Keeping in accordance with the standing daily assignment, the passage I’ve chosen to close read is featured in Chapter VII of Volume III (Chapter 43), which recounts Emma’s immediate reaction to being chastised by Mr. Knightley in light of her open belittling of Miss Bates before the entire party: “She was vexed beyond what could have been expressed – almost beyond what she could conceal. Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck. The truth of his representation there was no denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates! – How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in any one she valued! And how suffer him to leave …show more content…
After all, we’ve already come to see that Emma herself isn’t nearly as infallible in her understandings as she initially perceived herself to be. Following her mishandlings of the situation between Harriet and Mr. Elton, as well as her interactions with Frank Churchill, we’ve seen that Emma is still only clever to a fault; seemingly unaware, to a certain extent, of the consequences of her actions. It’s in her mean spirited, almost cruel and callous treatment of Miss Bates, however, that we see this behavior reach a climax; possibly derived from her own shallow desire to show off to Frank and the others? Regardless, Mr. Knightley has no qualms in calling Emma out on her actions here, prompting her to really face and come to terms with herself in a major way; triggering quite the significant emotional catharsis. It would seem that, up until this point, any missteps taken by Emma herself were simply regarded as deviations in her life’s overarching plot, of which she is the central protagonist. In light of recent events however, she has come to view her relationship with Mr. Knightley in a different light; therefore, it’s his disapproval which comes to drive her to