Posted by kathleen (elder) on August 09, 1997 at 11:38:42:
In reply to Re: Knightley ...just a man of his times posted by Sylvia on August 02, 1997 at 17:41:54
] I took this passage as tongue in cheek. Remember that Emma had a great knack for bending Miss Taylor (and others as well) to her will when it should have been the other way around. Mr Knightley was having a bit of fun with Mrs Weston when he said she was preparing all her life to be a wife at Hartfield. It wasn't that Mrs Weston was submissive but that Emma just got her way all the time. So Knightley kidded her by saying that she had certainly got a lot of practice in doing as she was bid. . . .
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I think your suggestion is a good one. The rest of the conversation sounds like good-natured kidding between long-time friends. And, certainly Mr Weston doesn't seem to require a wife who submits her will to her husband's.