Other Characters

[vale pao]

In here we can talk about other secondary characters we loved about this book.

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Aww Harriet - bless her! So innocent and sweet. She is right to end up with Martin :)
Also love Miss Bates - JA is so clever how she makes her speeches Boring to read as this is just what she is like!!
Churchill - I don't like him even though he didn't do anything really bad like Willoughby or Wickham , his behaviour towards Emma and Jane is intolerable!!
I like the relationship between Emma and John Knightley - it is sweet I find. :)

[A.]

Isn't Miss Bates hilarious! Her monologues were incredible! I agree with Soph about Churchill. I didn't like him at all. Period. He was the exact opposite of what a gentleman should be.

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Totally agree Anne...

[Nicole D.]

I loved Mr.Woodhouse and Miss Bates.Both so funny and they are my favorite characters in the book.
Frank is a jerk.I never liked him form the start.

[A.]

Exactly. I really liked John Knightly and Isabella. Weren't they great!

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Love all those!
Hate Frank!!
Feel sorry for Jane!!

[A.]

I know! Frank was awful.

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

What did we think of John and Isabella Knightley?

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

(Hello Steph!! :D)
I agree! They are a lovely couple together and Isabella is better with John making her reasonable! She is very much like her father!

With Isabella being like her father and John with his temper, does this make Emma and Knightley the better couple? But they have their faults too!

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

I think I would agree.
The short clip of the courtship we see in the 2009 one looks like it was a great relationship!
But I love Emma and George together and their story. Also, I think the faults of Emma are better than her sisters and the same with the Knightley brothers (but I guess that's debatable!)

[Marren]

I like Jane Fairfax, such a sweet girl but how in the name of the clouds could she bear to secretly engage a guy and live around his relations. Additionally, watch him behave so unbecoming with Emma and not speak up

I like Frank Churchill, after I tap him over the head. I suspected from the beginning he was the one who bought Jane the piano. Going to London for a haircut yeah right! In addition, I suspected him (like Mr. Knightley) concerning his attachment to Jane.

I admire Robert Martin. He never stopped loving Harriet, even after the way Harriet treated him. God bless his soul.

I have a certain partiality to Harriet but at the same time, I detest the way she depended on Emma for everything. She was basically kissing Emma's butt. Emma had her wrapped around her fingers. Thank goodness she came to her senses.

I like John Knightley, he said things how he saw it and he worked hard to keep his family safe, healthy and happy. I like the part where he basically told Mr. Woodhouse to keep his Mr. Perry, he has Mr. Wingfield.

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Mr Woodhouse!! Love him as well ;)

I love John as well! His relationship with Emma is funny as well!

Harriet is very innocent in my opinion and does copy Emma a little too much. But she is sweet.

Robert Martin is great! So constant and perfect for Harriet.

Jane and Frank. Like Jane. Can't understand how she put up with it either and Frank - dislike him really! How could he do what he did!?! Any of it!

[Marren]

Baffles me, he tried to explain it in that long letter he sent to his stepmom. He knew he was wrong because he apologize a gazallion time. He did it because he did not want anyone to know of the secret engagement to Jane. I understand that part but I wanted to deal with him at Box Hill. There was the time I think his interaction with Emma was inexcusable. Perhaps one may ask should Jane accept his apology and agree to continue the engagement?

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Box hill was the worst! he went too far then, too far! and Emma suffered as well, with that comment to Miss Bates, which she wouldn't have done had she not be encouraged by Frank

[Marren]

Now, I will disagree with you there. No one would tell Emma what to say, she may have appeased when Mr. Knightley scolded her. However,no one could tell Emma what to say, she was no Harriet. This is one of the reasons I am so 'hard' on her. Emma is an intelligent and witty girl, she is just spoilt to the extent that she wants everything her way, inspite of the consequences. Emma always thought Miss Bates spoke to much and honestly she did. Geez, Miss Bates had monologues just for her.

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Ok fair enough. But on that fateful picnic Frank didn't help..

Yes Emma is spoilt but Austen told us she was from the off - she says at the start about her having very little to distress or vex her for the past 21 years.

[Marren]

True, I am glad she got a bit of distress and vexation. She would understood, how others felt when she said or did something to them. In addition, I guess it is a part of life to go through moments of grief. It is like a rite of passage. I guess that made her character real. Yes her mom died early. I have that nagging feeling that Austen wanted to teach something to Emma. Emma is different from any of Austen's heroines. She did not desire marry and she was loaded. Her financial future was secure, what was Emma to worry about now? She is playing match making. What's up with that?

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Exactly. She is like she is (and spoilt, love it when Knightley accuses her directly - that hurts her!) because of all this. He doesn't have to/wish to marry. She has loads of money. She is already mistress of the house. She has nothing better to do then to match maker and sort out, well meddle, in others lives!

[Sarah]

Emma is my least favourite heroine, I think she matures over the course of the book, but she is very different to Jane's other main characters.

Soph - love your comment above "too far, too far" lol.

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

She is very different yes.
Haha thanks Sarah!

[A.]

Marren wrote: "Now, I will disagree with you there. No one would tell Emma what to say, she may have appeased when Mr. Knightley scolded her. However,no one could tell Emma what to say, she was no Harriet. This i..."

Hmmm...I'm kind of in the middle. Emma was intelligent and she wasn't like Harriet, doing what anybody told her. But the saying, "You are who you surround yourself with" (or something like that) is true. The people you spend time with influence you thinking and actions. It is a fact of life. Emma's natural tendencies weren't to hurt people, as she did Miss Bates, but her character also saw, and was disgusted with, the tittle tattle that Miss Bates was constantly throwing forth. So, when she spent a lot of time in the company of a person who cared little for the feelings of others, she slowly began to feel the same way. And as this happened, she began to harshly ridicule (aloud) the things which she would normally just say in privacy of people whom she knew would never repeat her confidences. Do you know what I mean?

[Sophie, Your Lovely Moderator]

Very fair point. And I agree. I think that and similar reasons are why I don't find her annoying.

[Marren]

I know what you mean Anne, we all think things that we do not say sometimes. Although, sometimes when I do, the people around look at me. Sometimes I say to them, what you were thinking it. To a certain extent, I understand the dilemma with Miss Bates because honestly, I would have told her to shut up. However, my issue with Emma is her interference with people's hearts and attitude to people poorer than her. For the latter point, this attribute may be associated with her upbringing in a privileged home.