own humiliations” (Laurence 1989). Her vulnerability to error can be attributed to her inexperience in human sympathy because she was sheltered her whole life unaware of her actions and their consequences affecting others surrounding her. Emma, while not Austen’s most famous work, is still a work that will be remembered for years to come because it shows the journey of Emma who like most teenage girls is realizing the world does not revolve around her and that people can change even if it takes them time and several consequences to see.

Work Cited
Austen, Jane, and Stephen Marcus. Emma. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print.

Lauber, John. Jane Austen. New York: Twayne Publ., 1993. Print.

Laurence W. Mazzeno ., and Magill, Frank N. Masterplots. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Pasadena, CA: Salem,
1996. Print.

Magill, Frank N. Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 1. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem, 1983.
Print.