worst week ever

Anna Rosete
Period 2

Emma Essay

“Emma Woodhouse, Handsome, clever and rich, with a happy home and happy disposition; had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” Pg 1.


Emma Woodhouse lives with her father in the town of Hartsfield. She socializes with some of the finest people and goes to the most elegant parties; Living an elated life. Never having to torment her mind with thoughts about her future because even after the death of her father she is to remain rich by receiving her father’s inheritance. In fact there is only one thing that seems to catch her interest; Matchmaking. It is one of Emma’s hobbies. She seems to like uniting people into marriage. For example, her friend Harriet. Emma tried to have Harriet and Mr. Elton made into a couple, and then later on in the novel she tries to match Harriet and Mr. Frank Churchill together.

Emma and I live very different lives. She lives her life without a care, while I live a hectic life and almost everyday is a challenge for me. It is very difficult to interpret me to her since the words don’t seem to be able to spew out that easily. Emma’s interest is to rouge people into marriage and I find it best to stay out of other people affairs. The only thing I can compare myself to Emma is that we both live with our fathers, and both of us have a sister that is already married and moved out of the house and both Emma and I don’t have a mother. Emma also doesn’t speak of her family much in the novel which might mean that she might have a small family, mainly consisting of Mr. Woodhouse and Emma Woodhouse. I also have a small family, which is just me and my father.

Emma Woodhouse is what I consider my complete opposite. Emma dreads on the idea of anybody below her circle of wealth, beauty, or elegance. Myself, I enjoy the company of variaties of people because it gives me different perspectives on people and the different type of stereotypes people catorgize each other in. I seem to judge people by the content of their characters, rather than the look of them. Whether rich or poor, attractive or displeasing to the eye, bright or lacking in intelligence. Emma on the other hand doesn’t like to allow people beneath her into her life which traps her onto letting her understand the characters of the many types of people she is surrounded by but never notices.

Emma is clueless about the events that occur around her. For example, when she thinks Mr. Elton loves Harriet and Mr. Elton ends up revealing his love towards Emma instead. Or when She thought Mr. Frank Churchill loved her and actually loved Miss. Jane Fairfax. Also the time where Mr. Robert Martin was after Harriet, all Emma saw was that Mr. Martin was beneath her and somehow she wanted Harriet to see the same thing. Emma would try not to make it obvious of her interfering, and she would say things to gimmick her and make her believe that Emma was right. One of the things she said was; “Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to "Yes," she ought to say "No" directly.'" Chapter 7, pg. 47
Emma is tricky with her dialogue. She says what she wants to say but she codes her words so what she is saying doesn’t seem harsh or isn’t fully understood, but it is still out there.

"She did not always feel so absolutely satisfied with herself, so entirely convinced that her opinions were right and her adversary's wrong." Chapter 8, pg. 61
Emma is blind to the point to where she only sees what she wants to see. She makes up excuses to prevail into what will hope to come out to be. In her world everything is how she wants it to take place. She doesn’t see the reality in things, she won’t accept it and she throws off any other point of view besides her selves. I unlike Emma like seeing things in a realistic way, and I like moving around my ideas to try to see new perspectives instead of getting stuck into one place and not being able to move around my own ideas. "'Whatever you say is always right, and therefore I suppose, and believe, and hope it must be so; but otherwise I could not have imagined it. It is so much beyond anything I deserve.'" Chapter 9, pg. 69 I admire Emma, she is able to fool people into beliving into what she belives in, and into agreeing with her belifs even when it may not be entirely true. "Mr. Knightley, in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them...." Chapter 1, pg. 8


Today’s society is completely diverted than back into the 1800s. Woman in the 1800s had much higher expectations than now. Things have changed slightly but not quite fully. Woman still are desperate to marry, but not all of them. Women used to be judged based on if they had a spouse of not, if they weren’t people often believed their was something wrong with those women. In today’s life we see women having total independence from men. Women now make their own fortune and in many occasions women also make more many then most men.

In pasts society marriage was done somewhat differently from what we see today. But in a sort of way peoples ways change every decade. In the past for a person to be able to talk to another person of the opposite sex, they would have to first be introduced to each other by a third person. Back then compared to now a men/women can go up to a anyone and start a conversation without it being considered scandalous; and in many times this is how people find their wife’s/husbands. In a way it is still considered preferable for men to go up to a woman and talk to her, but its not considered necessarily anymore.

The gender roles have also changed from today’s modern society. Women aren’t always staying at home with their children; they usually have jobs and have a nanny take care of their kids. Men are still expected to work and keep food on the table for the family, but it’s now expected from both the parents.