Emma (novel): Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Written in 1815, ''Emma'' is a novel that takes a slightly different take on [[Jane Austen]]'s typical romantic novel, particularly in the fact that the heroine herself is a [[Rich Bitch]].

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: {{spoiler|Mr. Knightley and Emma.}}

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Happens to Emma. She is a very endearing character - open, sweet, generous, witty, energetic, a loyal friend and a devoted daughter; but she is also what by modern standards might fairly be called a snob.

* [[Bumbling Dad]]: Emma's father.

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Miss Bates has a tendency to provide valuable insight into what characters in the story are thinking, but most people don't care or notice because she [[Motor Mouth|rambles on and on and on]]. [[Walls of Text|Even the readers usually ignore what she says]].

* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: Mrs. Elton, who uses what was then a tired old Italian catchphrase to refer to her husband. She even gets the phrase wrong, showing her to be not just small-minded and behind the times but also badly educated.

** Though the mispronunciation of the Italian phrase may be a mistake on the publisher's part rather than the character's. The argument is that Mr. Elton would have corrected his wife at the first opportunity after her misusing the phrase and that she would have been too embarrassed to use the correct pronunciation.

* [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: When Emma actually attempts to be friendly to Jane Fairfax, she finds herself soundly rebuffed, and honestly doesn't know why. It turns out that {{spoiler|Jane, who was secretly engaged to Frank Churchill all along, was deeply jealous of the attention he was paying to Emma as part of the coverup. Jane later acknowledges that she was unreasonable about it, given that Emma had no idea. Meanwhile, Mr. Knightley takes a severe dislike to Frank Churchill for similar reasons.}}

** {{spoiler|When Harriet confides to Emma that she is in love with Mr. Knightley, it causes Emma realize her own feelings for him.}}

* [[The Minnesota Fats]]: Jane, to Emma.

* [[Missing Mom]]: Mrs. Woodhouse died when Emma was very little.

* [[Mystery Literature]]: Several readers, including BBC producer Sue Birtwistle and mystery novelist P. D. James, have argued that ''Emma'' is one of the first of these to exist, given the way Austen plants clues about relationships and plot resolution all throughout.

* [[No Antagonist]]

* [[Shipper On Deck]]: Emma -- first for Captain Weston and Miss Taylor, then for Harriet and Mr. Elton, then for Harriet and Frank. Only the first one works out.

* [[Walls of Text]]: A lot of Miss Bates' dialogue.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Mr. Knightley to Emma, especially after her manipulation of Harriet and her rudeness to Miss Bates.

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: Subtly done with Emma. She encourages Harriet in her reading of ''The Romance of the Forest'', a Gothic novel by Ann Radcliffe which stars a girl of obscure origins who is ultimately revealed to be Nobly Born. Emma clearly thinks Harriet belongs in a similar story, when in actuality {{spoiler|Harriet is the bastard of a tradesman, who leaves her quite comfortably off economically but does nothing to raise her social status}}.

[[Category:Mystery Literature]]

[[Category:Emma]]