Miss Bates

In almost any situation, there are those who laugh, and those who are laughed at. People usually never intend to hurt another person’s feelings by making them the brunt of the joke, but it almost always happens that way, and the person getting made fun of tends to be made fun of other times in their life as well. A prime example would be in the novel Emma, written by Jane Austin. By starting in the middle of the novel at chapter 43, a reader probably knows nothing about the characters, but it quickly becomes easy to see that Miss Bates is the one who is mostly ridiculed and laughed at. She is the quirky one of the bunch, and is considered by some to be delusional.

Chapter 43 begins with all the characters a top box Hill. They are all just having a good time hanging out, whenever Mr. Churchill decides to start a game in order to please Emma. According to Frank Churchill, “She [Emma] only demands from each of you [all the people a top box hill] either one thing very clever, be it prose or verse, original or repeated-or two things moderately clever-or three things very dull indeed, and she engages to laugh heartily at them all.” The point of the game is to hopefully make Emma laugh, but it ends up getting Miss Bates laughed at by most readers, and certainly anyone who watches the video. Before the game even starts, Miss Bates says “then I need not be uneasy. ‘Three things very dull indeed.’ That will just do for me, you know. I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as I open my mouth, shan’t I...Do not you all think I shall?” Immediately, Emma says “ah! Ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon Me-but you will be limited as to number-only three at once.” Basically what is going on is that Miss Bates says that she will be able to answer three dull things quickly, and Emma pops off and makes fun of her by saying that she will have to limit herself to just three. This leads to silence, and although you may or may not laugh while reading it, when watching the video, it is hard not to. You feel so sorry for Miss Bates, but it is funny because there is such a long silence and the characters just kind of stare at Miss Bates, and the way she acts afterwards is kind of sad, yet funny at the same time. This occurrence, as well as others that can be witnessed in the video and throughout the chapter lead me to believe that Jane Austin intends for Miss Bates to be the source for laughter throughout the novel.