Decisions, Decisions

****Do you mind a spoiler???****

Everyday, people make decisions for others. What should really happen is a person should choose what he wants himself. In Emma by Jane Austen, Emma Woodhouse is perfect in every way. She is beautiful, well-educated, has a good fortune and surrounded by good society. She is also good in the way she is very caring. The only problems are she was brought up with pride and having her own way. Her favorite pastime is match-making. She often puts her terrible skills to work to match the people of her acquaintance. It all seemed to work out very well pretty much until she decided to make her last match between her friend Harriet Smith and the town's vicar- Mr. Elton. Harriet Smith is quite pretty, but no one knows of her relations- her family. Back then, relations were very important in society and often meant each person was ranked by that. A brother of Ms. Smith's schoolmates- Mr. Martin- is madly in love with her and Emma convinced her friend she was above the love of a respectable farmer. Harriet never saw anything wrong with marrying Mr. Martin before. In fact, it seemed as if she liked him very much until Emma convinced her otherwise.

Harriet Smith could do no better than marrying a good farmer. No one would even wish to marry someone without the knowledge of whose family she belongs to. It would have brought shame on them. It was an advantage for Harriet, but Emma had to interfere. There is no chance of a better offer of marriage. Why did Emma have to interfere? Emma obviously does not know about the situation enough and shouldn't Harriet make her own decisions? It is her life- not Emma's.

To be honest, it is not all Emma's fault. Harriet was begging for advice. She is not a strong character and can easily be swayed from anything. One of the problems is how much Emma has the need to help. Many people do, but sometimes what they think if right isn't. It seems as if Emma made many errors, because later in the book, it turns out Ms. Smith was not the object of his interest. In fact, it was Emma. Throughout the book, she continues to misunderstand everything. Later on, she believes Harriet is in love with one man when she is quite attached to her friend Mr. Knightly.

That's what happens when people misunderstand though. They mess up and it can be a lot of damage. Everyday, people let others choose for them, but how do those people know everything?