Character Analysis of Martin in Austen’s Emma

Cover of Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)

In Jane Austen’s novel of manners Emma, much of the drama centers on the potential marriage of Harriet Smith, a person of uncertain parentage, to Robert Martin, a prosperous yeoman. This rather advantageous match is opposed by Emma on the grounds that Harriet is too good for Mr. Martin. The drama of this matchup mirrors the deeper drama of the romance between Emma and Mr. Knightley. Mr. Martin acts as the analog to Mr. Knightley as Harriet does to Emma as they use their lower class acquaintances as romantic proxies. Mr. Martin is essentially the same as Mr. Knightley and serves the same purpose in the sub-plot; while simultaneously serving as symbolic of Emma’s failures and the realities of class distinction that Emma often ignores.

            Robert Martin is one of only two silent characters in the entire novel and acts as a primary instigator for the plot. Mr. Martin is known only through various descriptions and his letters, which often offer somewhat conflicting views. Emma initially describes his appearance as “very neat, and he looked like a sensible young man, but his person had no other advantage” (20). Emma though has a skewed vision not only of Harriet’s and Martin’s place in society but also her own and Knightley’s. However even Emma admits to positives in Martin’s character and her dismissal seems poorly thought out even at the time. Knightley offers a more accurate description

“I never hear better sense from any one than Robert Martin. He always speaks to the purpose; open, straightforward, and very well judging. He told me every-thing; his circumstances and plans, and what they all proposed doing in the event of his marriage. He is an excellent young man, both as son and brother. I had no hesitation in advising him to marry. He proved to me that he could afford it; and that being the case, I was convinced he could not do better” (39).

This demonstrates that Martin has significant material assets and is actually up and coming as much as a yeoman can be in a very strict society. It also shows that Mr. Martin is actually interested in Harriet for romantic reasons instead of merely material ones.

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Both Emma and Knightley though fail to take into account the feelings of Harriet and Martin at this point, which is precisely the problem in their own relationship. Emma and Knightley are so worried about what should happen and what is happening with other people that they fail to realize their own feelings for each other. Eventually though as Emma grows throughout the novel she reaches a point where “Like Mr. Knightley, sensibly aware of limitations in Harriet and Robert, but gladly avowing their estimable traits, Emma respects them for what they are. False values have been succeeding by genuine ‘goodwill”’ (Edgar Jr.). Genuine goodwill is the key to character development in Emma it is the presence or absence of it that distinguishes the distasteful characters like Mr. Elton from the respectable characters like Mr. Knightley. This genuine goodwill is what Mr. Martin displays throughout the novel, what Harriet shows in actually accepting his proposal and what both Emma and Knightley must learn to love each other. It is this goodwill that Mr. Martin symbolizes that helps Emma realize her errors when she hears about his renewed proposal and exclaims,

“You mistake me, you quite mistake me,” she replied, exerting herself. “It is not that such a circumstance would now make me unhappy, but I cannot believe it. It seems impossibility! You cannot mean to say, that Harriet Smith has accepted Robert Martin. You cannot mean that he has even proposed to her again? … concealing all the exquisite feelings of delight and entertainment, which she knew she must be expressing (318).

Robert Martin has finally broken Harriet free of Emma, which acts practically, and symbolically as allowing Emma to pursue her own true romance with Knightley.

            Mr. Martin though is also the post poignant symbol of the classicism present in Emma  because his legitimate feelings are directly interfered with by Emma’s snobbery and the class system’s basic distinction that a successful farmer who doesn’t own land can’t become more than a yeoman no matter his effort. Indeed “Robert Martin’s detachment from the literary world and involvement with the facts and details of daily life help disqualify him from a place in Emma’s schemes for Harriet” (White). This is not actually a flaw in his match for Harriet but more honestly a flaw Emma sees in Knightley for herself; however, their upper-class “friends” are using both Martin and Harriet with hardly any concern given to their interests. Emma eventually feels bad about this but is unable to find a solution as she still lacks enough self-knowledge to realize she is trying to compensate for a lack in her own life. Robert Martin appears throughout the novel by comment or in Emma’s thoughts as a constant reminder of the price of Emma is meddling. Even as Emma begins to care more honestly for Harriet, she still fails to realize the manipulative nature of their relationship and merely recognizes that she was wrong observing that “the fact was, as Emma could now acknowledge, that Harriet had always liked Robert Martin; and that his continuing to love her had been irresistible. Beyond this, it must ever be unintelligible to Emma” (326). Emma clearly still doesn’t realize what she’s done for and to Harriet however “A moment’s clear thought would remind her, and the astute reader, that Harriet’s final acceptance of Martin is better based than when Mr. Knightley announced, tout court, that he “means to marry her” in chapter five of volume one. At least she has had some experience upon which to base her choice. But now Emma wants to believe that her knight has been right all along. This is the final ironic twist in the plot” (Waldron). In spite of a new honest goodwill and all Emma has learned she has failed to question the basic presumptions of the class system truly and thus still fails to assign Mr. Martin and Harriet their rightful place in society.

            Mr. Martin is unique in that despite being a major factor in all these dealings he is quite clearly separate and apart to the point that he never speaks in the novel. This is significant as well in that it demonstrates that the best way to a good reputation is to have as little to do with the idle rich as possible. Robert Martin seems a minor character in the novel but in truth is the real hero of the book triumphing over class barriers, marrying for love, and coming out ahead socially because of it too. Mr. Martin though is too virtuous and too perfect and truthfully, too simple to form the center of Emma, the novel only uses them as a mirror because the character flaws of Emma of Knightley are more interesting and titillating than a tradesmen’s daughter and a yeoman. This is the most biting and honest social commentary of Emma and is true today the wealthy tend towards idleness which leads to more scandal and consequently more entertainment.

Works Cited

 Austen, Jane. Emma. Project Gutenberg, 2010. Electronic

Edgar Jr., Shannon F. “Emma: Character and Construction.” PMLA. JSTOR, Sept. 1956. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.

Waldron, Mary. “Men of Sense and Silly Wives: The Confusions of Mr. Knightley.” Studies in the Novel 28.2 (Summer 1996): 141-157. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 210. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Oct. 2010.

White, Edward M. “Emma and the Parodic Point of View.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction. JSTOR, June 1963. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.