Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Visits
The main events of the novel take place during visits
that the characters pay to each other. The frequency and length
of visits between characters indicates the level of intimacy and
attachment between them. Frank’s frequent visits to Hartfield show
his relationship with Emma to be close, though in hindsight we recognize
that Frank also continually finds excuses to visit Jane. Mr. Knightley’s
constant presence at Hartfield indicates his affection and regard
for Emma. Emma encourages Harriet to limit a visit with the Martin
family to fifteen minutes, because such a short visit clearly indicates
that any former interest has been lost. Emma is chastised for her
failure to visit Miss Bates and Jane more often; when she takes
steps to rectify this situation, she indicates a new concern for
Miss Bates and a new regard for Jane.
Parties
More formal than visits, parties are organized around
social conventions more than around individual attachments—Emma’s
hosting a dinner party for Mrs. Elton, a woman she dislikes, exemplifies this
characteristic. There are six important parties in the novel: the Christmas
Eve party at Randalls, the dinner party at the Coles’, the dinner
party given for Mrs. Elton, the dance at the Crown Inn, the morning
party at Donwell Abbey, and the picnic at Box Hill. Each occasion
provides the opportunity for social intrigue and misunderstandings,
and for vanities to be satisfied and connections formed. Parties
also give characters the chance to observe other people’s interactions.
Knightley observes Emma’s behavior toward Frank and Frank’s behavior
toward Jane. Parties are microcosms of the social interactions that
make up the novel as a whole.
Conversational Subtexts
Much of the dialogue in Emma has double
or even triple meanings, with different characters interpreting
a single comment in different ways. Sometimes these double meanings
are apparent to individual characters, and sometimes they are apparent
only to the alert reader. For example, when Mr. Elton says of Emma’s
portrait of Harriet, “I cannot keep my eyes from it,” he means to
compliment Emma, but she thinks he is complimenting Harriet. When,
during the scene in which Mr. Knightley proposes to Emma, Emma says,
“I seem to have been doomed to blindness,” Knightley believes she
speaks of her blindness to Frank’s love of Jane, but she actually
refers to her blindness about her own feelings. One of our main
tasks in reading the novel is to decode all of the subtexts underlying
seemingly casual interactions, just as the main characters must.
The novel concludes by unraveling the mystery behind who loves whom,
which allows us to understand Austen’s subtext more fully.
