# Emma — Character guide

> Key figures in Emma by Jane Austen.

- [Emma Woodhouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/emma_woodhouse.md): Highbury's cleverest heiress, convinced she knows who belongs with whom, and constitutionally unable to leave other people's romances alone.
- [Harriet Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/harriet_smith.md): A sweet-natured boarding-school girl of uncertain parentage whose pliability makes her the perfect, and perfectly dangerous, canvas for Emma's matchmaking ambitions.
- [Mr. Knightley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_knightley.md): A plainspoken gentleman farmer of seven or eight-and-thirty who has known Emma her whole life and is the only person in Highbury unafraid to tell her the truth.
- [Jane Fairfax](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/jane_fairfax.md): An orphaned, exquisitely accomplished young woman whose reserved manners and uncertain prospects make her the object of Emma's guilt, envy, and persistent neglect.
- [Frank Churchill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/frank_churchill.md): Mr. Weston's long-absent son, a charming and flirtatious young man whose visits to Highbury depend entirely on the whims of a difficult aunt.
- [Mr. Elton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_elton.md): Highbury's agreeable young vicar, whose smooth manners and ambitious eye make him a puzzle Emma believes she has already solved.
- [Mrs. Elton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mrs_elton.md): A brisk, self-congratulating bride from Bath who arrives in Highbury determined to be its reigning lady and never lets anyone forget Maple Grove.
- [Mr. Weston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_weston.md): A cheerful, enterprising widower who has married Miss Taylor and now schemes happily to bring his absent son Frank home to Highbury.
- [Mrs. Weston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mrs_weston.md): Emma's beloved former governess, now settled at Randalls as Mr. Weston's wife, still the gentle confidante her old pupil cannot quite do without.
- [Mr. Woodhouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_woodhouse.md): Emma's anxious, invalid-minded father, who dreads weddings, late hours, and rich food, and cannot bear the thought of anyone he loves changing circumstances.
- [Miss Bates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/miss_bates.md): A kind, endlessly talking spinster whose cheerful torrents of gratitude and news make her both a fixture of Highbury and an easy target for Emma's wit.
- [Mr. John Knightley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_john_knightley.md): Mr. Knightley's sharp-tongued younger brother, a London lawyer and Isabella's husband, who visits Highbury with his family and speaks his mind without flattery.
- [Isabella Knightley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/isabella_knightley.md): Isabella has left Highfield for Brunswick Square, where she presides over a household of children and a husband whose sharp sense contrasts with her tender fretting. Her father's anxious temperament lives on in her; she 
- [Robert Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/robert_martin.md): Robert Martin is a young man of substance in Highbury's farming world — respectable, literate, and steady, with a sister who befriends Harriet Smith. His proposal to Harriet is sincere and unpretentious, but Emma dismiss
- [Mr. Perry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_perry.md): The local apothecary who advises Mr. Woodhouse on health matters.
- [Mrs. Bates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mrs_bates.md): Miss Bates's elderly, deaf mother, a widow living in reduced circumstances.
- [Mrs. Goddard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mrs_goddard.md): The mistress of a boarding school where Harriet Smith was a pupil.
- [Colonel Campbell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/colonel_campbell.md): Jane Fairfax's benefactor, a retired army officer living abroad.
- [Mr. Dixon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters/mr_dixon.md): A wealthy Irish gentleman who marries Miss Campbell.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/emma_se/characters