Let's all laugh at Emma 'cause she was knocked off her high horse. Epic fail Emma

Reading and watching Emma reminded me of certain parts of Hobbes's statement on laughter and a part of Bergson's description. When the Ms. Bates says that the game will be easy because she can say three very dull things, Emma feels that she will be funny because she points out the strict limit. As Hobbes states, people laugh because of “apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves”. Emma thought that that she would be seen as funny because she implied that Ms. Bates constantly said nonsense and thus would have a hard time adhering to the limit of three. Emma's plan backfired because the people thought that it was indecent to make fun of and laugh at people of lower class. They thought like Hobbes in that “much laughter at the defects of others is a sign of pusillanimity” thus they reproved Emma for being so thoughtless. They thought that they should only “compare themselves only with the most able” (Hobbes) that is to say that Emma's actions would be justified if Ms. Bates was of the same social status. The disintegration of the humorous situation comes because the people do not find Emma's remark funny. As Bergson states, “laughter appears to stand in need of an echo”. Emma was not backed up by the laughs of the other people, thus the humorous situation could not exist. The reader is encouraged to laugh, not at Ms. Bates, but rather at the situation created by Emma. It is true that the remark was funny, but the situation becomes much more humorous because most people really want to see (and to laugh at) snobbish people being pushed off their high horse. Emma, considered by many a snobbish individual, was no exception to the reader's laughter.