Year 12 HSC: English Advanced Emma Quotes and Analysis

"Dear affectionate creature!-You banished to Abbey-Mill Farm! You confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar all your life!"

- Theme: Marriage

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 7

▸ Emma contemplates the concept of Harriet marrying Mr Martin

▸ Diction: the brimming diction of "banished" delineates the prominence Emma reiterates on marrying well, in regards to the societal norms of marrying a wealthy individual within one's status, and highlights her snobbish character when describing Mr Martin

"a woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her"

- Theme: Marriage

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 7

▸ Emma endures to seek and affirm the balance necessary when finding a match

▸ Aphorism: the utilisation of aphorism reveals Emma's insight of marriage, illustrating the flourishing ambition for charm in marriage including the options it presents women to attain social flexibility, therefore depicting the infatuation upon marriage in relation to societal standards

"fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want...never, never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important"

- Theme: Marriage

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 10

▸ Emma reveals her consciousness of her riches and status

▸ Tricolon and Repetition of "never": the tricolon accentuates her social position and privileges as the spouseless daughter of a prosperous father. The articulation of the changes that would occur once married is shown through the repetition of "never", revealing her adapted insight of marriage as more than an economic insurance and social flexibility, thus Austen affirms her integrity of her novel

"Insufferable woman! Worse than I had supposed...never seen him in her life before and call him Knightley!"

- Theme: Social Status

- Where: Volume 2, Chapter 13

▸ Emma's rant after an unpleasant interaction with Mrs Elton

▸ Ecphonesis: the use of ecphonesis depicts how Emma senses that the entirety of wealth in the world will not grant someone indecent satisfactory manners, and denotes that the 'well bred' are those who do not refer to new individuals by their surname. Austen portrays the flaw in one indulged in their social class, thus depicting her integrity of her message

"a young farmer, whether on horseback or on foot, is the very last sort of person to raise my curiosity"

- Theme: Social Status

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 4

▸ Emma's perspective of Mr Martin

▸ Patronising tone: although Emma views herself as an advocate for manners and etiquette, this is ironical as she is specifically bitter towards the lower class of farmers and manual labourers. Her patronising tone is signified through her class bias when telling Harriet that farmers are not the kind a woman like her should marry, illustrating the frivolous nature of the upper classes that shape an individual's perception of those in the lower class, therefore Austen fabricates her integrated message

"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."

- Theme: Social Status

- Where: Volume 3, Chapter 7

▸ Mr Knightley scolds Emma

▸ Contrast: Austen sustains her integrity of her message through the contrast of 'sinking' and 'comforts' emphasising Mr Knightley's sternness in conveying Emma's prejudice and snobbish acts upon Miss Bate's status and wealth

"[Emma] was not struck by anything remarkably clever in Miss Smith's conversation... she must have good sense and deserve encouragement"

- Theme: Pride and Vanity

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 3

▸ Emma seeks to 'improve' Harriet

▸ Free, indirect discourse: Austen employs free indirect discourse, allowing the audience to examine Emma's human nature of flaws and self-deception. Through free indirect discourse, Austen affirms the integrity of her message as the audience are taken into Emma's perspective. This highlights her condescending and manipulative nature as she implies Harriet's lack of intelligence compared to her, and her pride in elevating Harriet from her timid beginnings

"a single woman with a very narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid"

- Theme: Pride and Vanity

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 10

▸ Emma talks to Harriet

▸ Ironic aphorism: Austen fosters her integrated appeal through the ironic aphorism, accentuating Emma's argument that her wealth and status affords her an excuse to be a honourable single woman. However the irony in Emma's argument that her wealth and status makes her "as sensible and pleasant as anybody else '', reveals the flaws in her vanity of opinions

"though the accusation had been eagerly refuted at the time, there were moments of self-examination"

- Theme: Pride and Vanity

- Where: Volume 2, Chapter 2

▸ Emma understands her shortcomings of pride and vanity when expressing about Jane Fairfax

▸ Legal jargon: the utilisation of legal jargon of "accusation", "refuted" and "self-examination" conveys Emma's growth of opinion, reinforcing to the sense of truthfulness and neutrality, thus Austen asserts the integrity of her message

"the real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having too much her own way...so unperceived"

- Theme: Foolishness and Naivete of Youth

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 1

▸ Narration of Emma

▸ Foreshadow: the foreshadowing reveals the shortcomings of Emma's foolishness and flaws arising within the text, emphasising the series of nefarious mistakes which come to bewilder her and others

"I think [Harriet Smith] the very worst sort of companion that Emma could possibly have...She is a flatterer in all her ways, and so much the worse"

- Theme: Foolishness and Naivete of Youth

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 5

▸ Mr Knightley talks to Mrs Weston

▸ Dialogue, Contrast and Repetition: Austen assists her integrated message of the flaws in one's naivety to their own ideas through the dialogue of Mr Knightly. He contrasts Emma with Harriet and highlights their joint naivety of youth through the repetition of "flattery" to allude to how Harriet's childish bewilderment will expose the calamity of Emma's ego and irrationality of opinions, thus founding Austen's integrated message

"the first error, and the worst, lay at her door. It was foolish, it was wrong... she was quite concerned and shamed"

- Theme: Foolishness and Naivete of Youth

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 16

▸ Mr Elton woos Emma instead of what she had expected, who was Harriet

▸ Idiom: Emma rises with her comprehension to her lunacy. The idiom of the error "at her door" reiterates Emma's flaw and error in her attempts to match Harriet with Mr Elton and her new realisation of her flaw and egregious mistake as she was "foolish" and "wrong", thus reinforcing Austen's integrated novel

"she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley... ? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet's having some hope of a return?"

- Character: Emma Woodhouse

- Where: Volume 3, Chapter 11

▸ Only after she faces the prospect of losing Mr. Knightley to Harriet that she realizes that she has feelings for him

▸ Accumulation of Rhetorical questions

"She was proved to have been universally mistaken; and she had not quite done nothing--for she had done mischief"

- Character: Emma Woodhouse

- Where: Volume 3, Chapter 11

▸ Emma's discovery of her own faults

▸ Contrast of "nothing" and "mischief"

"had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress of vex her."

- Character: Emma Woodhouse

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 1

▸ Introduction of Emma

▸ Characterisation

"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"

- Character: Mr George Knightley

- Where: Volume 3, Chapter 7

▸ After the picnic at Box Hill when Emma publicly insulted Miss Bates

▸ Anadiplosis

"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"

- Character: Mr George Knightley

- Where: Volume 3, Chapter 7

▸ After the picnic at Box Hill when Emma publicly insulted Miss Bates

▸ Tone

"Oh! no, I am sure you are a great deal too kind to—but if you would just advise me what I had best do—No, no, I do not mean that"

- Character: Harriet Smith

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 7

▸ Harriet's attempt to get Emma's help when Mr. Martin proposes

▸ Caesura

"He care's very little for anything but his own pleasure"

- Character: Frank Churchill

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 18

▸ Mr Knightley on Churchill

▸ Tone

"He was accused of having delightful voice and a perfect knowledge of music, which was properly denied"

- Character: Frank Churchill

- Where: Volume 2, Chapter 8

▸ Narrating Emma's thoughts on Frank

▸ Positive Connotations

"I never thought of Miss Smith... never paid her any attentions but as your friend: never cared whether she were dead or alive, but as your friend."

- Character: Mr Elton

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 15

▸ Immediately after he has professed her love for Emma in the carriage after the party on Christmas Eve

▸ Epistrophe of "as your friend"

"Mr. Elton, a young man living alone without liking it"

- Character: Mr Elton

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 3

▸ Mr Elton wants a wife

▸ Characterisation

"He knows that he is a very handsome young man, and a great favourite wherever he goes"

- Character: Mr Elton

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 8

▸ Knightley to Emma

▸ Tone

"Mrs. Elton was a vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of her own importance... with manners which had been formed in a bad school"

- Character: Mrs Elton

- Where: Volume 2, Chapter 14

▸ Emma's first impression of the dreadful Mrs. Elton

▸ Characterisation

"Miss Bates stood in the very worst predicament in the world for having much of the public favour; and she had no intellectual superiority to make atonement to herself, or frighten those who might hate her, into outward respect..."

- Character: Miss Bates

- Where: Volume 1, Chapter 1

▸ Introduction to Miss Bates

▸ Characterisation