the last half-year

The last half-year is the decisive period of Emma Woodhouse's moral and emotional education, the span in which her long-unchallenged self-regard, her habit of arranging others' lives, and her blindness to her own heart are shattered by a cascade of errors, confrontations, and discoveries, leaving her humbled, self-aware, and finally ready for a love founded on equality and truth.

The Arc of Self-Deception and Its Collapse

For nearly twenty-one years, Emma had lived with very little to distress or vex her, the real evils of her situation being the power of having rather too much her own way and a disposition to think a little too well of herself. The last half-year, however, brought those latent disadvantages to a crisis. Her first great error was to take so active a part in bringing any two people together, a practice she later recognized as adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what ought to be serious. She had talked poor Harriet Smith into being very much attached to Mr. Elton, only to discover that Mr. Elton had never thought seriously of Harriet and instead proposed to Emma herself. The overthrow of everything she had been wishing for, the development of everything most unwelcome, left her in a state of perturbation she had never known. She was forced to admit that she had been completely mistaken in Mr. Elton, that there was a littleness about him which she had not seen, and that her own behaviour to him had been so complaisant and obliging as to warrant a man of ordinary observation in fancying himself a decided favourite. The first error and the worst lay at her door.

The Exposure of Her Matchmaking and Its Consequences

Emma's matchmaking had not only misled Harriet about Mr. Elton but had also prevented Harriet from accepting Robert Martin, a young man of sense and worth whom Mr. Knightley had advised her to marry. Mr. Knightley had warned Emma that she was no friend to Harriet Smith, that vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief, and that if she encouraged Harriet to expect to marry greatly, she might be a parlour-boarder at Mrs. Goddard's all the rest of her life. Emma dismissed this counsel, believing herself a better judge of female right and refinement. The consequences were painful: Harriet suffered a double disappointment, first over Mr. Elton and later, far more crushingly, over Mr. Knightley himself, when Emma discovered that Harriet had transferred her affections to the man Emma herself loved. The realization that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself darted through Emma with the speed of an arrow, and she saw with dreadful force how improperly she had been acting by Harriet, how inconsiderate, how indelicate, how irrational, how unfeeling her conduct had been.

The Crisis of Conscience and Mr. Knightley's Reproach

The most searing moment of moral reckoning came at Box Hill, where Emma, in thoughtless spirits and the pride of the moment, insulted Miss Bates by mocking her tendency to say dull things. Mr. Knightley, who had watched over Emma from a girl with an endeavour to improve her, confronted her afterward with a severity that cut deeper than any previous reproof. He told her that Miss Bates was poor, that she had sunk from the comforts she was born to, and that her situation should secure Emma's compassion. He said it was badly done, indeed, and that he must tell her truths while he could. Emma felt the truth of his representation at her heart; she had never been so depressed, and the tears ran down her cheeks almost all the way home. This was the turning point: she resolved that Miss Bates should never again be treated with such unfeeling wit, and that she would call upon her the very next morning to begin a regular, equal, kindly intercourse.

The Revelation of Her Own Heart

Emma's self-knowledge deepened when she learned that Harriet, whom she had encouraged to think of Mr. Knightley, believed her affection was returned. In that moment of consternation, Emma acknowledged the whole truth: she had never really cared for Frank Churchill at all; her affection for Mr. Knightley was the one genuine sentiment, and she had been entirely under a delusion, totally ignorant of her own heart. She saw that she had been imposing on herself in a most mortifying degree, and that she was wretched. The discovery that Mr. Knightley loved her in return, and that Harriet's hopes had been entirely groundless, brought an exquisite flutter of happiness, but also the sobering recognition that she had been saved from the worst consequences of her folly only by good fortune. She resolved to grow more worthy of him, whose intentions and judgment had been ever so superior to her own, and to let the lessons of her past folly teach her humility and circumspection in future.

The Resolution of Harriet's Fate and Emma's Growth

The last half-year closed with Harriet's marriage to Robert Martin, a union that Emma now recognized as entirely suitable and happy. Harriet proved to be the daughter of a tradesman, not a gentleman's child as Emma had once so readily vouched, and the stain of illegitimacy unbleached by nobility or wealth would have been a stain indeed had Emma's schemes succeeded. Emma acknowledged that she had been no friend to Harriet Smith, but she was now able to see her friend settled in a home of security, stability, and improvement, with a man of sense and worth. The period of error and suffering had produced in Emma a new seriousness, a gratitude for her own happiness, and a determination to be more rational, more acquainted with herself, and to leave less to regret when the past was gone.