Annoyingly Hilarious: Mrs. Elton in Emma

Emma is Jane Austen’s book that is first published in 1815. It is about a small village of Highbury and the relationships between people living there. Mrs. Elton comes to Highbury after marrying Mr. Elton, the young vicar of the town.

What makes her different from the other characters is that, yes, they all have some attributions to themselves that tick the reader off, like Emma being oblivious to truths about people’s relationships and her social snobbery, or Mr. Elton being pretentious and self-seeking; but Mrs. Elton’s on another level. She is the source of comedy in the book. She is vain, she has no idea of what social decorum is. Her fortune comes from trade, so she does not have an aristocratic family. She is way more pretentious than her husband “Mr. E.” (that is what she calls Mr. Elton) and keeps talking about her brother’s house and how beautiful it is. She does not care about others at all, and does not mind anyone, she just talks to herself. 

She is drawing a portrait of a very annoying woman, but her ignorance of social decorum is also hilariously funny. She calls Mr. Knightley just “Knightley”, even though this is their first encounter. Her trying to introduce Emma to her circle when Emma is in a much higher social position than her makes Emma annoyed. While reading even I as a reader got shocked every time she calls Mr. Knightley Knightley or her husband Mr. E. in front of everyone. Emma is so annoyed with her that she can only praise Mrs. Elton’s dress and not her personality. She thinks Mrs. Elton is a “self-important, presuming, too familiar, ignorant” and even an “ill-bred” woman. 

Reading Mrs. Elton driving everyone crazy in a very class-conscious town like Highbury is somewhat satisfying to me. She is unashamedly trying to find a place for herself in that society by mimicking them in a very bad way. That could be the reason for people do not like her. She could be an ignorant woman who is trying to gain status, but that does not mean that she is not funny or boring. She is hilarious in that aspect and I really liked reading about her. The chaos she creates is fun to read.