Summary: Chapter 16
The first error . . . was foolish, it
was wrong, to take so active a part in bringing any two people together.
See Important Quotations Explained
Back at Hartfield after her ride with Mr. Elton, Emma
plunges into self-recrimination as she looks back over the past
weeks. Her biggest regret concerns Harriet, whose feelings for Elton,
Emma realizes, are due mostly to Emma’s own encouragement. She decides
she need not pity Elton, because the artificiality of his addresses
suggests that he was more interested in her fortune than in herself.
She realizes that both of the Knightley brothers have been right
about Elton and that she has been wrong all along. Emma vows to
give up matchmaking, but she cannot stop herself from searching
for a new suitor for Harriet.
The next morning, Emma is comforted by the reflection
that neither Elton’s nor Harriet’s feelings could have been very
strong and by the fact that no one else needs to know what has happened.
Several days of snow provide a respite, as everyone stays at home,
but Emma dreads telling Harriet what has happened.
Summary: Chapter 17
Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley return to London, and Mr.
Elton writes Mr. Woodhouse to announce that he will spend the next
few weeks in the town of Bath. Relieved, Emma immediately visits
Harriet to explain what has happened. Emma’s sense of her own failures,
and Harriet’s modesty and sweetness in taking the news, give Emma
the temporary impression that Harriet, rather than herself, is “the
superior creature.” She moves Harriet to Hartfield and attempts
to comfort her and drive Elton out of Harriet’s mind. Emma tries
to prepare Harriet for the inevitable moment when they will see
Elton in their social circle after he returns from Bath.
Summary: Chapter 18
Frank Churchill does not make his expected visit, to the
disappointment of Mrs. Weston in particular. Emma, preoccupied with
her other worries, does not mind, but she feels she must express
disappointment so that she will appear her usual self. Her warmth
in doing so gets her into an argument with Mr. Knightley about the young
man. Knightley expresses the same thought Emma has expressed: how
can a twenty-four-year-old man be prevented by his aunt from doing
his duty? In reply, Emma suggests that Knightley is a poor judge
of “the difficulties of dependence.” She expresses her sympathies
for Frank’s situation and her conviction that he would come if he
could, but Knightley counters that no sensible, honorable man would
be prevented from doing his duty. Emma predicts that Frank, when
he does arrive in Highbury, will be perfectly charming. Knightley
believes that Frank will be superficial and insufferable, and Knightley’s
prejudice against the stranger surprises Emma.
Analysis: Chapters 16–18
Chapter 16 is remarkable because,
unlike most of the novel’s other chapters, it deals almost exclusively
with Emma’s thoughts and feelings, her inner life. On the whole,
Emma seems to have gained a measure of understanding, but the narrator
has provided hints that she has more to learn. We see her grow in
humility and selflessness as, shaken by Elton’s proposal, she thinks
that she would have gladly undergone an even greater blow to her
ego, if only she could have avoided hurting Harriet. In addition
to increased self-understanding, Emma shows an increased understanding
of Elton’s character as “proud, assuming, conceited; very full of
his own claims, and little concerned about the feelings of others.”
However, Emma has not totally shed her former shortcomings. Emma’s
resolution to cease matchmaking is put in terms that suggest she
has gained a good deal of insight: “It was foolish, it was wrong,
to take so active a part in bringing two people together. It was
adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what ought
to be serious—a trick of what ought to be simple.” But soon she
is imagining new matches for Harriet, though she stops herself with
the recognition of her own relapse. Emma’s reflection that “there
had been no real affection either in [Elton’s] language or manners”
shows her continued sense of the superiority of her mind and manners
to Elton’s. She blames Elton probably more than he deserves for
her own mistakes, and her quick assumption that his feelings for
her were insincere seems self-serving. Her revised understanding
of Elton is accurate, but her refusal to implicate herself as party
to his misunderstanding shows that Emma’s self-understanding is
not complete.
Although the argument Emma and Mr. Knightley have about Frank
Churchill seems silly, since Emma argues feelingly for a position
she does not really hold and because Knightley makes harsh judgments
about a man he has never met, Knightley’s comments provide real
insight into his feelings. Because the usually calm and prudent
Knightley is so unnecessarily vexed by a stranger, we begin to suspect
that something more is bothering Knightley. Emma thinks Knightley’s
anger is “unworthy of the real liberality of mind” that we expect
from him. In hindsight, it is clear that his vexation stems from
subconscious jealousy and marks the beginnings of his romantic feelings
for Emma, but in the meantime we remain as mystified as she.
In describing Emma’s quarrel with Knightley, the narrator
indirectly comments on society’s treatment of different genders
by contrasting Emma’s and Knightley’s views, which underscore the different
opportunities that society makes available to women and men. The
narrator contrasts Emma’s insistence on the “difficulties of dependence”
and the subtle, complex, and powerful influence that family obligations
can have upon one’s freedom, with Knightley’s insistence that men
who think rightly should act resolutely and will not encounter real
opposition if they do so. Clearly, Emma’s vision and understanding
of family dependence is a product of her observations and experiences
as a woman, and it seems that she may be arguing more about herself
than about Frank. Knightley’s vision of and insistence upon resolute
action, on the other hand, is a strictly masculine view of correct
and plausible behavior.
