The Argument of Harriet Smith

I think that Mr. Knightley's opinion of Harriet is most correct in Chapter 8 of Emma. I believe that Emma thinks highly of Harriet only because she has been working to improve her and believes that anyone whom she could deem such a friend could never be a suitable match for Mr. Martin. However, Mr. Knightley is correct that Harriet has no genteel background and really no great attributes to reccommend her to someone of a higher class. Emma may have improved her social graces but Harriet is not very clever and it doesn't seem that she can do many of the "accomplishments" always discussed in Austen novels. I never read anything about her being accomplished; she doesn't paint or play an instrument and I never even read about her doing needleworl. In this light, she is not only from an anonymous background but she is not very cultivated. I think that, considering these things along with how much she truly loves Mr. Martin, Mr. Knightley was definetely right is assuming she should have accepted him. To answer the question about liking/disliking Mr. Martin's proposal, I would have to say a romantic proposal should never be written in a letter. It should be intimate and face to face. I don't really know what the "perfect" proposal would involve for me except that I hate the showy ones (like people proposing at sports games on the big screen...yuk!) I guess I would want him to have asked my parents because they would probably be more accepting of it that way. Most of all if it's the one I love, he can do whatever he wants. It's what happens after that matters most.