Emma embodies Rousseau’s male qualities, while Harriet represents the female qualities. Instead, Rousseau’s male-female educational relationship exists between Emma and Harriet. Headstrong and independent, Emma does not have Rousseau’s “lovable ignorance” (410). Knightley and Emma’s relationship embodies the educational quality of Rousseau, Emma is not Rousseau’s ideal woman. However, in her later novels, Austen begins to reject 1 and even critique Rousseau’s ideals (Cohen 217-18). Many female novelists, including Austen, were influenced by Emile, and Austen draws on Rousseau’s model of male-female relationships in her early work to structure her plot and develop her characters. Prior to being married, women were not to be educated outside of what would be attractive to men. Largely focused on the education of young men, Emile posits that, once a man is educated, he is responsible for educating his wife. His book, Emile, or On Education, was an immensely popular treatise on education, in which Rousseau stresses the molding of young minds. Emma’s desire to shape Harriet reflects the views of the 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. she would form her opinions and manners” (Austen 23). When first introduced to Harriet Smith, Emma Woodhouse reflects to herself that “ he would notice she would improve her.
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