Woman's Role In The 19th Century

The role of woman in the 19th century

The novel shows as the role of woman in the 19th century. They had limited behaviours and freedom.

Emma, who is an intelligent and vigour young woman, has limited options to occupy her time. That is why she becomes a matchmaker, it is a diversion, a hobby, something that she does to pass time. The activities practised by woman at that time were mainly social activities, like parties, charity visits, artistic activities like music. On a daily basis, these activities could be considered repetitive and monotonous.

In Emma’s world, the most important thing that woman were allowed to do was to participate in rituals of courtship and accept or reject marriage proposals.

4.4.3. The impact of imagination

Emma behaves in a certain way because she believes that she is always right. That is why she does not understand why Mr Elton is in love with her and not Harriet. She speaks badly of Jane Fairfax because she is jealous of the attention she gets. Her thoughts blind her to some important facts. She cannot see that Harriet is in love with Mr Knightley, not Frank. The sarcastic unbiasedness of the narrator permits us to see many of these misconstructions before the characters

The misinterpretations

The main problem is that characters incapable of expressing their feelings clearly, because of their etiquette and manners. Consequently, their feelings are misunderstood.

Austen suggests that the complex speeches of Emma and Mr Elton difficult the comprehension to what they mean. She also suggests that Mr Martin’s natural and straight speech is better that the other bright and sometimes cruel speeches (the example of Emma insulting Mr Bates). If these speeches were simpler and clear, some misinterpretations would not happened.

4.4.5. Visits and parties

The most important parts and actions of the novel happen during visits and parties.

The visits show the level of closeness that characters have between them. An example of that is Mr Knightley attendance at Hartfield, which indicates that he is a close friend of the family and cares for Emma.

Parties deliver opportunities for social scheming and misinterpretations. They also provide characters a way to witness other people’s relations and behaviour. The novel is extremely playful, enriched by riddles, word games and objects that lead to