Etiquette In Emma

634 Words3 Pages
Etiquette Today most of us think of manners only as etiquette, a code of rules which govern behavior and dress. • When John Knightley told Emma he thought "your manners to him [Mr. Elton] are encouraging," he was referring to the way she talked and responded to him and to the feelings being expressed by that behaviour. • Offended by Mrs. Elton's comments about Mrs. Weston, Emma responded that Mrs. Weston's manners "were always particularly good. Their propriety, simplicity, and elegance would make them the safest model for any young woman" (p. 246). She was both describing her friend's habitual behaviour, character of mind, and moral character and affirming her status as a lady. • Moved by vanity and eager for flattering acknowledgment, Emma tended to judge others by their admiration for her. One reason she was not particularly fond of her brother-in-law was that he viewed her rationally, "without praise and without blindness" (p. 99). But a more important cause of her unease was based on her reason, not her egotism; she objected to his occasional impatience with her father. In these incidents, his manners showed an emotional and a moral deficiency. Think of the distress he caused Mr. Woodhouse by his callous overstatement about the snow. Emma showed a similar delicacy of feeling in forming her judgment of Frank Churchill; she reserved her assessment of him until she saw how he treated Mrs. Weston. She was pleased; It was not merely in fine words or hyperbolic compliment that he paid his duty; nothing could be more proper or pelasing than his whole manner to her—nothing could more agreeably denote his wish of considering her as a friend and securing her affection. (p.181) • Entering Mrs. Weston's drawing-room, Mr. John Knightley and Mr. Elton both had to adapt their manners: Mr. Elton must compose his joyous looks, and Mr. John Knightley disperse his ill
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