Emma Allusion Quotes

“There does seem to be a something in the air of Hartfield which gives love exactly the right direction, and sends it into the very channel where it ought to flow. The course of true love never did run smooth – A Hartfield edition of Shakespeare would have a long note on that passage.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 9. Austen’s admiration for Shakespeare can be seen throughout her works. Here Emma speaks of Hartfield as a place where love always flows in the right direction. Her mind is on the match she is encouraging between Harriet and Mr. Elton, whom Emma mistakenly believes loves Harriet. Adding to the irony is the reference to the line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream about true love never running smoothly. For Harriet and Mr. Elton the course of true love will run anything but smoothly.

Jane Fairfax was an orphan, the only child of Mrs. Bates’s youngest daughter. The marriage of Lieut. Fairfax, of the – regiment of infantry, and Miss Jane Bates, had had its day of fame and pleasure, hope and interest; but nothing now remained of it, save the melancholy remembrance of him dying in action abroad – of his widow sinking under consumption and grief soon afterwards – and this girl.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 20. In the backstory of Jane Fairfax’s family, we learn that her military father died abroad and her mother soon after succumbed to consumption and grief. This would have left young Jane in poor financial circumstances, highlighting the difficulties faced then of women with no wealth. There is an allusion to the Napoleonic Wars, in which Jane’s father was killed in action fighting for his country.

“She is playing Robin Adair at this moment – his favourite.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 28. When Frank Churchill remarks to Emma about Jane playing his favorite Irish melody on the piano, he refers to himself in the third person. But Emma misinterprets this as meaning Mr. Dixon, because she thinks he and Jane are romantically connected. Emma is barking up the wrong tree, however, as will be apparent when Jane’s secret engagement to Frank is later revealed. This revelation is foreshadowed here.

“When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something – Offices for the sale – not quite of human flesh – but of human intellect.”
“Oh! my dear, human flesh! You quite shock me; if you mean a fling at the slave-trade, I assure you Mr. Suckling was always rather a friend to the abolition.”
“I did not mean, I was not thinking of the slave-trade,” replied Jane; “governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely different certainly as to the guilt of those who carry it on; but as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 35. When Mrs. Elton pushes Jane about finding employment as a governess, Jane resists her and says she is not ready for a job yet. In fact she compares being a governess to the slave trade, except it involves the sale of human intellect instead of flesh. Austen’s allusion to slavery and Jane’s bitterness reflect the precarious positions of financially dependent people like Jane and also governesses. The latter had to work long hours for low pay and were sometimes treated poorly by the families who took them on. Emma was published in 1815 and is set in the years 1813-1814. It was only after many failed attempts that the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1807. However, enslaved labor continued to be used throughout the Empire for many years. The abolition of enslavement in the Empire was not wholly achieved until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

“He was apt to be in despair, and exclaim that he was sure at this rate it would be May before Hymen’s saffron robe would be put on for us.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 36. Mrs. Elton alludes to a line from John Milton’s pastoral poem L’Allegro. The line is: “There let Hymen oft appear In Saffron robe.” Hymen was the Greek God of marriage. Mrs. Elton is speaking about the time Mr. Elton was courting her and he despaired that things were moving too slowly for him towards marriage.

When he was again in their company, he could not help remembering what he had seen; nor could he avoid observations which, unless it were like Cowper and his fire at twilight, “Myself creating what I saw,” brought him yet stronger suspicion of there being a something of private liking, of private understanding even, between Frank Churchill and Jane.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 41. Mr. Knightley thinks that he has seen signs of a private intrigue going on between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax. He has observed them swopping looks and glances at a dinner party. However, he is not sure if it was just his imagination at work, like the poet William Cowper in front of his fire seeing images in it – “Myself creating what I saw.” This is an allusion to line 290 from Cowper’s long blank verse poem, The Task. The later revelation that Frank and Jane have been secretly engaged is foreshadowed here.

“That’s quite unnecessary; I see Jane every day: – but as you like. It is to be a morning scheme, you know, Knightley; quite a simple thing. I shall wear a large bonnet, and bring one of my little baskets hanging on my arm. Here, – probably this basket with pink ribbon.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 42. Mrs. Elton is speaking here, as she plans a summer outing to Donwell Abbey and what she will wear. Austen sneakily and cleverly inserts a hidden allusion to the Shakespeare play, As You Like It, into the dialogue of the pretentious Mrs. Elton.

“If a woman can ever be excused for thinking only of herself, it is in a situation like Jane Fairfax’s. – Of such, one may almost say, that ‘the world is not their’s, nor the world’s law.'”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 46. Emma makes this comment about Jane Fairfax’s behavior on learning of her secret engagement to Frank Churchill. As Emma expresses understanding and admiration for Jane, she references a line from Romeo and Juliet. It refers to the world and its laws being stacked against the apothecary and preventing him escaping poverty. With Frank a wealthy man and Jane having no fortune of her own, Jane will now have financial security. Reflected here are the limited options available to women with no wealth in Austen’s England. The quote also reveals a significant shift in Emma’s perception of Jane. In the past she tended to Judge Jane and view her with a mixture of dislike and jealousy. This is an important step in Jane’s personal growth and maturing as a woman.

“I will promise to call you once by your Christian name. I do not say when, but perhaps you may guess where; – in the building in which N. takes M. for better, for worse.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 53. When Mr. Knightley asks Emma to call him by his first name George, she promises to do it at their wedding ceremony. In what Emma says, there are allusions to the marriage ceremony in England’s Book of Common Prayer. It reads, “I N. take thee M. to my wedded husband…for better for worse.”
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