Speaking about possible similarities between herself and Miss Bates, Emma tells Harriet: "But between us, I am convinced there never can be any likeness, except in being unmarried" (ch. 10). However, despite Emma's claims otherwise, there is some evidence in the text that indicates how Emma could, in fact, end up having more than her married state in common with Miss Bates.

"Dear me! but what shall you do? how shall you employ yourself when you grow old?"

"If I know myself, Harriet, mine is an active, busy mind, with a great many independent resources; and I do not perceive why I should be more in want of employment at forty or fifty than one-and-twenty. Woman's usual occupations of eye and hand and mind will be as open to me then, as they are now; or with no important variation. If I draw less, I shall read more; if I give up music, I shall take to carpet-work (ch. 10).

Emma refers to the role Isabella's children will play in this:

as for objects of interest, objects for the affections, which is in truth the great point of inferiority, the want of which is really the great evil to be avoided in not marrying, I shall be very well off, with all the children of a sister I love so much, to care about. There will be enough of them, in all probability, to supply every sort of sensation that declining life can need. There will be enough for every hope and every fear; and though my attachment to none can equal that of a parent, it suits my ideas of comfort better than what is warmer and blinder. My nephews and nieces: I shall often have a niece with me."