Emma

Blog 2- Anna Aycock

As I was reading the chapter out of Emma I thought the awkward moments were funny but I did not laugh out loud, it is a lot more difficult to laugh at something written. In class we watched a clip from the movie Emma and it was much easier to laugh at from the way it was presented. In the movie they draw out the awkward feeling for a while and you do not feel this while reading the chapter because no one told you to drag this out longer. While watching the clip every aspect of it is put almost on a platter for you, but when you are reading the book you have to figure out what is being said and what it means. It is just not placed right in front of you to see it.

I thought that Hobbes’ quote fit best in context of the story. In the section from the book we know that Emma wants to take the attention away from Miss Bates. Emma does this by making a cruel joke about her. Hobbes says, “And therefore much laughter at the defects of others is a sign of pusillanimity.” Emma shows in this part of the book that she wants everyone at the party to see that they do not want to give attention to Miss Bates because she is so boring but on the other hand Emma is interesting and better than Miss Bates ,at least in her mind. Mr. Knightly comes into play at the end of the chapter and tells Emma that she has done a bad thing by making a joke about Miss Bates. Mr. Knightly and Hobbes think a lot alike. Mr. Knightly wants Emma to only compare and joke with someone that is on the same status level as she is. Hobbes says that, “the proper works is to help and free others from scorn, and compare themselves only with the most able.” These two men know that they should not make fun of people who are “deformed” in any way whether that meant social status or how people act.