The action of this chapter is the external climax of Volume One, and the action speaks pretty much for itself. The fiasco of a proposal is in contrast to the comfortable domesticity all around it; and as a real emotional mishap on the return trip home, it stands out in ironic relief against the earlier apprehensions of physical misadventure on the snow-covered road.
The concluding incident of the chapter marks the beginning of revelation and self-revelation for Emma. The situation constitutes a point of extreme testing of an imaginative young lady, and in spite of a hesitant moment or two, she meets the event with superb outward control. It is also worth noting that her conviction of his "presumption" comes, if we are to judge from her total reactions to him up to this point in the story, as much from a sense of incompatibility as from a sense of social levels, though she would probably feel that the two are inseparable.
