Mr. Elton Quotes

She was quite convinced of Mr. Elton’s being in the fairest way of falling in love, if not in love already…”You have given Miss Smith all that she required,” said he; “you have made her graceful and easy. She was a beautiful creature when she came to you, but, in my opinion, the attractions you have added are infinitely superior to what she received from nature.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 6. Emma should have read the warning signs when Mr. Elton heaped lavish praise on her role in the transformation of her friend Harriet. But she didn’t. Convinced of her great matchmaking skills, she believes that Mr. Elton is falling in love with Harriet, if not already in love. But what she fails to hear is Elton’s obvious admiration for her, something that is obvious to the reader, making this an example of dramatic irony. The quote also reflects how Emma misreads people. All she can hear are Elton’s words of praise for Harriet, which is why Mr. Elton’s declaration of love for Emma comes as a shock to her later.

Mr. Elton was in continual raptures, and defended it through every criticism…”Oh, it is most admirable! I cannot keep my eyes from it. I never saw such a likeness.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 6. Despite Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley criticizing Emma’s painting of Harriet, Mr. Elton is said to be in “raptures” and enthusiastically approves it. He even volunteers to bring it to London to have it framed. Mr. Elton’s goal in flattering Emma and making her art out to be better than it is, is to win her affection, not Harriet’s.

“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.

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.

“I never thought of Miss Smith in the whole course of my existence – never paid her any attentions but as your friend: never cared whether she were dead or alive, but as your friend. If she has fancied otherwise, her own wishes have misled her, and I am very sorry – extremely sorry – But, Miss Smith, indeed! – Oh! Miss Woodhouse! who can think of Miss Smith, when Miss Woodhouse is near!…I have thought only of you.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 15. Emma’s efforts to matchmake her lower class friend Harriet with Mr. Elton backfire, as seen in Mr. Elton’s response to Emma’s demand that he direct love to Harriet and not her. In a furious rant, Mr. Elton says that he doesn’t care whether Miss Smith is alive or dead, professing that he only has thoughts for Emma. Laid bare here is Emma’s poor judgment and misreading that Mr. Elton was romantically interested in Harriet. While she was preoccupied with matchmaking the two, she neglected to see that Mr. Elton was attracted to her.

“Every body has their level: but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss. I need not so totally despair of an equal alliance, as to be addressing myself to Miss Smith!”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 15. In a rant to Emma about Harriet Smith, Mr. Elton dismisses the very thought of marriage to her. The middle class clergyman rejects Miss Smith because of her lower social status, while declaring his love for Emma. This is rather ironic, since Elton is socially inferior to Emma, the woman he says he wants.

Mr. Elton returned, a very happy man. He had gone away rejected and mortified – disappointed in a very sanguine hope, after a series of what appeared to him strong encouragement; and not only losing the right lady, but finding himself debased to the level of a very wrong one. He had gone away deeply offended – he came back engaged to another – and to another as superior, of course, to the first, as under such circumstances what is gained always is to what is lost. He came back gay and self-satisfied, eager and busy, caring nothing for Miss Woodhouse, and defying Miss Smith.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 22. After Emma turns down Mr. Elton’s marriage proposal and he leaves Highbury offended, he regains his composure on returning to the village with the new Mrs. Elton – Augusta Hawkins! While Mr. Elton was upset by Emma’s refusal, he was more offended by Emma’s suggestion that he should be happy to marry Harriet Smith, someone below his class. So the pompous vicar used his brief absence from Highbury to show Emma and the villagers that he could find a wife from a more suitable social class and didn’t need to settle for Harriet. Mr. Elton’s belief that his new wife is “superior” to Emma is of course not correct. While Mrs. Elton is wealthy, she comes from new money. So she doesn’t share the same pedigree or social standing as Emma, who is from old money and belongs to a respected and established gentry family in Highbury.

She was, in fact, beginning very much to wonder that she had ever thought him pleasing at all; and his sight was so inseparably connected with some very disagreeable feelings, that, except in a moral light, as a penance, a lesson, a source of profitable humiliation to her own mind, she would have been thankful to be assured of never seeing him again.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 22. We witness a turning point for Emma as she experiences a moment of self-awareness and growth. She recognizes how badly she can misread people and the missteps she has made in her matchmaking. Her judgment of Mr. Elton’s character was way off the mark, she now realizes. Far from being the pleasant man she had thought, he is in fact very disagreeable.

Mr. Elton cared little about it, compared with his wife; he only hoped “the young lady’s pride would now be contented;” and supposed “she had always meant to catch Knightley if she could;” and, on the point of living at Hartfield, could daringly exclaim, “Rather he than I!” – But Mrs. Elton was very much discomposed indeed. – “Poor Knightley! poor fellow! – sad business for him.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 53. While most people are delighted with the match between Emma and Mr. Knightley, the Eltons are not so gracious with their comments. Mr. Elton cynically remarks that Emma had always set out to snare Knightley, while Mrs. Elton ironically offers Mr. Knightley her sympathies.
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