Mrs. Churchill Quotes

“You are very fond of bending little minds; but where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I think they have a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great ones.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 18. Emma defends Frank Churchill against Mr. Knightley’s criticism of him not fulfilling his duty as a son by visiting his father. Emma in a metaphor speaks of Knightley’s fondness for bending or influencing “little minds.” But when these small minds belong to rich people with power, she describes them in another metaphor as “swelling out” and becoming difficult to control. The small-minded people she refers to are Mr. and Mrs. Churchill. They are Frank’s uncle and aunt who became his guardians after the death of his mother and he is under their control, Emma says.

“She is out of health now; but that indeed, by her own account, she has always been. I would not say so to every body, Mrs. Elton, but I have not much faith in Mrs. Churchill’s illness.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 36. Mr. Weston questions the legitimacy of Mrs. Churchill’s illness. We learn in the course of the novel how her illness is used to stop his son Frank Churchill from visiting him. The quote highlights the theme of deception, foreshadowing its growing importance as the story progresses. Despite Mr. Weston’s skepticism about whether Mrs. Churchill’s illness is genuine or fabricated or exaggerated, she does die in the end.

“I hope,” said he presently, “I have not been severe upon poor Mrs. Churchill. If she is ill I should be sorry to do her injustice; but there are some traits in her character which make it difficult for me to speak of her with the forbearance I could wish.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 36. Mr. Weston is suspicious of Mrs. Churchill’s attempts to prevent his son Frank from visiting him. The fact that he says “if she is ill” suggests that he is not convinced she is ill enough to require Frank to stay by her side.

He could not doubt, when he looked back, that she was in a weaker state of health than she had been half a year ago. He did not believe it to proceed from any thing that care and medicine might not remove, or at least that she might not have many years of existence before her; but he could not be prevailed on, by all his father’s doubts, to say that her complaints were merely imaginary, or that she was as strong as ever.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 37. Frank Churchill spends fifteen minutes in Highbury before departing for London again because of his aunt and guardian Mrs. Churchill’s deteriorating health. Unlike his father Mr. Weston, Frank believes her complaints are real and not imaginary. To steady her nerves and improve her health, it is decided that the Churchills would move of London to Richmond.

The contrast between Mrs. Churchill’s importance in the world, and Jane Fairfax’s struck her; one was every thing, the other nothing – and she sat musing on the difference of woman’s destiny.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 44. Emma ponders on the differing destinies of women, which is dependent on what class they belong to. She has just learned that Jane Fairfax has accepted a governess position that Mrs. Elton found for her. And Frank Fairfax has rushed back to Richmond after being summoned by Mrs. Churchill. Emma contrasts the power of the privileged Mrs. Churchill and the talented but financially dependent Jane. When it comes to importance in the world, one has everything, the other nothing.

Mrs. Churchill, after being disliked at least twenty-five years, was now spoken of with compassionate allowances. In one point she was fully justified. She had never been admitted before to be seriously ill. The event acquitted her of all the fancifulness, and all the selfishness of imaginary complaints.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 45. These are Austen’s satiric observations on what happens when a disliked person like Mrs. Churchill dies. Chronically ill for years, Mrs. Churchill was guardian and aunt to Frank and was very possessive of him. Her death puts to rest the claims that her ill-health was a deceptive ploy to prevent Frank from visiting his father.
Close