Emma

Emma differs from many of Jane Austen’s heroines in that she is wealthy and therefore does not need to marry to secure her financial life as other girls of her time do. This is what Emma tells Miss Harriet Smith, telling her that her financial sufficiency is the reason she has no motive for marriage. This is a clear difference from the rest of Jane Austen’s novels, in which the pursuit of marriage to secure one’s financial life is a central theme. However, Emma’s financial sufficiency does not make the novel as serious as previous works such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Unlike the rest of Jane Austen’s heroines, Emma does not show any admiration for the men she meets and does not feel anything towards them. Rather, she feels surprised and contemptuous when Mr. Elton declares his love for her. It is also clear that Emma fails to understand the nature of the love affair between Harriet Smith and Robert Martineau, and not only that, but she interprets the relationship as a relationship for the sake of interests and obtaining money. Soon Harriet Smith reveals her interest in Mr. Knightley and Emma realizes that she is about to fall in love with him too, but she does not reveal it, but it is possible that the reason why she did not fall in love with another man after that is because she loved Mr. Knightley without realizing it.