Emma Woodhouse is definitely Jane Austen’s best main character, yet she’s often underestimated just because Emma isn’t a traditional love story. Honestly, where do I even begin Emma is one of those characters people find easy to dislike. At first glance, she kinda is the spoiled rich girl who thinks she’s better than everyone else and is simply bored with her privileged life. But in reality, she’s so much more than that. The whole point is her character development, how she learns that she can’t make choices for other people — like Harriet — and how she has to be more humble, respectful, and aware of her own flaws. Emma knows her worth, and not just because she’s rich. She’s educated, clever, well-mannered, and she strives to be the best version of herself. She also wants the people around her to grow, and I think she simply can’t understand how someone with the chance to be as educated or well-spoken as her wouldn’t take it. That’s one of the reasons she’s never judgmental toward Harriet. She tries to help her sincerely and in good faith. Even though she eventually realizes she can’t control Harriet’s life, I genuinely believe she’s a good friend, despite her mistakes. One of my favorite things about Emma is her constant need to assert herself even when she really doesn’t need to. Emma’s social position is clearly higher than Jane Fairfax, yet she still feels compelled to prove she’s superior in some way. And again, she learns a lesson there too with the whole Frank Churchill situation. The only thing that slightly disappoints me is that she ends up marrying as well, considering her independence and the fact she was perfectly capable of living without a man supporting her. But it’s not exactly shocking. At least she marries a man who understands her completely and brings out the best in her. The meaning we could find in her marriage is that, even if she seemed to only care about appearances, manners or social status, she still needs more than these frivolous things in her life. I chose Anti-Hero because I found a lot of passages very fitting of Emma’s character, there are few details in the edits that could be mentioned but I’m not gonna go into them right now lol Linking this to my latest edit, I think Emma Woodhouse and Amy March would get along pretty well. So similar in many ways while different for others, but I genuinely resonate with both of them on a deeper level. I wanted to start this whole account with them. I also immediately noticed the parallels between Emma and Cher Horowitz, which is another one of my favorite characters and I would love to make an edit about them. Expect way more edits on Emma in any case — she deserves more #emmawoodhouse #janeausten #emma #edit #xyzbcafypシ - @voguesmoodboard