I had previously responded to a post wondering about what Emma’s mother was like so this is pretty much a repost. In this weeks chapters I found two references to Emma’s mother. The first mention is by the narrator, “Her mother had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct remembrance of her caresses” (1) and the second is from Mr. Knightley. He told Mrs. Weston:

“In her mother she lost the only person able to cope with her. She inherits her mother's talents, and must have been under subjection to her.” (5)

Emma is like her mother in talents. In reverse perhaps Mrs. Woodhouse was “clever… with a… happy disposition” (1) but lacked her daughter’s propensity “to think a little too well of herself” (1), better submitted to endeavors “requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding” (5) and read books instead of simply drawing up lists “of books that she meant to read regularly through” (5). I also like to think Mrs. Woodhouse was as kind and as protective of her husband as her daughter is of her father.