Emma Hyperbole Quotes

“Harriet’s claims to marry well are not so contemptible as you represent them. She is not a clever girl, but she has better sense than you are aware of, and does not deserve to have her understanding spoken of so slightingly. Waving that point, however, and supposing her to be, as you describe her, only pretty and good-natured, let me tell you, that in the degree she possesses them, they are not trivial recommendations to the world in general…Her good-nature, too, is not so very slight a claim, comprehending, as it does, real, thorough sweetness of temper and manner, a very humble opinion of herself, and a great readiness to be pleased with other people. I am very much mistaken if your sex in general would not think such beauty, and such temper, the highest claims a woman could possess.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Emma engages in a little hyperbole here when she claims that beauty and temper are the highest claims that a woman can have. She is trying to convince Mr. Knightley, and perhaps herself, that her friend Harriet who has these traits can marry into a good social class. Emma believes that Harriet can make a match with someone of higher social standing than Robert Martin, the farmer Harriet turned down, much to Mr. Knightley’s anger.

“I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. After Emma declares that she will never marry and a horrified Harriet asks if that means she will be an old maid, Emma makes this reply. It seems rather a harsh and disrespectful judgment on single women from the lower classes. But it echoes societal views at the time, that a wealthy single woman was seen as respectable, while a poor single woman was viewed as ridiculous. The quote reflects how a woman’s socioeconomic class and marital status greatly affected her likability and acceptability by society in England’s regency era. Austen uses hyperbole here in Emma’s observation of a poor single woman being a “ridiculous, disagreeable old maid.” Emma cannot help but display her pride and vanity over being a desirable member of the monied class who can afford not to marry.

“Every letter from her is read forty times over; her compliments to all friends go round and round again; and if she does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair of garters for her grandmother, one hears of nothing else for a month. I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires me to death.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. Emma uses hyperbolic language when talking about Jane Fairfax, her bitchy comments emphasizing her dislike of her. They come in response to Harriet asking Emma if she is acquainted with Miss Bates’s niece. This is the first time in the novel that Jane Fairfax is referenced.

She believed he had been drinking too much of Mr. Weston’s good wine, and felt sure that he would want to be talking nonsense. To restrain him as much as might be, by her own manners, she was immediately preparing to speak with exquisite calmness and gravity of the weather and the night; but…she found her subject cut up – her hand seized – her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her: availing himself of the precious opportunity, declaring sentiments which must be already well known, hoping – fearing – adoring – ready to die if she refused him.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 15. After the Westons’ dinner party, a horrified Emma finds herself alone with Mr. Elton in the carriage when he makes “violent love” to her hand. He declares that he will die if she refuses his proposal. Austen uses powerful hyperbolic language to add to the humorous tone and comedy of the scene. There is situational irony because Emma was expecting a conversation about the weather, but instead got Mr. Elton’s passionate proposal. Mr. Elton’s drunken behavior and dreadful lack of social etiquette when it comes to courting are satirized here.

Her objections to Mr. Knightley’s marrying did not in the least subside. She could see nothing but evil in it. It would be a great disappointment to Mr. John Knightley; consequently to Isabella. A real injury to the children – a most mortifying change, and material loss to them all; – a very great deduction from her father’s daily comfort – and, as to herself, she could not at all endure the idea of Jane Fairfax at Donwell Abbey. A Mrs. Knightley for them all to give way to! – No – Mr. Knightley must never marry. Little Henry must remain the heir of Donwell.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 26. This is Emma’s train of thought when she notices Mr. Knightley being “most attentive” to Jane Fairfax’s singing and piano playing. She thinks about Mrs. Weston’s suggestion of a match between Jane and Mr. Knightley and forcefully objects to it. She reaches for all kinds of reasons why the match is ill advised. But her hyperbolic dismissal of it as “nothing but evil” betrays her self-deception about her own feelings for Mr. Knightley. Her out of proportion and jealous reaction foreshadows her eventual realization that she is deeply in love with him.

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively, without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind; – but when a beginning is made – when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt – it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 29. Following the party at the Coles, Frank Churchill and Emma decide to work on planning a ball. In the opening words of this chapter Austen treats us to a hyperbolic and satirical description of balls. Austen adds humor and verbal irony as she playfully talks of young people being able to do without dancing for months without injury to their mind and body.

Emma’s eyes were instantly withdrawn; and she sat silently meditating, in a fixed attitude, for a few minutes. A few minutes were sufficient for making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like hers, once opening to suspicion, made rapid progress; she touched, she admitted, she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley than with Frank Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet’s having some hope of a return? It darted through her with the speed of an arrow that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 47. Here we have Emma’s awakening when she makes the surprising discovery that she is in love with Mr. Knightley. While she spends most of the story focused on matchmaking for other people, she is remarkably blind to her own desires and romantic feelings. It takes her friend Harriet’s declaration that she has feelings for Mr. Knightley and had hopes to him returning the affection to awaken Emma’s jealousy. It makes Emma realize that Mr. Knightley should marry no one but her. The sheer force and speed of the realization of her feelings for him is emphasized by the hyperbolic metaphor, “It darted through her with the speed of an arrow.” This major turning point in the story is an important moment in Emma’s journey of self-knowledge and growth as a person.

With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody’s feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everybody’s destiny. She was proved to have been universally mistaken; and she had not quite done nothing – for she had done mischief. She had brought evil on Harriet, on herself, and she too much feared, on Mr. Knightley.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 47. A self-aware Emma acknowledges that her vanity led her to meddling in other people’s lives and causing them harm with her misperceptions. She accepts how arrogant it was to think herself an expert on people’s feelings so she could arrange their destinies. In her moment of clarity, epiphany and self-discovery, she hyperbolically describes what she did to her friends as evil, her arrogance as unpardonable and vanity as insufferable.

While he spoke, Emma’s mind was most busy, and, with all the wonderful velocity of thought, had been able – and yet without losing a word – to catch and comprehend the exact truth of the whole; to see that Harriet’s hopes had been entirely groundless, a mistake, a delusion, as complete a delusion as any of her own – that Harriet was nothing; that she was every thing herself.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 49. Emma’s misperceptions about a love attachment between Mr. Knightley and Harriet are brought to a joyful conclusion, when she learns it is she and not Harriet he loves. Using hyperbolic language, she declares that Harriet is “nothing” and she is “every thing,” emphasizing that she is the one who has Knightley’s heart. The phrase “the wonderful velocity of thought,” has more hyperbole and personification, as Emma’s mind and thoughts acquire the quality of moving with great speed.

“She is a complete angel. Look at her. Is not she an angel in every gesture? Observe the turn of her throat. Observe her eyes, as she is looking up at my father.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 54. Frank Churchill uses a hyperbolic metaphor to describe how Jane Fairfax embodies angelic qualities. His romanticized, idealized attraction, as if he were worshipping her, is shown in the language used. Jane’s elevation to a heavenly being may be Frank camouflaging the fact that orphan Jane is of lower social standing than he is. His superficial side also comes across, with his infatuation of Jane focused entirely on her physical beauty and gestures.
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