The Unexpected, Multi-Sided Importance of Miss Bates - Literature Essay Samples

While Miss Bates, in Jane Austen’s Emma, may initially be perceived as a minor character from afar, upon deeper analysis it can be noted that she is of capital importance in this novel. Serving as a representative of Highbury’s lower classes, Miss Bates not only gives readers an insight into their situation, but she also serves as an example of the correct behaviour that would be expected from upper classes towards their social inferiors. Being the town’s gossip also makes Miss Bates an important source of news in Highbury and she also acts as a spokesperson for the mysterious and reserved Jane Fairfax. Due to the fact that she is the daughter of the late vicar of Highbury, one would expect Miss Bates to be living a fairly comfortable life in terms of finance. However, she and her mother face the predicament of having to survive on the charity of the benevolent members of the upper class. This leads us to conclude that the character of Miss Bates has been constructed in this way for Austen to be able to illustrate the relationships that exists between members of the upper class and their social inferiors. For example, it is mainly through the Bateses that Austen is able to show Mr Knightley as a model of correct gentlemanly behaviour, when he sends them apples from his own orchards and gives them the use of his carriage. Through the relationship between Mr Knightley and Miss Bates, the author is able to convey the message that privilege entails responsibility. Similarly, through Miss Bates, Austen is able to draw on incorrect behaviour from the upper classes which stems from their superiority and lack of sensitivity towards the plight of the less fortunate. Emma, for example, initially fails to sympathise with Miss Bates as she is so occupied with avoiding the latter because of her ‘horror of falling in with the second and third rates of Highbury’. This careless and irresponsible behaviour leads to her snubbing and, consequently, seriously offending Miss Bates during the picnic at Box Hill. The fact that Mr Knightley reprimands Emma by saying; ‘how could you be so unfeeling to Miss Bates? How could you be so insolent in your wit to a woman of her age, character and situation?’ proves that Miss Bates is used as a moral lesson by Austen. This leads us also to conclude that her role is of significance in Emma’s transformation as a character. Just as Mr Knightley’s outburst is a shocking eye-opener for us, it has the same effect on Emma. It is in fact this incident which serves as the catalyst for the turning point in the life of the protagonist. Another moral lesson that Austen transmits through Miss Bates is the consequence of being an unmarried woman in the lower class of a patriarchal society. As illustrated by other female characters in the novel, such as Harriet Smith and Mrs Weston, Austen draws on the fact that it was necessary for women of low social standing to marry, to be able to secure financial stability. Miss Bates stands as a lesson to characters like Jane Fairfax and Harriet Smith, who fear having to end up in a similar predicament as her. The conversation between Harriet Smith and Emma Woodhouse concerning the latter’s declaration that she will never marry is important in illustrating this argument. Emma declaring, ‘fortune I do not want, employment I do not want’, highlights the fact that unlike Miss Bates, she can choose not to marry as she is the heiress to thirty thousand pounds and therefore has financial stability. The character of Miss Bates not only illustrates serious arguments, bu is also used as a device by Austen to bring a sense of comedy and lightheartedness to the novel. Her incessant babble and love for gossip make her a woman who enjoys a ‘high degree of popularity for a woman neither young, rich, handsome nor married’ in Highbury, and we cannot help but consider her as an altogether likeable character. The fact that she focuses on trivial affairs and indirectly meddles in the lives of others also helps us to identify characters who are similar to her such as Mr Woodhouse. It is through his interactions with Miss Bates and other women that we see the rather effeminate side to Mr Woodhouse’s personality. Moreover, what may be seen as trivial gossip by Miss Bates is in fact an important source of information in Emma. For example, it is through Miss Bates that we find out about Mr Elton’s marriage and the details about his wife. Similarly, it is only through M iss Bates that we gain insight into the otherwise reserved and mysterious character of Jane Fairfax. It is only through Miss Bate’s reading of Jane’s letters that we can conjure up an image of the latter before she even arrives in Highbury. Therefore, we can say that Jane Austen uses Miss Bates to prepare the reader for Jane Fairfax’s arival into Highbury and to cause us to become curious about the latter. For example, it is Miss Bates’s declaration that Mr Dixon saved Jane’s life that create the romantic link between the two that both Emma and the readers feed upon. The character of Miss Bates is pivotal in Jane Austen’s Emma. She not only serves as a representative of the lower classes and as a device to model correct upper class behaviour, but she is also important in the turning point in the life of the protagonist, Emma Woodhouse. Moreover she acts as a moral lesson for the fate of poor spinsters. Her endless talking and gossiping bring comedy to the novel, as well as providing important pieces of information.

Interview with a Younger B-School Applicant

This interview is the latest in an Accepted.com blog series featuring  interviews with MBA applicant bloggers, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at  the MBA application process. And now†¦introducing our anonymous blogger, â€Å"Pulling That MBA Trigger.† Accepted: Can you tell us a little about yourself – where are you from, where did you go to school, and what is your current job? Pulling That MBA Trigger: Ah, I never really know how to answer this question. An entire lifetime in a few  sentences? I’m way too chatty for that. Anyway, I’m 22 years old, female and fresh out of the college boat. Well, it’s been a year anyway, so I’m still not a jaded adult which is probably why I’m so gung-ho about this whole admissions thing. I’m from India and I went to a school that is probably not known to the rest of the world, although a recently appointed CEO did go here. It’s doing a lot for our street cred. I graduated as an electronics engineer and I’m working for a tech startup that develops web and mobile applications when we’re not busy working with big data analytics and all that jazz. I also founded my own startup in the education space, so yeah pretty exciting stuff! Accepted: Which schools do you plan on applying to? PTMT: I’m glaringly honest with myself and I know that my chances of getting into the top 5 schools are astronomically low. With that said, I’m targeting the lower 10’s and pretty much any school in the 10-20 range. I haven’t narrowed down the names yet, but I’m angling towards MIT Sloan simply because of their focus on entrepreneurship and the fact that they happen to like engineers from the technology space. I’m also considering Yale (Ivy League, nuff  said) and Booth (quant focused with a soft spot for younger applicants, or so I hear). I’m applying to a maximum of four schools and this is more strategic than anything else simply because if I get dinged from all four of them, I can reapply next year with plenty of options still left open. Accepted: What would you say is your greatest profile strength? Weakness? How do you plan on overcoming that weakness? PTMT: I guess my greatest strength lies in the fact that  I am an entrepreneur and a leader at heart, and this kind of spills over everywhere in my application. I have only ever worked for startups and I have founded a startup. I never felt the need for an MBA to take that plunge and I guess I would say that I’m ballsy. Not sure how I would put that on my application, but eh. Weakness is pretty obvious. I am very, very impatient. I can’t wait any longer to get that MBA and so I’m quite stupidly applying after having worked for only a year (or two at the time of matriculation). It’s going to be quite a challenge convincing schools that I’m emotionally and professionally ready to get an MBA. Accepted: So†¦how are you going to convince the adcom that you’re a candidate worth paying attention to with only one year of work experience?   PTMT: Honestly, I’m not even sure I’m convinced just yet! I’m just faking it as I go, maybe eventually I’ll actually believe that I’m someone worth paying attention to. But with that said, my plan is to focus on all that I have managed to achieve in such a short period of time, possibly as much as other people achieved in two years. Impatience has its own rewards, which is why I jam-packed my years in college and post-college with every activity imaginable and that is now paying off. I am mainly going to emphasize the success of my own startup (albeit on a modest scale) and my stint as the secretary of the student body in college. Accepted: Why do you want an MBA? What are some of your goals and how will an MBA help you achieve them? PTMT: In my current role as a software engineer, I’m  limited to my work as a code monkey and I have no exposure to how the company gets its clients, or how they measure the bottom line and success/failure. I guess this kind of points to a role in consulting post an MBA, simply because it would allow me to look at how different companies across different industries function, without slotting me into a role that is limiting in terms of what I’m able to learn (i.e. software engineer, product manager, marketing manager and so on). Long term though, I’d like to use all the consulting knowledge from watching other companies’ mistakes to set up my own company in the tech space. Accepted: What has the b-school application process so far taught you about yourself? PTMT: The b-school process has forced me to thoroughly  excavate my head. I had to visit corners I never wanted to revisit. It has been torturous at times and merely annoying at others. It’s taught me that I have a high tolerance for pain and that I should really get a commemorative tattoo when I’m done. Okay, okay. It’s also shown me that I have vast reserves of strength, resolve and motivation. I know I can pull through and even if I don’t, I know I’ll have the energy to do it again next year. I also think I’m a lot more interesting than I thought I was. I actually have interesting  stories to write down in my essays. Who knew?! Accepted: Can you tell us about your blog? Who is your target audience? What do you hope to gain from the blogging experience? PTMT: My blog is called Pulling That MBA Trigger and it’s no coincidence that I want to shoot myself in the head about once a day during this whole process. It’s basically a place for me to vent and document my thoughts before I go crazy. I hope it provides slight comedic relief to others going through the same thing and perhaps makes them feel better about their own chances of getting in. At the end of it, I want to be able to look back and think,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ah, I’ve made it so far,† unless of course I get dinged everywhere in which case I’m going to nuke the blog off cyberspace and pretend it never existed. For one-on-one guidance on your b-school application, please see our MBA Application Packages. You can read more about PTMT’s b-school journey by checking out her blog, Pulling That MBA Trigger.  Thank you PTMT for sharing your story with us – we wish you loads of luck! Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best