"Emma" is a social comedy of manners set amongst the upper middle class families of Provincial England in the early years
of the Victorian Age.--a period of english history where industrialisation had just made itself manifest , even as , the traditional class hierarchy of english society was preserved. One way of preserving this hierarchy was through Marriage ---and this is what the Novel is about.
The Tale of Emma Woodhouse, who is a self--styled though inaccurate judge of men and matters , situations and relationships, the Novel shows the class structure of provincial victorian England , through the perspective of Love and Marriage.Emma's repeated failure in
matchmaking and her erroneous decisions with regard to judgement of character paves the way for the final shattering of her misplaced confidence on her non--existent matchmaking acumen and her final redemption occurs in her Romance and Marriage to Mr. Knightely.
As is the general pattern with Jane Austen Novels , "Emma" ends at a note of poetic justice--the characters are paired into marriage with each other , according to their personal qualities and destinies, and , under the benign influence of Mr. Knightely , Emma is cured of her matchmaking errors.
The
relationship between Emma and Knightely slowly develops along the course of the Novel and reaches a climax towards the end . Knightely is shown as an honest and conscientious critic of emma 's behaviour and their Relationship resembles that of Elizabeth and Darcy in "pride and prejudice " by the same author.