how 'Emma' pokes fun at class distinctions

In Jane Austen’s era which is also called as Regency period, English society revolved around a social hierarchy. One’s rank greatly determined one’s social class. Class, stratification on base of economic and social means, is a central theme in Jane Austen’s novel Emma. The protagonist itself reveals the class differences in the novel.

Emma Woodhouse is a lady who possesses a good disposition. She is rich and wealthy. She has not faced any difficulties in one and twenty years of her age. She lives an easy and comfortable life without any social or economic hardships to confront. She belongs to a respected family ‘Woodhouse’. She is not confined as other women of her time and somehow lives an independent life. She is opinionated and thinks herself right in her decisions. Throughout the novel she takes things in her own way. She thinks herself too sagacious.

She lives an easy life. She has many facilities. She has no predicaments to face. She has not confronted the hardships of life. She is not known to the atrocities of a commoner. She has an indifferent attitude towards the people of lower classes, and, she also marks differences among people. Throughout the novel we see many instances of her making distinctions among different classes. We also have examples of her poking fun at class distinctions.

First such instant of her attitude towards lower classes reveals when she meets Harriet Smith.

“Those soft blue eyes and all those natural graces should not be wasted on the inferior society of Highbury and its connections. The acquaintances she had already formed were unworthy of her. The friends from whom she had just parted, though very good sort of people, must be doing her harm.”
This reveals her thinking of classes other than hers. She admits that they are good sort of people but at the same time she declares them coarse and unpolished. This shows that she is quick and decided in her ways. She knows about their good manners but still she resists