Highbury as a character The British critic Robert Irvine wrote that unlike the situation in Austen's previous novels, the town of Highbury in Surrey emerges as a character in its own right. Irvine wrote that: "In
Emma, we find something much closer to a genuinely communal voice, a point of view at work in the narrative that cannot be reduced to the subjectivity of any one character. This point of view appears both as something perceived by Emma, an external perspective on events and characters that the reader encounters as and when Emma recognises it; and as an independent discourse appearing in the text alongside the discourse of the narrator and characters". Irvine points out the adjective "charming" appears to the narrator speaking, but notes the sentence goes on to associate "perfect" with "usual", which he pointed out was an incongruity. Irvine suggested the next sentence "would always be called ten" is in fact the voice of the community of Highbury, which wants the fiancée of Mr Elton to be "perfect", whom the narrator sarcastically calls the "usual" sort of community gossip is about a new arrival in Highbury, whom everyone thinks is "charming". Wiltshire noted that Austen put the population of Highbury as 352 people, and said that although clearly most of these people do not appear as characters - or at best as minor characters - Austen created the impression of Highbury as a "social commonwealth". Irvine wrote that Austen's use of three different voices in
Emma—the voice of Highbury, the narrator's voice, and Emma's voice, can at times make it very confusing to the reader about just who is actually speaking. Irvine wrote that Elizabeth Bennet in
Pride and Prejudice and Fanny Price in
Mansfield Park enjoy the moral authority of being good women, but must marry a well-off man to have the necessary social influence to fully use this moral authority whereas Emma is born with this authority. Knightley declares his respect for both Smith and Martin, but argues that as part of the yeomen class, neither belongs with the gentry, while Emma insists on including her best friend/protegée in with the gentry. In Regency England and in
Emma, the term friendship describes a power relationship where one higher party can do favours for the lower party while the term "claim intimacy" is a relationship of equals. The use of these terms "friendship" and "claim intimacy" refers to the question of who belongs to the local elite. Neither Emma nor Mr Knightley question the right of the elite to dominate society, but rather their power struggle is over who belongs to the elite, and who has the authority to make the decision about whom to include and whom to exclude, which shows that in a certain sense that Emma is just as powerful socially as is Mr Knightley. Further complicating this power struggle is the arrival of Mrs Elton, who attempts to elevate Jane Fairfax into the elite. Mrs Elton is only a first generation gentry, as her father bought the land that she grew up on with money he had raised in trade. Her snobbery is therefore that of a
nouveau riche, desperately insecure about her status.
Gender reversal There are numerous parallels between the main characters and plots of
Pride and Prejudice and
Emma: Both novels feature a proud central character, respectively, Darcy and Emma; a critical future spouse, Elizabeth and Mr Knightley; an easily swayed friend, Bingley and Harriet; an almost-thwarted marital ambition, Jane and Martin; a dependent relative, Georgiana and Mr Woodhouse; and a potential object of matrimony who is a wrong choice for the central character, Anne de Bourgh and Frank Churchill. These pairs suggest that
Emma may have been a gendered reversal of the earlier novel. In
Pride and Prejudice, Thomas Lefroy, a charming and witty Irishman, may have been the basis for Elizabeth's personality, while Austen may have used herself as the model for Darcy's reserve and self-consciousness when among company, but open and loving demeanor when among close friends and family. Reversing the genders of
Pride and Prejudice in
Emma allowed Austen to disturb paradigms and examine the different expectations society had of men and women; the elements she chose to include in
Emma and how she chose to revise them yield a powerful but ultimately conventional commentary on the status of women. Wiltshire noted that Jane Fairfax cannot walk to the post office in the rain to pick up the mail without becoming the object of village gossip while Mr Knightley can ride all the way to London without attracting any gossip. These spatial divisions are not merely settings but serve as symbolic boundaries that shape each character’s opportunities and constraints. For instance, Emma’s attempts at matchmaking and social maneuvering take place almost entirely within these indoor, community‑oriented spaces, reinforcing the notion that her power is relational rather than institutional. Scholars have suggested that Austen uses these contrasts between interior and exterior spaces to critique the rigid social structures of her time and to highlight the subtle forms of influence women could exert within the limitations imposed on them.
Nationhood and the "Irish Question" The novel is set in England, but there are several references to Ireland, which were related to the ongoing national debate about the
"Irish Question". In 1801, the Act of Union had brought Ireland into the United Kingdom, but there was a major debate about what was Ireland's precise status in the United Kingdom; another kingdom, province, or a colony? The travel itinerary that Miss Bates sketches out for the Campbells' visit to Ireland is satire of a typical "Irish tale" novel, which was Austen's way of mocking those who had a superficial appreciation of Irish culture by buying the "Irish tales" books that presented Ireland in a very stereotypical way. The American scholar Colleen Taylor wrote about Austen's treatment of the "Irish Question": "That Emma applies a distant and fictionalized Irish space to her very limited and dissimilar English circle, turning a somewhat ordinary English young woman, Jane Fairfax, into an Irish scandal, proves that the object of English humor is—for once—not the stage Irishman but the privileged English woman who presumes to know what he and his culture are really like." It is only Mr Knightley who can willingly share the burden of Emma's father, as well as providing her with guidance, love and companionship. He has been in love with her since she was 13 years old, but neither he nor she have realized that there is a natural bond between them. He declares his love for her: "What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does."
Female empowerment In
Emma, Emma Woodhouse serves as a direct reflection of Jane Austen's feminist characterization of female heroines, in terms of both female individuality and independence (romantically, financially, etc.). In terms of romantic independence, Emma's father, Henry Woodhouse, very consistently preaches against the idea of marriage. He plays an integral role in Emma's own initial perception of matrimony, leading her to make use of her free time by becoming the town "matchmaker", which leaves her happily single and unwed for the majority of the novel. One of the predominant reasons Emma is able to live a comfortable and independent lifestyle is her gifted inheritance—given to her by a past family member—which allows her to depend on no one other than herself for a sustainable, wealthy, and self-sufficient life although she currently lives in her father's house. Austen portrays Emma as educated and capable, and extremely popular and well-liked in her hometown of Highbury. Literary scholar Laurence Mazzeno addresses Austen's narrative in regard to female individualism and empowerment, stating, "… Austen deals honestly and with skill in treating relationships between men and women, and presents women of real passion – but not the flamboyant, sentimental kind that populate conventional romances ... Austen is not 'narrow' in her treatment of character, either; her men and women furnish as broad a view of humanity as would be obtained by traveling up and down the world ... Austen was conservative in both her art and her politics – suggesting that, even from a woman's point of view, Austen was hardly out to subvert the status quo." In the Bedford Edition of
Emma edited by Alistair M. Duckworth, there are five essays to accompany the text that discuss contemporary critical perspectives, one of which is about feminist criticism. The feminist criticism essay was written by Devoney Looser. In her essay, she asks the question whether Jane Austen was a feminist. She also states in her essay that one's answer to the question not only depends on how one understands Austen's novels, but also how one defines feminism. Looser states that if you define feminism broadly as a movement relating to how women are limited and devalued within a culture then Austen's work applies to this concept of feminism. She states that if you define feminism as a movement to eradicate gender, race, class, and sexual prejudice and to agitate for change, then Austen's work does not really apply to this concept of feminism.
Wealth Emma is a wealthy young woman, having a personal fortune amounting to £30,000. This would be sufficient for her to live independently in the same style as she is accustomed to. As she herself points out, this means that there is no financial pressure on her to marry. This is in sharp contrast to the heroines of Austen's other novels, who all lack sufficient resources to maintain as single women the lifestyle in which they have been raised by their families. This means that Emma has greater freedom of choice and behaviour, in some ways closer to that exercised by wealthy men of the time.
Parenting Mr Woodhouse adopted a laissez-faire parenting style when it came to raising Emma. In fact, most of the time it seems that Emma is parenting her father, taking on the role of both daughter and mother. Emma feels entirely responsible for the wellbeing of her father and therefore feels obliged to stay with him. Her father is a selfish but gentle man and does not approve of matrimony. If Emma were to marry he would lose his primary carer. This is not to say that Emma feels restrained by her father, in fact quite the opposite, Emma has the power over the world she inhabits. The narrator announces at the start of the novel: "The real evils of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments" (Austen, 1). Although Mr Woodhouse is lacking as a father figure, Mr Knightley acts as a surrogate father to Emma. Mr Knightley is not afraid to correct Emma's behaviour and tell her what she needs to hear. Mr Knightley reprimands Emma when he learns of her match-making and also later when Emma is extremely rude to Miss Bates. Still, the reader cannot ignore the developmental damage that has been caused by Mr Woodhouse's indifferent parenting style as Emma struggles to form healthy adult relationships.
Class Class is an important aspect of the novel. The distinctions between the classes are made explicitly clear to the reader by Emma herself and by Austen's descriptions. The social class structure has the Woodhouses and Mr Knightley at the top, the Eltons, the Westons, Frank Churchill, and even further down the line Harriet, Robert Martin, and the Bates family including Jane Fairfax. This social class map becomes important when Emma tries to match Mr Elton and Harriet together. Harriet is not considered a match for Elton due to her lowly class standing, despite what Emma encourages her to believe. Emma's initial disregard for class standing (as regards Harriet at least) is brought to light by Mr Knightley who tells her to stop encouraging Harriet. The scholar James Brown argued that the much quoted line where Emma contemplates the Abbey-Mill Farm, which is the embodiment of "English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive" is in fact meant to be ironic. Brown wrote that Austen had a strong appreciation of the land as not only a source of aesthetic pleasure, but also a source of money, an aspect of pre-industrial England that many now miss. In this sense, the beauty of the Abbey-Mill Farm is due to the hard work of Mr Knightley's tenant, the farmer Robert Martin, a man whom Emma dismisses as the sort of person "with whom I feel I can have nothing to do", while Knightley praises him as "open, straight forward, and very well judging". Lane's text provides a general examination of the symbolism of food in Emma and invites further interpretations. Food is used as a symbol to convey class hierarchy, stereotypes and biases throughout the novel. The language and actions that surround food bring the characters of Highbury's inner circle closer together. For Emma Woodhouse, food is a symbol of human interdependence and goodwill. These gifts are not without motive, and food—as it pertains to Emma Woodhouse—only becomes interesting when it pertains to love. "[R]omance is a far more interesting subject than food. Emma quickly reduces the topic of eating to a run of the mill 'any thing,' and arbitrary and empty screen that only becomes interesting when projected on by those in love". This becomes evident to the reader when Emma overestimates Mr Elton's affections for Harriet from their engaging in conversation about the food at the Cole's party. Emma Woodhouse interprets food conversation and gifts of food as means of affection between two lovers.
Masculinity Austen explores the idea of redefining manhood and masculinity with her male characters: particularly Mr Knightley, Mr Woodhouse, and Frank Churchill. In
Emma, Austen includes typical ideals of English masculinity, including, "familial responsibility, sexual fidelity, and leadership transition …" Mr Woodhouse is portrayed chiefly as foolish and an incompetent father figure. Clark comments on Mr Woodhouse's age and how this affects his masculine identity. He resists change and pleasure, yet he is still respected in the community. Mr Knightley is Jane Austen's perfect gentleman figure in
Emma. He has manners, class, and money. Further, he is presented as, "a well-adjusted alternative to these more polarized understandings of masculinity seen in characters of
John Willoughby and
Edward Ferrars." ==Allusions to real places==