Posted by kathleen (elder) on July 07, 1997 at 20:00:38:
In reply to "'You know what you are about!" posted by Julia on July 07, 1997 at 18:54:35
] I never quite understood Emma's reasoning when she silently muses, "'Well done Mrs. Martin-you know what you are about!'" She thinks this after Harriet is repeating Mrs. Martin's comment that "'She was in no hurry to have him married'".
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Because Emma has decided that Harriet is the natural daughter of a gentleman, she assumes that everyone else thinks the same. And, she is thinking that the Martin family want to trap Harriet into marrying Mr Martin, in order to better themselves. So, she imagines Mrs Martin saying all these things to entice Harriet (as if the straight-forward approach wouldn't always be best with Harriet!). Emma's imagination gets so far ahead of her, in fact, that she refuses to listen to reason (Mr Knightley's objection that Robert Martin is superior to Harriet rather than vice versa).