Emma, Week 3

SIGNIFICANCE OF A QUOTE: "If she had so misinterpreted his feelings, she had little right to wonder that he, with self-interest to blind him, should have mistaken hers [...] It was foolish, it was wrong, to take so active a part in bringing any two people together" (151). This is the part in chapter 16 where Emma finally realizes her grave mistake in trying to match up Mr. Elton and Harriet Smith. I think that in this quote, she begins to realize that she isn't perfect and amazing at everything. She knows that she made a mistake. Elton was always in love with her, not at all with Harriet. Emma feels terrible that she did this to Harriet, that she almost forced her to be in love with Elton, and then have to tell Harriet that he, in the end, wasn't in love with her, but proposed to Emma instead. Emma is a very compassionate person, so I think she really does wish she'd never tried to match them up, because it just ended with everyone being hurt. My feelings, thoughts and opinions about Emma has fluctuated so much throughout the book so far. I liked her, then I thought he very vain, and now I pity her greatly. I feel really bad for her, I know how it feels to be so mistaken about a relationship that everything ends up really awkward and just bad. It is just the worst thing ever to get the wrong idea from someone; "does he like her? Oh, he just has to, considering how he acts around her!" Those kind of thoughts and assumptions are the same things that Emma was thinking. But, in the end, she was completely wrong, and it just ended badly from every point of view. Actually, I just realized that the book Emma is a lot like high school. There are people trying to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and sometimes things just go perfectly. Other times (most times), things don't go so smoothly and someone ends up getting the led on and getting the wrong idea. Then everyone is hurt. That's pretty much high school if you ask me, with some homework and sports thrown in. I could probably pair everything that happens in Emma to something that has happened in my circle of friends or something that I know about. Hunh. I never thought about that. Now, while I keep reading, I'm going to probably be thinking about what this and that situation are like. Interesting.

~Emma Woodhouse~ (Ok, I swear, last time!!)