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Jane Austen was moralist, an eighteenth century moralist.’ Comment.

Jane Austen is a typical 18th century moralist. It is from the 18th century novelists, almost all of whom are moralists, that Jane Austen has derived her conception of the novel. She has owed much to the novelists like Richardson and Fielding. The world of Jane Austen is the world of material values. But her moral concerns are also discernible at every stop.

Several scenes in the novel are debates between moral obstinacy and moral wisdom. Such scenes include Knightley’s discouraging of Emma’s match making, Emma’s delight in match making, Emma’s boasting of her wisdom. Knightley’s scolding of Emma for her insulting comments on Miss Bates, and Emma’s realization of her mistakes. In the novel, Austen has exposed certain follies of people. Such vices include hypocrisy, vanity, display, snobbery and unkindness. Austen through her irony exposes the follies of her characters. She exposes Elton for his material greed, and Mrs. Elton for her vanity. The aesthetic delight in Emma has a moral basis.

In Emma, morality lies not in scruples but in scale. It lies in the discrimination of values on the scale and the proportion that is held between values within scale.”. Society of the age needed to be measured by moral scale. The major characters establish the moral scale. The progress of the heorine in life is shown on the moral scale. The picture of the balanced society is based on the roots of morality. Mr. Knightley serves as a kind of measuring- rod by which we can judge all the characters including Emma.

The novel hints at the development of certain moral virtues. These virtues include modesty, unselfishness, compassion, charity, openness and sincerity. Most of these truths are indicated through the central theme namely Emma’s progress from self-deception and vanity to perception and humanity.