Passage One Prose

For the elite of the early 1900’s, everything rides on whom you associate yourself with. Friendships, courtships, and even marriages ride on the single idea that one must better themselves and climb the social ladder to a higher position than one is already at. One does not simply marry for love, or even befriend someone because they genuinely have things in common, but rather to be accepted into society and climb through the ranks in order to achieve societal superiority. In Emma by Jane Austen, there are many passages that depict a scene of social climbing and marriage for class instead of love. Page 20 of Emma does a particularly good job at exposing courtship for reasons other than feeling the person is good natured, and exposes that what family a person comes from is of utmost importance in marriage for the young women of Highbury. This passage is a very key one, because it demonstrates both Emma’s views on society as well as her view on herself. Emma sees marriage as a way to define social status; this is why she is deeply perturbed at the idea of her friend Harriet being intertwined with the Martin family. Because the Martin family is not of high status, Emma feels that Mr. Martin has nothing to offer Harriet. In Emma’s world, love is much less important than what the man a woman is marrying has to offer her. This passage also shows Emma’s views of herself. She sees herself as a matchmaker of sorts; she thinks that she has both the ability and the right to intervene in someone else’s affairs if it means that she is helping them climb the social ladder. Emma almost takes Harriet on as her own personal project in this passage, talking of improving Harriet in order for her to be more marriage material for a man of high class and societal rank. Emma does not see this as intrusive or out of line, but rather feels that it’s her duty as a friend of Harriet’s. Although Emma’s views may be thought of as rude and elitist, her opinion of what marriage should be like and her decision to invade someone else’s courtship would not be uncommon during the time period in which she lived. Austen is displaying a moral character that was very common during the beginning of the 20th century. Many women would have viewed Mr. Martin as “coarse” and “unpolished” (Austen), despite the fact that he was a good natured man, simply because he rented space in a large barn to live, and did not have the societal rank that many women sought after during this time.