Harriet Smith is seventeen years old and clearly does not have a mind of her own. During the summer she stayed with the Martins and their company was, in my humble opinion, doing her good. She was able to talk with the sisters and help both them and the mother. Mr. Robert Martin essentially doted on her. But when she left their company and was taken under Emma's wing, her personality stopped forming itself, so to speak. Instead, she waited for others, namely Emma, to make decisions for her and to tell her what to do. When Martin proposes Emma tells her to reply in the negative. Emma always has grand plans of reading the classics with Harriet, but "it was much easier to chat than to study... than to be labouring to enlarge her comprehension or exercise it on social facts." Emma is doing Harriet no favors by endeavoring to educate the young woman. Again, only Mr. Knightley can see this: "I have always thought it a very foolish intimacy... but I now perceive that it will be a very unfortunate one for Harriet," he says to Emma.
Here is an essay which also acknowledges how wrong Emma was in attempting to help Harriet. For example: "she is condescending and looks down on and inaccurately perceives a character such as Robert Martin" (Jackson, Karin).
http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol21no2/jackson.html
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