When Help Becomes Harassment — Emma

After dinner Mrs. Elton monopolizes Jane Fairfax in the drawing room where everyone can hear her loud kindness. She returns to the post office, colds, and friendship before pressing Jane to seek a governess situation at once. Jane answers with steady refusals. When Mrs. Elton will not hear them, Jane compares the governess trade to slavery in misery if not guilt, and the room falls silent at her blunt honesty.

Mrs. Elton repackages every protest as modesty and vows to watch, write, and procure something unexceptionable for Jane. Mr. Woodhouse's entrance only shifts her performance to gowns and Maple Grove finery while Jane sits trapped in polite silence beside her.

Mr. Weston then arrives from London with Frank Churchill's letter and reads it aloud before the room. Mrs. Weston is openly happy. Emma is considerably agitated while weighing her own feelings toward Frank, and Weston spreads the news that Frank will soon be near Highbury again to the delight of the whole room. Emma tells herself she must decide what she wants before Frank's next visit forces her hand. The whole evening leaves her restless and unable to settle on a clear answer about Frank Churchill and her own feelings.