The Things You Learn at a Dinner Party
~Blog Post #4 ~
Topic E
May 7, 2015
Mary Kate Mooney
Chapters 25-27 take place at the Coles' dinner party. All the main characters decide to accept the invitations. It takes Emma a little longer to accept, because she feels she is above the Coles' socially. We learn more about Emma when she says the she "regretted that her father's known habits would be giving her refusal less meaning than she could wish." By saying this, we know Emma wishes to make the Coles' feel somewhat slighted. Most people would make up an excuse, so there are no hard feelings, but Emma actually wants that to be the case. Despite her feelings about the Coles' being less than her, she still decides to attend. At this party, Emma and the rest of them learn of Jane's musical talent as she plays for everyone. At this elegant dinner party, there is some question as to the love triangle going on. Frank is outwardly rude towards Emma. However, Jane Austen gives us an idea that there is some history between the two. This confuses Emma. Overall, the scene at the dinner party raises some skepticism and leads us to draw some conclusions about the characters that may not necessarily be true. The love triangles going on raise questions about who will end up with who and we learn some truths about the characters feelings about others.
Mary Kate, I agree with your point on how we begin to learn more about Emma and her character. I feel that we see her true colors in that at first she claims that she would not attend the party because the Coles’ were below her but when she learns that everyone is attending, she doesn’t want to be left out and decides to go. This shows that Emma is not very strong and follows the crowd because if she felt strongly about not going she should of stuck to her word but when she realizes who is attending she quickly changes her mind. Also, Emma is hung up on social status and describes the Cole’s as being “of low origin, in trade, and only moderately genteel” (195). For this reason, of categorizing the Coles’ as such, Emma should not have attended their dinner party.
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