Emma Quotes

“A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 7. Harriet has received a letter from Mr. Martin proposing marriage and she is seeking Emma’s advice. Here Emma warns her friend against making a hasty decision in accepting the proposal. However, it should be said that as a wealthy woman Emma has the ability to refuse marriage proposals. On the other hand poorer girls such as Harriet do not have the same financial independence and ability to do so. The quote is a good example of Austen’s gloriously clever and witty writing, which the novel showcases.

Mr. Knightley actually looked red with surprise and displeasure, as he stood up, in tall indignation, and said,
“Then she is a greater simpleton than I ever believed her. What is the foolish girl about?”
“Oh! to be sure,” cried Emma, “it is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for any body who asks her.”
“Nonsense! a man does not imagine any such thing.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Emma is informing Mr. Knightley that Harrier Smith has turned down an offer of marriage from Robert Martin. Harriet is labeled a “simpleton” and “foolish” by Knightley for her refusal. Emma comes back with a biting response about society’s expectations about women, which touches on gender roles in the British Regency times. Then many men saw women as primarily interested in acquiring a husband, regardless of who the suitor was, and women’s wishes were not often considered. Knightley disputes Emma’s assertion. Austen often uses her characters to challenge conventions about gender roles, including women being first and foremost defined by their marital status and expected to accept marriage proposals from men. Emma shows herself to be an independent and critical thinker with a strong spirit.

“Not Harriet’s equal!” exclaimed Mr. Knightley loudly and warmly; and with calmer asperity, added, a few moments afterwards, “No, he is not her equal indeed, for he is as much her superior in sense as in situation. Emma, your infatuation about that girl blinds you. What are Harriet Smith’s claims, either of birth, nature or education, to any connection higher than Robert Martin?”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Mr. Knightley responds to Emma suggesting that Robert Martin is not Harriet Smith’s equal. Harriet has turned down Mr. Martin’s marriage proposal, after being influenced to do so by Emma. Mr. Knightley is adamant that Mr. Martin’s superior qualities in both intelligence and social standing make him a very good match for Harriet.

“Mr. Martin may be the richest of the two, but he is undoubtedly her inferior as to rank in society. – The sphere in which she moves is much above his. – It would be a degradation.”
“A degradation to illegitimacy and ignorance, to be married to a respectable, intelligent gentleman-farmer!”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Emma and Mr. Knightley argue over whether Robert Martin is a suitable husband for Harriet Smith. While agreeing that Mr. Martin is richer, Emma views him as Harriet’s social inferior. Not impressed by her social status argument, Knightley values more Martin’s character as an intelligent and respectable farmer.

“She is not to pay for the offence of others, by being held below the level of those with whom she is brought up. There can scarcely be a doubt that her father is a gentlemen – and a gentleman of fortune. Her allowance is very liberal; nothing has ever been grudged for her improvement or comfort.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Emma is commenting on the illegitimate Harriet’s unknown parentage. Harriet was given over to Mrs. Goddard’s girls’ school, her parents choosing to remain anonymous to Harriet and all of Highbury. Here Emma shows a level of compassion for the girl she took under her wing as her protégée. She argues that Harriet should not be penalized or treated as socially inferior because of her unclear parentage. Emma believes Harriet’s father to be a gentleman of wealth.

“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.

“Till it appears that men are much more philosophic on the subject of beauty than they are generally supposed; till they do fall in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome faces, a girl, with such loveliness as Harriet, has a certainty of being admired and sought after, of having the power of choosing from among many.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Emma argues that until men fall in love with women’s minds rather than their faces, a beautiful woman like Harriet will have many suitors. This reflects the ongoing debate between the sexes over the importance of physical beauty in a person’s choice of a mate.

“You will puff her up with such ideas of her own beauty, and of what she has a claim to, that, in a little while, nobody within her reach will be good enough for her. Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief. Nothing so easy as for a young lady to raise her expectations too high. Miss Harriet Smith may not find offers of marriage flow in so fast, though she is a very pretty girl. Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Mr. Knightley accuses Emma of inflating Harriet Smith’s ego and vanity and encouraging unrealistic expectations about her social position and a potential husband. He highlights the risks of relying on beauty and outward appearance alone, warning that despite being pretty Miss Smith have not have suitors queuing at her door. Sensible men value women of good sense and don’t want “silly wives,” he tells her.

“Let her marry Robert Martin, and she is safe, respectable, and happy for ever; but if you encourage her to expect to marry greatly, and teach her to be satisfied with nothing less than a man of consequence and large fortune, she may be a parlour-boarder at Mrs. Goddard’s all the rest of her life.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Mr. Knightley appeals to Emma to let her friend Harriet marry tenant farmer Robert Martin. With him she will be have security and happiness, he says. He warns that if she holds out for a husband of high social status and wealth, she may stay unmarried. Mr. Knightley is a practical man of down-to-earth common sense.

“Robert Martin’s manners have sense, sincerity, and good-humour to recommend them; and his mind has more true gentility than Harriet Smith could understand.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. As Emma and Mr. Knightley argue about Mr. Martin’s suitability as a husband for Harriet, Knightley lists out the positive qualities he believes Mr. Martin shares with the gentry. Mr. Knightley’s description of his tenant farmer shows that he believes a person’s character is more important than social class.

“Depend upon it, Elton will not do. Elton is a very good sort of man, and a very respectable vicar of Highbury, but not at all likely to make an imprudent match. He knows the value of a good income as well as anybody. Elton may talk sentimentally, but he will act rationally.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 8. Mr. Knightley warns Emma that Mr. Elton will never marry Harriet because of their difference in social status and her lack of fortune. Foreshadowed here is Mr. Elton’s lack of feelings for Harriet, shown later in the story.

“Humph – Harriet’s ready wit! All the better. A man must be very much in love, indeed, to describe her so.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 9. With riddles being collected for Harriet’s book, Mr. Elton shows up with one where Emma sees the answer is “courtship.” One of the lines of the riddle is “Thy ready wit the word will soon supply.” Emma misinterprets this as a sign that Mr. Elton is very much in love with Harriet. She is blind to the fact that Mr. Elton is talking about her. This serves as an example of dramatic irony, since the reader is already aware of his interest in Emma.

“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.

“That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 9. Here Emma reassures her over-anxious father, who cannot understand why his grandchildren enjoy when their uncle “tosses them up to the ceiling in a very frightful way.” The quote could also be interpreted as Austen’s comment on how men cannot understand that women’s feelings on love and relationships are different to those of men. It is also seen as the author’s critique on the social class distinctions prevalent in 19th century England.

“I must see somebody very superior to any one I have seen yet, to be tempted; Mr. Elton, you know, (recollecting herself,) is out of the question: and I do not wish to see any such person. I would rather not be tempted. I cannot really change for the better. If I were to marry, I must expect to repent it.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. Emma comes across as a very self-assured person in her conversation with Harriet about marriage. This quote also shows her arrogance and vanity, blindness and self-deception. She declares that she must see someone “very superior to any one I have seen yet” before considering marriage. She feels she is not capable of self-improvement and cynically believes marriage would be a step down for her that she would regret. Yet Emma does end up marrying and being happy with someone she knows and sees on a regular basis. As a possible suitor Mr. Elton is dismissed out of hand. But with all her flawed thinking, she is not wrong on that one.

“I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. Emma is sufficiently secure financially that she doesn’t need to marry for economic reasons, she tells Harriet. But if she were to fall in love, now that would be another story, she admits, though she qualifies this by saying love is not her way or nature. Highlighted in this passage are the pressures on women without Emma’s wealth and a comfortable home to marry. Also foreshadowed is that Emma does indeed fall in love and marry.

“Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want: I believe few married women are half as much mistress of their husband’s house as I am of Hartfield; and never, never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important; so always first and always right in any man’s eyes as I am in my father’s.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. Emma doesn’t feel the economic need to wed, since she is mistress of Hartfield, her father’s house in the English countryside. Nor is she in need of the love of a husband, since she is content with her father’s love. In her case against marriage she makes to her friend Harriet, she comes across as somewhat smug and superior sounding. And she is rather proud of a privileged position many other women are not lucky enough to enjoy, including Harriet.

“That is as formidable an image as you could present, Harriet; and if I thought I should ever be like Miss Bates! so silly – so satisfied – so smiling – so prosing – so undistinguishing and unfastidious – and so apt to tell every thing relative to every body about me, I would marry tomorrow. But between us, I am convinced there never can be any likeness, except in being unmarried.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 10. When Harriet frets that Emma will end up an old maid like Miss Bates, Emma makes this scornful response. She pulls no punches as she makes clear how awful a fate this could be. Her dislike of the over-talkative and silly middle-aged spinster is so strong she says she would marry rather than become like Miss Bates.

“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.

“Well,” said she to herself, “this is most strange! – After I had got him off so well, to chuse to go into company, and leave Harriet ill behind! – Most strange indeed! – But there is, I believe, in many men, especially single men, such an inclination – such a passion for dining out – a dinner engagement is so high in the class of their pleasures, their employments, their dignities, almost their duties, that anything gives way to it – and this must be the case with Mr. Elton; a most valuable, amiable, pleasing young man undoubtedly, and very much in love with Harriet; but still, he cannot refuse an invitation, he must dine out wherever he is asked. What a strange thing love is! he can see ready wit in Harriet, but will not dine alone for her.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 13. We see Austen’s use of ironic humor and Emma’s propensity for misperception and self-deception when Emma talks of Mr. Elton’s strange behavior towards Harriet. Strange for Emma, because she mistakenly believes that she has made a love match for Harriet with Mr. Elton. But the audience knows that he is more interested in Emma than her friend. And she is too blind to see this.
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