Rereading Emma

Mr. Knightley scolds Emma for matchmaking because she is meddling in affairs that don't concern her and causing her friend Harriet to think too highly of herself. Harriet, someone's illegitimate daughter, is too low of a social station to think of marrying Mr. Elton the vicar, while the gentleman-farmer Robert Martin is perfectly all right for her. Mr. Knightley is correct in his opinion of it and in telling Emma what he thinks, but I find it interesting because he sort of does the same thing himself. It is he who gives Robert his blessing to marry Harriet, and it feels like he's upset in half because his own neat matchmaking was ruined by Emma's. Later on in the book, too, he lets or sends Robert Martin to London to meet up with Harriet and propose to her (which she accepts, since she is far away from Emma's influence). Mr. Knightley may possibly lecture Emma about matchmaking and having strong, often selfish opinions about things and people because he recognizes such inclinations in himself.
Emma dislikes Jane Fairfax because she is the ideal accomplished, elegant young lady: excellent at music, genteel, quiet, pale, never speaks out of turn, etc. Emma is "handsome", true, but she is strong-willed, chatty, witty and not afraid to show it, likes to take control, doesn't practice her music or read enough, etc., and she feels a grudge towards Jane for being so perfect and so much closer to the Ideal Young Lady than Emma is. No one else in Highbury brings to light her shortcomings, except Mr. Knightley. The latter and Emma are friends, but a good chunk of their friendship is them bickering, mostly about her character flaws and things she does wrong.
Also, can we talk about how creepy it is that Mr. Knightley has been the Woodhouses' family friend since Emma was a child and was always trying to improve her character and correct her behavior, and professed falling in love with her at thirteen? He tells her this towards the end of the book, and while it is clear he didn't realize it until Frank Churchill came into the picture as a plausible love interest for Emma some months earlier and Mr. Knightley became jealous of him and realized why (and Emma is twenty to twenty-one years old in the book), that's still seriously creepy. He's sixteen years older than her! He's old enough to be her dad, which in itself is creepy enough, but he's known her since she was a child?? Someone I was discussing the book with once said that they'd read something comparing Mr. Knightley's behavior to child molesters/predators who "groom" their child victims into mentally accepting them as partners later on, or just to accept their abuse as not being wrong at all. Like, they groom them into becoming their perfect mate. Uggghhhhhh. I don't think that was Mr. Knightley's intention, obviously, but it's still really creepy and weird.
I read Emma mostly on my Nook and partially from my Barnes & Noble Classics copy. The Nook book is "25 Favorite Novels" in one ebook, which is nice because it was 99 cents, but there are no foot- and endnotes like in the B&N Classics, and I think it can only hold like ten highlights at a time? I'm quite sure I highlighted my favorite passages from P&P and S&S in the ebook, along with Emma, but I can only see/read the latter book's. It sucks. Also, each book is treated as a chapter, and while there are "Book I" and chapter divisions within each book, you can't jump to the next chapter within the ebook book. That sucks most of all. For some reason the place wasn't kept between my Nook app on my phone and my Nook ereader, so that was a pain.
Anyway, I read the introduction to my B&N Classics copy of Emma, which was an exhaustive essay in the awesome English journal article style on Emma and its characters and social aspects, etc. Those are quite interesting, if you like literary analysis and criticism, but I don't recommend reading the introductions (for sure in the B&N Classics books) before you read the novel because they will ruin it for you. Besides, it's nice to go back and get insight on the characters and plot points etc. after you've already read the book. Anyway the person who wrote Emma's introduction pointed out that Emma chose to befriend and improve Harriet and manage her love life because she sees her as an extension of herself. Like, Emma herself does not want to have a love life, partially because she does not think she can due to her codependent father, but she can be involved in Harriet's love life. She treats her like a human Barbie, almost. A love life by proxy. A fascinating discussion of control (Emma must be first in everything) and self-absorption. Emma does annoy me but I think I mainly like her.