How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else. (10.18)
Jane Fairchild’s potential fate shows us how different a single woman who is not of good fortune can expect her life to be. Emma never really has to consider such sad possibilities.
Quote #2
[…] a very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally very inferior, society, may well be illiberal and cross. (10.18)
Austen’s characters often take a very pragmatic view about finances. Without money, you can’t afford to be pleasurable. Therefore, any happy marriage has to take money into account.
Quote #3
[…] where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I think they have a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great ones. (18.21)
Emma displays precocious knowledge of the dangers of wealth – even if she never seems to question the dangers of her own (similar) situation.