I noticed that the theme/motif of social status and education is developing, as everything seems to revolve around where you fall on the pyramid of social placement. One example of this where I’m seeing a lot of is the Mr. Martin situation. Emma is against him and it seems as though she doesn’t really see him as a good match for Harriet because she is always pointing out his uneducated writing technique and where he lives. She always makes comments like “he is very plain” and compares him to the men she knows when she says “At Hartfield, you have had very good specimens of well educated, well bred men. I should be surprised if, after seeing them, you could be in company with Mr. Martin” (Austen, 29). This shows just how important social class was back then. Emma is so biased to what she is accustomed to, and won’t open her mind to see passed where Mr. Martin grew up. It reveals that people of Emma’s upbringing care very much about the opinion of others, and it makes them come off as conceited and snobby toward anyone they see as being below them.
Alex, I agree with your point on how a major theme growing is that of the importance of social status. Emma especially is keen on status as we saw with the Mr. Martin situation. We saw how she did not approve of him because he was to be considered “lower” than Harriet and she did not want her to be with someone who was much lower in status. Emma claims that Mr. Martin is “but a farmer can need none of my help, and is therefore, in one sense, as much above my notice, as in every other he is below it” (26). I also agree with how snobby and rude Emma comes off to us because of her obsession with status and making sure she’s not associated with anyone considered lower than her.
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