“As a walking companion, Emma had very early foreseen how useful she might find her.” Use, use, and use. “a Harriet Smith, therefore, one whom she could summon at any time to a walk, would be a valuable addition to her privileges.” The article is rather pointed as is Harriet being a "valuable addition to her privileges" - spare me that sort of friendship.
“and was confirmed in all her kind designs.” -Free indirect discourse is my favorite. One can picture the little satisfied smirk Emma gives herself when she has this thought.
“though strength of understanding must not be expected…exactly the something which her home required.” -Rather dehumanizing, isn’t it? A Harriet being the something. There is (as seen below and above and in the previous chapters) frequent mention of variations of the word “use” in regards to Harriet.
“Harriet would be loved as one to whom she could be useful.”
“Her first attempts at usefulness were in an endeavour to find out who were the parents;” Who is this useful for one wonders?
“sense as much above my notice as in every other he is below it” -I’m curious as to how this would be read by Austen’s contemporaries. Is Emma’s snobbery egregious or expected?
Emma is fighting for her life in this chapter – to lose her walking companion and new project right after she’s come alive to all of its her usefulness would be very lowering. She's just got to break up the attachment to Robert Martin, huh?
Spoilers/Adaptation mini-rant: One of my biggest (and really only) complaint about Clueless is that Emma’s character as portrayed through Cher is just a bit too softened. I know Amy Heckerling was looking to make a sunny and optimistic film, but it does come at the cost of Cher not being quite so off-putting as novel Emma. In Clueless, Cher’s objection to Travis can be considered fair, in some ways, and she only gives her approval, as it were, of Travis and Tai as a couple after Travis works on his sobriety. In the novel, Robert Martin doesn’t go through any change to be worthy of Harriet – the change is in Emma’s viewpoint entirely.
Back to the chapter:
Outside of everything else that is perfection in her writing (ha), Austen’s use of idiolect is so wonderful. You can see it in this chapter in Harriet’s repeated use of the word “odd.” We’re going to get to my favorite example of a character’s particular speech pattern in the next couple of chapters, so I’m looking forward to lots of foolish grinning as I read along.
More spoilers! My favorite theory!
“With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of every body’s feelings;” The “mysteries” of this novel are mostly interpersonal, and Emma’s lament at the end of the novel comes from realizing she incorrectly read just about everybody’s. I would argue that everybody includes herself - Emma is in love with Mr. Knightley the whole novel without being aware of it. Austen puts the evidence of this out there as bluntly as she shows the reader that Mr. Elton is trying to court Emma, that Frank and Jane have something going on – one just needs to see beyond Emma’s point of view.
There is no revolution in his behavior to her during the novel, no her seeing him in a new light. He is what he always is from the beginning, as is Emma’s appreciation of him - she always thinks him of the best, what a man and a gentleman should be in his fullest. That she does not realize what that appreciation actually represents is very in keeping with her not really understanding, well, pretty much anything. I also think it’s worth noting that Emma remarks on his figure twice in the novel – that’s a lot for Austen!
“Mr. Knightley’s air is so remarkably good that it is not fair to compare Mr. Martin with him. You might not see one in a hundred with gentleman so plainly written as in Mr. Knightley.”
“Neither would Mr. Knightley’s downright, decided, commanding sort of manner, though it suits him very well; his figure, and look, and situation in life seem to allow it;”
Back to the chapter:
“ingratiating himself with either of us” -Emma seems to have forgotten this idea by the next paragraph.
“She then repeated some warm personal praise which she had drawn from Mr. Elton…” -The “drawn from” is so funny.
“on Harriet’s there could be little doubt that the idea of being preferred by him would have all the usual weight and efficacy.” -I found this idea quite similar to how Henry Tilney is written to have fallen in love in Northanger Abbey: “he was assured of his affection; and that heart in return was solicited, which, perhaps, they pretty equally knew was already entirely his own; for, though Henry was now sincerely attached to her, though he felt and delighted in all the excellencies of her character and truly loved her society, I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new circumstance in romance…”
