After Emma insults Miss Bates, Mr. Knightley tells Emma that he wouldn't be so upset if Miss Bates were wealthy. To this day, I still don't understand that - a wealthy Miss Bates would still have been hurt by Emma's comment.
"Would you move your car or don't you want it anymore?"
sfcivicchick wrote:
a wealthy Miss Bates would still have been hurt by Emma's comment.The point is that Miss Bates is defenseless. She has no prospects. Her situation is simply going to decline.Try to find the incident in the book. Mr. Knightley explains in detail.I certainly think that Miss Bates deserves the comment, more in the book than in the movie. At one point in the book, Miss Bates goes on nonstop for 2 1/2 pages.The issue is not so much that someone was hurt; it is that a defenseless person was hurt and Knightley is right about that. share
Things were very different in those days. A lady who was poor and of miss bates age had no way of changing her situation and was totally reliant on others.
Because of the difference in their social standing this makes what Emma did much worse.
Plus I always thought that she was friendly, never a mean-spirited talker so it does seem pretty mean. She us also Emma's elder and that was pretty important then too.
shareI think he implies that Miss Bates already must feel a bit inferior to Emma in income, society and prospects, so to knock her down another peg and humiliate her was wrong. If she was equal to Emma, it would've been just an insult......but to have a "superior" person of rank throw you down in front of others in spite was cruel.
shareI have not yet read the book, but I've seen this movie several times (or more--my TV remote seems to set itself down when I'm channel surfing and accidentally discover this movie).
I have wondered for awhile just why Emma makes that statement to Miss Bates. Emma does not strike me as a rude young woman at all, so why does she suddenly make this very rude comment?
Perhaps I should read the book for this to make more sense?
Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated!
From what I remember, Mrs. Elton insults Emma by refusing to play the game Mr. Churchill recommends and makes some snide comments in the process. Emma takes out her anger at Mrs. Elton on Miss Bates inatead. She became Emma's punching bag in frustration.
shareAntwoinD wrote:
Emma takes out her anger at Mrs. Elton on Miss Bates inatead.In the book at least, Miss Bates has been driving Emma nuts all along. Objectively, Miss Bates may not be any worse than her father, but she loves her father, and she puts up with him better than she puts up with Miss Bates.No, she is not taking out her anger. It just slipped out. It was too good a line to not say. Haven't you ever had that experience?Emma did not have a malicious intent, and someone else could have just laughed at it. It is Miss Bates reaction that causes the fuss.It is a great line._____________________________________________________________
http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07share
You're right about her father. He seems unbearable at times, but Emma loves him and dotes on him because he is her father.
loisbcuz-1 wrote:
but Emma loves him and dotes on him because he is her father.I agree, but Emma does not have the same incentive to put up with Miss Bates, and I think that in general she does quite well under the circumstancesThere is a point in the book at which Miss Bates goes on for 2 1/2 pages nonstop.Her remark to Miss Bates was not with malicious intent. It was just too good a line to not say, and it slipped out without her thinking about it. It would've been quickly forgotten if it had not been for Miss Bates reaction.I sympathize with Miss Bates and I feel sorry for her, but she brings out homicidal fantasies in me. share
Ddugan42 wrote:
Perhaps I should read the book for this to make more sense?Yes. Miss Bates gets a lot more attention in the book than in the movie, and is, therefore, much more annoying in the book than in the movie. To adapt an over 400 page book to an hour and a half movie a lot of things get shortened, and if you shorten someone's constant talking, it becomes much less annoying.Some people seem to not be bothered by the Miss Bates of the world. Some of us find homicidal tendencies that we did not know were there.In the book, at one point Miss Bates goes on for 2 1/2 pages nonstop.I agree that Emma should not have said it, but when she did in the book, I cheered.__________________________________________________________________
http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07share
Thank you both for your kind responses!
It makes much more sense to me now. I do realize movies made from books cannot begin to include all the lovely, special details that you find when reading the actual books.
I do like this movie very much, but your responses are encouraging me to settle in and read the book...soon!
Thank you again!
Do read the book!
Remember, 99.9999999 times out of a hundred, the book is better.
And, once you've read the book, do yourself a favor and watch the 2009 adaptation with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller. It's excellent.
http://currentscene.wordpress.com
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. However, (re-)reading Emma, I am struck by how much more there is to Ms. Austin's Emma, than the Emma who is depicted in the (1996) movie (the only version I have seen). Making the remark was an irresistible impulse to which the high-spirited young Emma succumbed. And which, the relative (to Miss Bates) immensely powerful (the British social scheme at the time, resembled a caste system) Emma, should have resisted. Emma is a highly intelligent, and in matters other than romance, remarkably perceptive young woman. The remark and the impulse that was its genesis, was beneath her. And wounded Miss Bates. Something which a woman such as Emma, should and normally would, never do.
shareCheck out the 2009 version. Much closer to the book.
http://currentscene.wordpress.com