Emma

The romantic situation or gesture, framing the woman as a damsel in distress and setting the man up as her rescuer, is a recurring motif in Emma. Such situations include Jane Fairfax’s rescue from falling overboard and drowning by Mr. Dixon, and Frank’s rescue of Harriet from the Romani people. Emma, who has never been in love and has never experienced the feelings that accompany it, highly values these romantic situations and imagines the attachments that they must surely give rise to. When she hears of Harriet’s rescue by Frank, Emma considers that “such an adventure as this— a fine young man and a lovely young woman thrown together in such a way, could hardly fail of suggesting certain ideas to the coldest heart and the steadiest brain” (286). Emma, who has been eager to get Frank and Harriet together anyway, imagines that it “was not possible that the occurrence should not be strongly recommending each to the other” (287). Emma performs a similar flight of fancy when she hears of how Mr. Dixon rescued Jane from falling over the edge of a ship. This incident, reported by Miss Bates, is the spur to Emma’s belief that Mr.