Genre
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

Like Jane Austen’s other novels, Emma can be considered a novel of manners, a book that focuses primarily on its characters’ subtle behaviors (or “manners”) that signal their particular positions in a social hierarchy. Between Mrs. Elton deciding that she and not Emma will dance the first dance at a ball (because of her higher social standing) and Emma telling Harriet that Mr. Martin is beneath her because of his position as a farmer, characters consistently make decisions based on their particular social positions.