Mrs. Elton's first visit to Hartfield

Mrs. Elton's first visit to Hartfield, undertaken as a formal wedding call shortly after her marriage to Mr. Elton, is a decisive event that exposes the full measure of her vanity, ignorance, and social presumption, and that crystallizes Emma Woodhouse's contempt for a woman who embodies everything she most despises in the newly arrived.

Arrival and First Impressions

Mrs. Elton arrives at Hartfield with an air of studied ease that Emma immediately finds suspect. Emma suspects that for a young woman, a stranger, and a bride, there is too much ease—ease without elegance. Her person is rather good, her face not unpretty, but neither feature, nor air, nor voice, nor manner are elegant. The visit is necessarily short, burdened by the awkwardness of the occasion: Mr. Elton finds himself in the same room with the woman he has just married, the woman he wanted to marry (Emma), and the woman he had been expected to marry (Harriet Smith). Emma, for her part, resolves not to form a hasty opinion, but she already suspects that Mrs. Elton will prove to be a vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of her own importance.

The Maple Grove Obsession

The very first subject after being seated is Maple Grove, the estate of Mrs. Elton's brother, Mr. Suckling. She compares Hartfield to Maple Grove at every opportunity: the room is the very shape and size of the morning-room at Maple Grove; the staircase is placed exactly in the same part of the house; the laurels stand in the same profusion and in the same way across the lawn. She declares that she could really almost fancy herself at Maple Grove. Emma makes as slight a reply as she can, but it is fully sufficient for Mrs. Elton, who only wants to be talking herself. When Emma suggests that Surrey is full of beauties, Mrs. Elton insists that Surrey is the garden of England, and that she has never heard any other county called so. Emma is silenced.

Patronizing Offers and Insults

Mrs. Elton's conversation quickly turns to patronage. She recommends Bath to Mr. Woodhouse, claiming that a line from her would bring Emma a little host of acquaintance, and that her particular friend, Mrs. Partridge, would be the very person for Emma to go into public with. The idea of being indebted to Mrs. Elton for an introduction—of going into public under the auspices of a friend of Mrs. Elton's, probably some vulgar, dashing widow—sinks the dignity of Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield. Emma restrains herself from reproof, but the insult is profound. Mrs. Elton then proposes that she and Emma establish a musical club, with regular weekly meetings at Hartfield or the Vicarage, and declares that she absolutely cannot do without music, that it is a necessary of life to her. Emma, finding her so determined upon neglecting her own music, has nothing more to say.

The Final Indignity

The crowning insult comes when Mrs. Elton mentions having called at Randalls and met Mr. Knightley there. She refers to him as "Knightley"—though she has never seen him before in her life—and declares that she likes him very much, that he is quite the gentleman. Emma's private reaction is explosive: she calls Mrs. Elton an insufferable woman, worse than she had supposed, a little upstart, vulgar being, with her "Mr. E." and her "caro sposo" and her resources and all her airs of pert pretension and underbred finery. The visit ends, and Emma can breathe again, but the damage is done. Mrs. Elton has established herself as a permanent irritant, a woman whose society will do Mr. Elton no good, and whose every word confirms Emma's judgment that Harriet Smith would have been a far better match.