Story summary
Emma summary
A clever young woman who is sure she knows how everyone in her village should fall in love has to learn that she has been looking in the wrong places, including at her own heart.
Emma is set in the village of Highbury in Regency England. Emma Woodhouse is the lady of Hartfield, living with her anxious father, and her governess has just married and moved half a mile away. Having taken credit for that match, Emma decides she has a talent for matchmaking and takes a sweet young boarder, Harriet Smith, as her project.
It is a gentle comedy of manners about meddling, misunderstandings and growing up. It is full of dinners, balls, picnics, secret engagements and village gossip, and it centers on the friendship between Emma and the plain-speaking Mr. Knightley. Readers who like warm, witty stories about well-meaning mistakes, and a love story that sneaks up on its heroine, will enjoy it.
Main characters
The plot
Spoilers from here on, including the ending.
A match made at Hartfield
Emma and her father, Mr. Woodhouse, are missing Miss Taylor, who has just married Mr. Weston. Emma insists she made the match herself, and Mr. Knightley teases her that it was only a lucky guess. She announces that she will make one more match, for the young vicar, Mr. Elton. Mr. Knightley tells her not to meddle.
Harriet, Mr. Martin and Mr. Elton
Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a pretty and impressionable boarder at Mrs. Goddard's school, and talks her out of her fondness for the farmer Robert Martin. When Martin proposes, Emma steers Harriet into refusing him. Mr. Knightley is furious when he finds out. Emma paints Harriet's portrait and encourages Mr. Elton's attentions, and a riddle left in Harriet's album convinces her that he is in love.
A Christmas Eve disaster
At the Christmas Eve dinner at Randalls, Harriet is home with a cold. In the carriage ride home, Mr. Elton declares his love to Emma, not Harriet, and sneers at the idea of marrying beneath him. Emma sees how blind she has been. She breaks the news to Harriet, and Mr. Elton leaves for Bath, soon returning engaged to the boastful Augusta Hawkins.
Newcomers and secrets
Jane Fairfax, the accomplished niece of Miss Bates, comes to stay, and Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston's charming son, finally visits. Emma flirts with Frank and decides to suspect a romantic mystery around a pianoforte sent to Jane. At the Crown Inn ball, Mr. Elton snubs Harriet, and Mr. Knightley asks her to dance. Knightley also notices the secret signals between Frank and Jane, but Emma will not listen.
Box Hill
After a strawberry party at Donwell Abbey, the group goes on a picnic to Box Hill. When Frank demands that everyone say something clever, Emma makes a thoughtless joke at Miss Bates's expense. Mr. Knightley tells her privately that it was badly done. Emma weeps all the way home and visits Miss Bates the next morning to make amends.
The truth comes out
Mrs. Churchill dies, and Mrs. Weston tells Emma that Frank and Jane have been secretly engaged since Weymouth. Emma is surprised but unhurt. Then Harriet says the man she loves is Mr. Knightley, and Emma suddenly realizes she loves him herself. When Knightley returns from London, he tells her he has loved her for years, and she accepts. Because Emma will not leave her father, he agrees to live at Hartfield. Robert Martin proposes to Harriet again, and she says yes. Both couples marry in Highbury Church, and Emma is cured of matchmaking.
Themes
- Meddling and self-knowledge
- Emma is sure she can read other people, but she is wrong about nearly every match she tries to make, including her own feelings. The story is about learning that other people have hearts of their own, and that seeing clearly starts with seeing yourself.
- Class and true worth
- Emma first treats Robert Martin as beneath Harriet because he is a farmer, while the vicar who sneers at Harriet is the one who behaves badly. Mr. Knightley, and the ending, put character and kindness above rank.
- Kindness and humility
- Emma's worst moment is a careless joke at Miss Bates's expense, and her best is the apology that follows. The story treats small kindnesses, like Knightley asking Harriet to dance, as the real measure of a person.
- Friendship that becomes love
- Emma and Mr. Knightley quarrel, tease and rely on each other for years before they see what they mean to one another. Their romance grows out of honesty and shared history, not from a sudden spark.
Questions about Emma
- How does Emma end?
- Emma and Mr. Knightley marry, and he moves into Hartfield so she can stay with her father. Harriet marries Robert Martin, and Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax are reconciled with Emma.
- Does Emma end up with Mr. Knightley?
- Yes. After Harriet reveals her feelings for him, Emma realizes she loves him. When he returns from London and proposes, she accepts.
- When and where is Emma set?
- It is set in the village of Highbury during the Regency period, with scenes at Hartfield, Randalls, Donwell Abbey, the Crown Inn and Box Hill, and mentions of London and Bath.
- Why is Emma's matchmaking a problem?
- She pushes Harriet to refuse a good man and to hope for a man who never cared for her. Her scheming hurts the people she is trying to help.
- What is Frank Churchill's secret in Emma?
- He is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. He flirts with Emma to hide it, and the truth comes out after his aunt, Mrs. Churchill, dies.