Foils In Jane Austen's Emma

In her writing, Jane Austen used literary techniques to display her characters’ integrity, poise, grace and charm or lack there of. Throughout most of Austen’s works, a common theme is women and their behavior. In Emma, Jane Austen explains a story between the differences of society through the actions of a young woman, Emma Woodhouse. The strongest literary technique in Jane Austen’s Emma is the use of a foil. According to LiteraryDevices.net, a foil is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast to the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the traits of the other character. Jane Austen’s use of foils helps to bring out Emma’s flaws.

Jane Fairfax, a woman of charm, grace, beauty, and intelligence, is a perfect

The most significant reason for Harriet Smith being a foil for Emma is that Harriet, for whatever reason, is very dependent on others. After being introduced to Emma at a ball, she spent most of her time at Hartfield, the Woodhouse’s estate. Emma, charitably, helped Harriet to fit into a new and better society and even taught her how to love. Even though, Emma was trying her best to help Harriet to find herself, she mistakeingly manages to convince Harriet to refrain from loving the one man who loved her with all of his heart, Robert Martin. As Emma said in chapter 4, “I have no doubt that he will thrive and be a very rich man in time–and his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb us.” This quote shows Emma’s disgust for a man belonging to a lower social class. Then, in chapter 10, Emma was “teaching” Harriet the proper ways to think of women in upper society by saying “but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else.” This quote of Emma’s signifies the “pressure” that even a single woman who resides in upper society feels, as well as, the importance of upper class woman. Overall, Harriet’s thoughts and actions displayed how arrogant and “charitable” Emma is to her

Frank Churchill can be described as: kindhearted, entertaining, accompanied with being a perfect example of a true and genuine gentleman. However, was he truly that perfect, or were his flaws hidden behind his handsomeness. Normally, Emma’s flaws were drawn through her foils, but could Emma have drawn out some of her foils’ flaws? Yes, and in the case of Frank Churchill, she does. Emma spends her free time helping her peers readjust to a new life style and finding themselves. Although she is not very good at this form of charity, she had very good intention in helping her peers. Frank on the other hand, loves to spend his time caring about having fun and himself. Somehow, he still finds the heart to protect Emma from major mistakes that could hurt her and more importantly, others. Frank’s protective nature towards Emma helps to prove to her that her actions could hurt herself and others for a long time to come. These points demonstrate Frank Churchill as a perfect foil for Emma