Another important character is Harriet Smith. She becomes “Miss Woodhouse’s beautiful little friend” (Austen 1815: 247), but also her subject for match making. This character helps readers to better understand how Emma can manipulate. Harriet is a young girl “of seventeen whom Emma knew well by sight” (Austen 1815: 23). Scheuermann (2009: 118) writes that it is difficult to define Harriet’s social position because she is “the natural daughter of somebody” (Austen 1815: 23), as Sue Parrill notices she is “illegitimate daughter of a merchant” (2002: 109).And only at the end of the novel “Harriet’s parentage became known. She proved to be the daughter of a tradesman, rich enough to afford her the comfortable maintenance which had ever been her’s, and decent enough to have always wished her concealment” (Austen 1815: 451-452). Despite these facts, Emma “had long felt an interest in [her], on account of her beauty” (Austen 1815: 23).
Emma calls Harriet her dear affectionate creature, when Emma tries to unobtrusively convince Harriet to refuse Mr. Martin, who is a “respectable, intelligent gentleman-farmer” (Austen 1815: 61). However, Emma believes that Mr. Martin is “not Harriet’s equal” (Austen 1815: 59).
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Considering Harriet’s education, she is believed to be “not clever, but she had a sweet, docile, grateful disposition” (Austen 1815: 26) and Parrill (2002: 126) mentions the scene when Harriet is unable to puzzle out the meaning of the riddle without Emma’s assistance, is one of the chief evidences of Harriet’s lack of intelligence. Miss Smith asks Emma for help saying that she “never saw any thing so hard” (Austen 1815: 70). Mr. Knightley is very critical and harsh in relation to