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Romance
In contrast to other Austen heroines, Emma seems immune to romantic attraction, at least until her final self-revelation concerning her true affections. Unlike Marianne Dashwood, who is attracted to the wrong man before she settles on the right one, Emma generally shows no romantic interest in the men she meets and even her flirting with Churchill seems tame. She is genuinely surprised (and somewhat disgusted) when Mr Elton declares his love for her, much in the way Elizabeth Bennet reacts to the obsequious Mr. Collins, also a parson. Her fancy for Frank Churchill represents more of a longing for a little drama in her life than a longing for romantic love. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XIII, Emma has "no doubt of her being in love", but it quickly becomes clear that, even though she spends time "forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close of their attachment", we are told that "the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she refused him".
It is only Mr. Knightley who can willingly share the burden of Emma's father, as well as providing her with guidance, love and companionship. He has been in love with her since she was 13 years old, but neither he nor she have realized that there is a natural bond between them. He declares his love for her: "What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.".
Female empowerment
In Emma, Emma Woodhouse serves as a direct reflection of Jane Austen's feminist characterization of female heroines, in terms of both female individuality and independence (romantically, financially, etcetera). In terms of romantic independence, Emma's father, Henry Woodhouse, very consistently preaches against the idea of marriage. He plays an integral role in Emma's own initial perception of matrimony, leading her to make use of her free time by becoming the town "matchmaker", which leaves her happily single and unwed for the majority of the novel. One of the predominant reasons Emma is able to live a comfortable and independent lifestyle is her gifted inheritance—given to her by a past family member—which allows her to depend on no one other than herself for a sustainable, wealthy, and self-sufficient life although she currently lives in her father's house. Austen portrays Emma as educated and capable, and extremely popular and well-liked in her hometown of Highbury.
Literary scholar Laurence Mazzeno addresses Austen's narrative in regard to female individualism and empowerment, stating, “…Austen deals honestly and with skill in treating relationships between men and women, and presents women of real passion – but not the flamboyant, sentimental kind that populate conventional romances...Austen is not "narrow" in her treatment of character, either; her men and women furnish as broad a view of humanity as would be obtained by traveling up and down the world...Austen was conservative in both her art and her politics – suggesting that, even from a woman's point of view, Austen was hardly out to subvert the status quo."
In the Bedford Edition of Emma edited by Alistair M. Duckworrth, there are five essays to accompany the text that discuss contemporary critical perspectives, one of which is about feminist criticism. The feminist criticism essay was written by Devooney Looser. In her essay, she asks the question whether Jane Austen was a feminist. She also states in her essay that one's answer to the question not only depends on how one understands Austen's novels, but also how one defines feminism.
Looser states that if you define feminism broadly as a movement relating to how women are limited and devalued within a culture then Austen's work applies to this concept of feminism. She states that if you define feminism as a movement to eradicate gender, race, class, and sexual prejudice and to agitate for change, then Austen's work does not really apply to this concept of feminism.
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