Emma's Character as Developmentally Lacking

Emma, the title character of Jane Austen's well-liked novel, is arguably a character that lacks development from the beginning to the end of the tale; through her manipulative ways, she constantly exhibits self-centeredness and immaturity.

Beginning with her manipulative treatment of friend Harriet Smith, Emma lets her true colors shine through. She demands attention from everyone in her social circle, playing matchmaker and expecting positive reactions from those around her, like in the whole ordeal with Frank Churchill. This kind of craving for attention gives a clear view to readers of her self-involvement and immaturity, which initially we pass off as simply part of Emma's youthful personality. As the novel goes on, however, readers expect a drastic change in character from Emma, but when the novel ends and Emma still plays the same social games with her peers as she did when she was first introduced to us, it is a disappointment that our expectations were not fulfilled and the novel closes with Emma left as a character that didn't develop nearly as well as she appeared to have the potential to.

Emma's relationship with Harriet is one of dominance. After Mrs. Weston leaves Hartfield and Harriet is introduced, Emma sizes her up for how useful Harriet might be to her;

"Altogether she was quite convinced of Harriet Smith's being exactly the young friend she wanted - exactly the something which her home required...Mrs. Weston was the object of a regard, which had its basis in gratitude and esteem. Harriet would be loved as one to home she could be useful. For Mrs. Weston there was nothing to be done; for Harriet, every thing."[1]

This quote makes it seem like Emma is trying to see what benefit she can be to Harriet, but Emma is really more concerned with what benefit Harriet can be to her, and more specifically, to her ego. She uses what she thinks is her social expertise to try and fix up Harriet and Mr. Elton and fails miserably in every way when Harriet begins to fall for Mr. Elton and Mr. Elton then professes his love for Emma herself. Emma should be able to see from the beginning that her "services" are not needed; Harriet was already had her sights set on Mr. Martin until Emma decided it would be a far better idea to help Harriet social-climb than to support her friend in her pursuit of Mr. Martin. Emma manipulates Harriet into believing that she has feelings for Mr. Elton instead of Mr. Martin because Emma has decided what is best for Harriet, that she marry into a higher class. In manipulating Harriet, Emma creates for herself a parasite, one who needs Emma's thoughts and dictation in order to act. Harriet is this parasite. She lets Emma be the brain of the entire Mr. Elton situation, simply doing as Emma tells her to, completely dependent on Emma's decisions. Serving as the host in this parasitic relationship, Emma is benefiting from Harriet's dependency on her because it boosts her ego and makes her feel even more superior to Harriet than she did when all she knew about her was that they were of different classes. Also, by being the mastermind behind the ploy to get Harriet and Mr. Elton together, Emma is receiving constant attention from both parties, something she seems to crave throughout the entire novel.

Emma's ongoing flirtation with Frank Churchill adds to the proof of her constant craving for attention from those in her social circle.

"With Tuesday came the agreeable prospect of seeing him again, and for a loner time than hitherto; of judging of his general manners, and by inference, of the meaning of his manners towards herself; of guessing how soon it might be necessary for her to throw coldness into her air; and of fancying what the observations of all those might be, who were now seeing them together for the first time."[2]

Emma is blatantly using Frank Churchill to get positive attention from those around her and is ready and waiting to boost her own ego even more by rejecting Churchill's advances now that she is confident that he is interested in her. This behavior is horrendous; Emma is using people who care about her as objects to feed her ego and for nothing else. She views the situation as a game, like if she plays her cards right, she will win; everyone will applaud her affections for such a worthy bachelor and she will be able to do what she has always wanted to do, reject a marriage proposal.

Emma's self-centeredness is a reflection of a larger personality flaw, her overall immaturity. Though she is young, she is not so young that she should still be acting as self-involved and overly dramatic as she does. In the beginning of the novel, we, as readers, kind of excuse Emma's immature behavior with the way she uses Harriet because she is still an undeveloped character to us. But as the novel continues, her behavior doesn't change. The situation with Frank Churchill happens well into the storyline, yet Emma is still acts immature, like she hasn't grown at all as a character. The way Emma treats both situations is as if both Harriet and Frank are there solely for her, that their lives revolve around her life and what she thinks as much as her days revolve around her own life and her own thoughts. Emma becomes obsessed with the way other people look at and influence her relationships with both Harriet and Frank and doesn't pay any attention to the way she herself looks at and influences the one-on-one relationships with them. Emma takes Harriet and Frank on as projects. First she thinks she can better the life of a lower-born friend,

"She thought it would be an excellent match; and only too palpably, desirable, natural, and probable, for her to have much merit in planning it. She feared it was what every body else must think of and predict. It was not likely, however, that any body should have equaled her in the date of the plan, as it had entered her brain during the very first evening of Harriet's coming to Hartfield. The longer she considered it, the greater was her sense of expediency. Mr. Elton's situation was most suitable, quite the gentleman himself, and without low connections; at the same time not of any family that could fairly object to the doubtful birth of Harriet."[3]

This "plan" Emma expects to take credit for, falls through when it turns out Mr. Elton actually likes Emma, and so for a short while, Emma doesn't have a project to focus her attention on, that is, until the idea of Frank Churchill is presented to her. "Now, it so happened that in spite of Emma's resolution of never marrying, there was something in the name, in the idea of Mr. Frank Churchill, which always interested her."[4] Emma is bored, and just as when a child gets bored, she begins to look around her for something to play with. In this case, Emma's toy is her fake pursuit of Frank Churchill. Emma, as a young woman of marriageable age, should know better than to use people like she does, especially her peers, who are taking the marriage pressures more seriously than she is. She convinces Harriet to turn her back on a good match and leads her to believe that a man way out of her league is the better fit. In doing this, Emma takes complete advantage of the fact that Harriet trusts her and looks up to her as a friend. With Frank Churchill, Emma leads him on to believe that she has affections for him, when she really doesn't. When it comes out that Frank has been secretly engaged, he apologizes to Emma, thinking that she would be hurt by this news because of the way she had been acting toward him. Yet again, Emma was taking advantage of a friend's trust and wasn't taking their relationship seriously. Emma's immaturity is harmful to most of her relationships, yet she is blind to this problem and continues acting like a child.

Emma begins as a vibrant, youthful, egocentric character, and readers expect her to grow out of at least the egocentric part of her personality by the end of the novel, but unfortunately, this is not the case, and the repeated self-centeredness of Emma's actions can be appalling at times. Like in the situations with Harriet and Frank, every time Emma acts, she thinks about how whatever is going to happen will reflect upon her and only her. There are moments, like toward the end of the novel when she finds out about Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax's secret engagement, that she claims to feel bad that Jane was upset with her, but overall, Emma is mainly concerned with her reputation, not so much how Jane really feels. This quazi-compassionate gesture shows a small bit of growth in Emma's character, but other than this, there is no other evidence of Emma developing throughout the novel.

Emma's behavior is excused by everyone in her social circle, perhaps just because it is polite to do so in their society. However, if Emma were to live in more modern times, she would have had a rude awakening when people spoke up and refused to let her use them like she tries to. A friend like Harriet with an ounce of intelligence would not allow for the manipulation of her affections to occur, and a friend like Frank would be upset to find out that Emma had lead him on and used him as a way to boost her own ego, and he would most likely call her on it. But alas, Emma doesn't live in modern times, she exists in a different place in history, where to a modern mind, it is sad to see that so many honest people can be used and manipulated by someone like Emma, who isn't reprimanded for her immaturity and is not even expected to grow up.

[1]Austen, Jane. Emma. pg. 26-7

[2] Austen, Jane. Emma. pg. 198

[3] Austen, Jane. Emma. pg. 34

[4] Austen, Jane. Emma. pg. 112