Emma Social Class Quotes

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 1. The novel’s opening sentence introduces us to the protagonist Emma Woodhouse, who with her privileged position in society appears to have it all. She is beautiful, rich, intelligent, happy, has a nice home and no problems to trouble her existence. But the phrase “seemed to unite” has an ironic tone about it, hinting at flaws in her seemingly perfect existence and a gap between appearance and reality. Foreshadowed are the challenges Emma faces on a road to self-discovery and the errors in judgment and social missteps she tends to make along the way.

It was an unsuitable connexion, and did not produce much happiness. Mrs. Weston ought to have found more in it, for she had a husband whose warm heart and sweet temper made him think every thing due to her in return for the great goodness of being in love with him.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 2. This refers to Mr. Weston’s first marriage to Miss Churchill. They were a mismatch as regards social standing, Mr. Weston being of lower social rank and Miss Churchill’s family disapproving of the marriage. While Mrs. Weston loved her husband, she missed the luxuries of her former home. The quote highlights the downside to a marriage built on social inequality, when love is unable to overcome societal and class pressures.

She had no intellectual superiority to make atonement to herself, or frighten those who might hate her into outward respect. She had never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her youth had passed without distinction, and her middle of life was devoted to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small income go as far as possible. And yet she was a happy woman, and a woman whom no one named without good-will.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 3. When Austen introduces Miss Bates to the reader as someone quite different to Emma, she is described in terms inviting comparison with her. She is a spinster who lacks Emma’s beauty, intelligence and wealth. But she is a good person who devotes herself to lovingly caring for an ailing mother. While she doesn’t have Emma’s privileged financial and class position, she is a happy woman. Highlighted here is the idea that happiness is not dependent on wealth or status.

She would notice her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners. It would be an interesting and certainly a very kind undertaking; highly becoming her own situation in life, her leisure, and powers.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 3. After meeting 17-year-old boarder at Mrs. Goddard’s school for girls Harriet Smith, Emma Woodhouse decides to adopt her as her protégée. She sees Harriet as her new pet project to improve and elevate so she will fit into upper class society. Emma’s vanity and belief in her own superiority are evident, as she sets about improving Harriet. Harriet is Emma’s replacement for Miss Taylor, the governess who left the Woodhouse household to get married. The privileged Emma will clearly be using Harriet to relieve her boredom and practice her talents on.

“A young farmer, whether on horseback or on foot, is the very last sort of person to raise my curiosity. The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do. A degree or two lower, and a creditable appearance might interest me; I might hope to be useful to their families in some way or other. But a farmer can need none of my help, and is therefore in one sense as much above my notice as in every other he is below it.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 4. Emma’s shocking level of snobbery and vanity is laid bare in her comments to her protégée Harriet Smith about Robert Martin. Harriet has developed an interest in the yeoman farmer, who rents land from George Knightley. But in Emma’s eyes the tenant farmer has no social standing whatsoever and she is endeavoring to turn Harriet’s attentions away from him. Emma looks down on those beneath her on the social ladder, while at the same time offering charity to those at the bottom of that ladder. She shows the petty prejudices of some of the upper class who are blind to the good qualities of people from the lower class. In this quote Austen is satirizing the snobbish nature of Emma and rich privileged people like her.

“I think her the very worst sort of companion that Emma could possibly have. She knows nothing herself, and looks upon Emma as knowing every thing. She is a flatterer in all her ways; and so much the worse, because undesigned. Her ignorance is hourly flattery. How can Emma imagine she has any thing to learn herself, while Harriet is presenting such a delightful inferiority? And as for Harriet, I will venture to say that she cannot gain by the acquaintance. Hartfield will only put her out of conceit with all the other places she belongs to. She will grow just refined enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances have placed her home. I am much mistaken if Emma’s doctrines give any strength of mind, or tend at all to make a girl adapt herself rationally to the varieties of her situation in life. – They only give a little polish.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 5. There is important foreshadowing in Mr. Knightley sounding the alarm bells over Emma adopting Harriet Smith as her companion and protégée. He discusses their developing friendship with Mrs. Weston, warning that it will benefit neither of them. Harriet’s flattery will feed Emma’s vanity and self-assuredness, he believes. Knightley is not a snob, but he understands the class system and feels that Emma’s actions will just make Harriet uncomfortable with people of her own background and social class.

“She always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means just nothing at all. But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good. But there is nobody hereabouts to attach her; and she goes so seldom from home.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 5. Mr. Knightley believes that Emma should not be taken too seriously when she says she will never marry. He feels that she simply hasn’t met someone she deeply cares for. But he hopes that she will eventually fall in love with someone suitable – “a proper object,” suggesting the importance of social status and class.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

The Coles had been settled some years in Highbury, and were very good sort of people – friendly, liberal, and unpretending; but, on the other hand, they were of low origin, in trade, and only moderately genteel.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 25. The recently established Coles family in Highbury are described as pleasant and friendly people. But in keeping with the area’s embedded snobbery and rigid social hierarchy, they are seen as less than high class because their money comes from trade.

The regular and best families Emma could hardly suppose they would presume to invite, – neither Donwell, nor Hartfield, nor Randalls.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 25. This quote highlights Emma’s preoccupation with social class and belief that tradespeople like the Coles should not expect Highbury’s “best” families to attend their party. The Coles have recently moved to a bigger home and begun to entertain guests. But Emma feels they are presumptuous expecting families like the Knightleys (Donwell Abbey), Mr. Woodhouse (Hartfield) and the Westons (Randalls) to be their guests. She firmly believes that a social distance should be kept between the classes.

The Coles were very respectable in their way, but they ought to be taught that it was not for them to arrange the terms on which the superior families would visit them. This lesson, she very much feared, they would receive only from herself; she had little hope of Mr. Knightley, none of Mr. Weston.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 25. Emma criticizes the trader family the Coles for having the cheek to think they could invite Highbury’s top families to visit them. And she is the one to teach them their place, she feels. Emma’s enormous pride in her privileged social standing is very obvious here.

“Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly. – It depends upon the character of those who handle it.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 26. Emma makes this comment when Frank Churchill makes a sudden day trip to London for a haircut and returns laughing off his folly. As she compares Mr. Knightley and Churchill’s values, she overlooks Churchill’s frivolous behavior as “not trifling or silly.” She reasons that foolish things are not folly if they are done by sensible people. Emma shows her admiration for the charming and attractive upper class Churchill. This reveals her tendency to judge people on superficial things like charm and social status rather than their character.

Mr. Knightley keeping no horses, having little spare money and a great deal of health, activity, and independence, was too apt, in Emma’s opinion, to get about as he could, and not use his carriage so often as became the owner of Donwell Abbey.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 26. Mr. Knightley may be upper class and wealthy, but he is not ostentatious or a practitioner of conspicuous consumption. Emma complains that he doesn’t keep his own horses, has little spare money, and doesn’t use his carriage as often as becoming someone of his social rank. Knightley actually prefers to walk to parties and events.

Emma did not repent her condescension in going to the Coles. The visit afforded her many pleasant recollections the next day; and all that she might be supposed to have lost on the side of dignified seclusion, must be amply repaid in the splendour of popularity. She must have delighted the Coles – worthy people, who deserved to be made happy! – And left a name behind her that would not soon die away.

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 27. Emma’s snobbishness, feelings of superiority and vanity are showcased in her thoughts about going to the party at the Coles. Initially set to decline the invitation from the newly rich family because their money came from trade, she was persuaded to go by others. In the chapter’s opening sentences, she admits that it was a pleasant experience which would benefit her reputation and social standing.

“And who do you think came in while we were there?…Knightley!” continued Mrs. Elton; “Knightley himself! – Was not it lucky? – for, not being within when he called the other day, I had never seen him before; and of course, as so particular a friend of Mr. E.’s, I had a great curiosity. ‘My friend Knightley’ had been so often mentioned, that I was really impatient to see him; and I must do my caro sposo the justice to say that he need not be ashamed of his friend. Knightley is quite the gentleman. I like him very much. Decidedly, I think, a very gentleman-like man.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 32. Mrs. Elton’s use of Mr. E and caro sposo (Italian for my spouse) to describe her husband is a mark of her pretentiousness. But Austen also includes this to satirize the nouveau riche, self-important lady with her airs and graces. The importance of social rank to Mrs. Elton can be seen in her boast that a gentleman of Mr. Knightley’s standing came to call on them.

“Insufferable woman!” was her immediate exclamation. “Worse than I had supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightley! – I could not have believed it. Knightley! – never seen him in her life before, and call him Knightley! – and discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart, vulgar being, with her Mr. E., and her caro sposo, and her resources, and all her airs of pert pretension and under-bred finery. Actually to discover that Mr. Knightley is a gentleman! I doubt whether he will return the compliment, and discover her to be a lady. I could not have believed it! And to propose that she and I should unite to form a musical club! One would fancy we were bosom friends!”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 32. When Emma meets the new bride Mrs. Elton on her visit to Hartfield, she can barely contain herself and her reaction. Emma finds her shockingly vulgar, pretentious and full of herself, describing her husband as Mr. E and her caro sposo. Her over-familiarity horrifies Emma. Referring to Mr. Knightley as “Knightley” particularly annoys Emma. She is further provoked by the suggestion that they start a musical club together, as if they were close friends. But it needs to be said that Emma displays quite the superior air and more than a touch of vanity in her biting critique and put-down of Mrs. Elton.

“She is very timid and silent. One can see that she feels the want of encouragement. I like her the better for it. I must confess it is a recommendation to me. I am a great advocate for timidity. – I am sure one does often meet with it. – But in those who are inferior, it is extremely prepossessing. Oh! I assure you, Jane Fairfax is a very delightful creature, and interests me more than I can express.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 33. Speaking as if she were vastly superior to Jane Fairfax, the snobbish Mrs. Elton’s comments about her drip with satire and irony.

“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.

Mrs. Elton was evidently wanting to be complimented herself – and it was, “How do you like my gown? – How do you like my trimming? – How has Wright done my hair?”…Mrs. Elton then said, “Nobody can think less of dress in general than I do – but upon such an occasion as this, when every body’s eyes are so much upon me, and in compliment to the Westons – who I have no doubt are giving this ball chiefly to do me honour – I would not wish to be inferior to others.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 38. At the Westons’ ball Mrs. Elton is unable to hide her vanity, air of self-importance and sense of superiority. Inviting the ballgoers to compliment her dress and hair, she ironically suggests that nobody thinks less of dress than she does. She is presented as a figure of satire.

“But it is a pleasure to me to admire him at a distance – and to think of his infinite superiority to all the rest of the world, with the gratitude, wonder, and veneration, which are so proper, in me especially.”
“I am not at all surprised at you, Harriet. The service he rendered you was enough to warm your heart.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 40. When Harriet speaks of the new man who has won her heart, Emma mistakenly believes she is referring to Frank Churchill. For Emma has been encouraging a match between the two. But, in another example of Emma’s mistaken perceptions, Harriet is thinking of Mr. Knightley. He rescued her from humiliation at the Crown Inn ball by asking her to dance. But Emma on the other hand is thinking of Frank saving Harriet from the Gypsies. The theme is social class is found here, with Harriet describing the man she admires as having “infinite superiority.”

“Were she prosperous, I could allow much for the occasional prevalence of the ridiculous over the good. Were she a woman of fortune, I would leave every harmless absurdity to take its chance, I would not quarrel with you for any liberties of manner. Were she your equal in situation – but, Emma, consider how far this is from being the case. She is poor; she has sunk from the comforts she was born to; and, if she live to old age, must probably sink more. Her situation should secure your compassion. It was badly done, indeed!…This is not pleasant to you, Emma – and it is very far from pleasant to me; but I must, I will, – I will tell you truths while I can; satisfied with proving myself your friend by very faithful counsel, and trusting that you will some time or other do me greater justice than you can do now.”

– Jane Austen

Emma, Chapter 43. Mr. Knightley delivers a strong but necessary reprimand to Emma for her sarcastic joke at the expense of Miss Bates. He points out how wrong it is for a person of privilege and wealth to use her wit to target a poor and helpless spinster. Serving as Emma’s moral compass, Mr. Knightley is known for his directness and honesty. A great deal older than her, he is not afraid to point out her flaws. He often acts as her guide and a moderator of the rash and impetuous side of her nature. The quote also highlights the precarious economic situation of women in the author’s time. Miss Bates has “sunk from the comforts she was born to” because she lost her financial security and social position after the death of her vicar father.
    • 1
    • 2
Close