Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hello everyone!

Currently, I am reading Emma. I am very curious about your views on this book. What do you think about Emma's personality? Some find her personality not likable, but I find her personality very interesting. I also find her father very funny! :)

I am very curious about your views! :)

Hello Sophie
I think Emma is not flawless,but lovable.She does wrong things then gets ashamed about what she has done(though she things she doesn’t have to be ashamed because of her social class!!)
She is proud but it didn’t make her unappealing to me.. I really enjoyed seeing her positive changes.
I love the way she cares about her family and also how she behaved after realizing she had done something wrong.

I have always struggled with Emma as a character or novel. it is instructive how she finds her way

Hello Sophie,

"Emma" is not only my favorite Austen book, but also one of my favorite books in general. Emma is definitely flawed but I do think she means well. Besides the Eltons, I love every single character in this book.

I actually wrote a blog post comparing Emma and Mr. Darcy. If you're interested in reading it, the link is below (but do not read it until you finish the book because it contains spoilers).

Emma is my favorite novel, and character in the Austen canon. She’s intelligent, but still learning how that intellect is to be used. Like most smart, vaguely mature young people, she often has the flaw of feeling grown up without questioning if she’s actually right in a given moment.

Just typing here makes me want to go back and read the book again.

After the last adaptation went to film, I wrote an article about Learning from Emma’s Errors which I’ll link below.



The reason I like Emma is because she’s the one I’m most prone to act like. Therefore I note where she’s is error even as I admire the virtues of her as a well written heroine.

I love Emma and she grows so much during the course of the book. She nearly always has good intentions. She does a lot of reflection and becomes much more self aware. I named my daughter Emma.

I can’t stand Emma, mostly because she reminds me of what I was like at her age. She does evolve somewhat but I feel she earns too much of a reward for too little reform. I’m the sort of person who would have found the book more enjoyable if Jane Fairfax had been the heroine. To complete my dislike, I am not fond of Mr. Knightley. He’s a model citizen, sure, but awfully judgy. All that said, I admire Emma the book for its cleverness and subtlety.

I feel she grows quite a bit. She really felt shame for her treatment of Miss Bates. She was truly sorry for her treatment of Miss Bates not just sorry she got caught.

While I believe Mr Knightly can be harsh, I think the most judgemental leading man is Ed Bertram. I do not think he practices the "Love Thy Neighbor" dictum at all. He disowns his own sister. While she is guilty of societal sins, she is still a human being. Character involves doing the right thing even when it is unpopular. Should a preacher practice love, forgiveness, and kindness? Or should he be casting stones? If you shun all sinners, who is left to sit in the pews?

I do like Jane Fairfax. I was like neither one at that age, though. Too unremarkable to be either.

soooo I just finished Emma but I think I never really got to like her as a character...? like one minute she's same old Emma and then she's like realizing how wrong she's been. I feel like it was almost rushed to me? like at the end I guess. Also I couldn't help but be at least be a little weirded out over Mr. Knightley saying he loved her sense she was like 13...and he would've been like 29...anyway I guess those are my first thoughts on the story but I would love to talk about it more, I actually really like Jane Fairfax throughout the story and I think she's one of my favorites in this book

I always like Jane, too. As for the age difference, I just have to go with it as something that was more accepted in the time, as with Marianne and Colonel Brandon. Yes I find it odd. I find the cousin marriage in Mansfield Park more problematic than the extreme age difference. Not just the cousin marriage, which is bad enough, but because the were raised as sibllings.

I have a terrible time with Emma myself because I was just such an arrogant snot at her age and I can’t forgive her until I forgive myself, which will be never. I also don’t think she and Mr. Knightley will be particularly good for each other—the mentor/pupil dynamic is too deeply ingrained in their relationship. I try to appreciate the book as a well-told mystery story but have never warmed to it. The movie Clueless is more endearing to me than the original!

I’m glad to hear you like Jane Fairfax, Beatrix; so do I, very much, and so I have a recommendation for your further reading. If you haven’t yet read Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons, you should! I believe the heroine of that story, Emma Watson, was the original version of Jane Fairfax, but Austen for various reasons was uncomfortable with her at the center of the story so she moved her to a secondary position when she wrote Emma. In general, the connections between the two works are interesting. The Watsons is probably my favorite Austen, and it’s a source of heartbreak to me that she never completed it.

oh wow thanks! I've only heard of the Watsons but I don't know much about it but after I finish the main novels I'll check it out (I'm reading Northanger Abby already) I honestly really enjoyed Jane as a character, more than Emma and probably most of the the other characters.
she was sweet and sensible and had a strong mind but I loved how she was also reserved and didn't like telling ALL her business lol. I like how she got a happy ending with Frank Churchill, after everything I'm glad they can just enjoy their engagement

oh and you're totally right between the relationship with Emma and Mr. Knightley...I can't think about it without cringing, like she refers to him as her "brother" in the first half of the book because they're brother and sister in law and he was always like a mentor to her, and now all of a sudden it's like "oh I realize now I'm in love with him" and he's been in love with her for like, forever, which I don't really find romantic in this case

I look forward to hearing what you think about Emma Watson after you read the fragment! It’s a pretty quick read, BTW, only about 10 chapters� worth. It has one of the most adorable scenes in all of Austen, when our heroine saves a young boy from misery.

Beatrix, all the novels have to be reread to really understand. often a essay or even book about the novel is enlightening but maybe after the second reading.Exception is Northinger Abby which may need literary criticism to understand the hidden ideas in it. from my outlook on life marriages between cousins or the boy next door are good relationships . You really know you spouse and dont waste years learning their innermost character and they come from similar backrounds andoutlook,In my family there were and are several cousin marriages and I also know several boy next door or teenage friends who married .

not teenage marriage but couples who meet in Hs and married in their early 20s Believe me it is more romantic than First impression marriages like lets say Mr and Mrs Bennet or Sir Thomas and wife or the Woodhouses. the rare fast marriage that was good are the Crofts(who sadly had no children)

Mrs Benyishai, I understand some people have outlooks like that but to me that outlook is weird. Because in this particular book I find it weird because her sister married one of the Knightly brothers. I understand that back then in that time they would marry in the family. But when he confessed his love to her he said that he fell in love with her at the age of 13 and he was 29. But in this entire book she saw him as a mentor and a brotherly figure, only towards the end that's when we see her realizing that she sees him as a lover or potential husband. And the fact that he was 16 and holding her in his arms as a baby is a tad suspicious. Jane Austin books are a wonderful read but this particular "romance " felt weird because of the age gap and the rushed feelings. Yes books should always be re-read but with Emma it's the same feelings and thought process on how the readers feel about her. But then again everyone has their own opinions