Women usually displayed power through the conventional expectation that women should care for their children and elderly parents without the understanding and social status they had the men. During this time, women were also expected to marry a rich man even if the man was not her true love. His marriage could also change his social status. Each class was fiercely protected, as women were expected to marry someone of the same class, as if a woman married someone from a lower class then she would be seen as bringing someone who was below them into their higher social class. In the early 19th century, most women were economically dependent on men, which often limited their freedom. Emma Woodhouse's intelligence is very evident throughout Emma, ​​as she is described as having a greater intellect than was expected at the time, although she did not have a job or a husband at the beginning of the novel. Emma's wit and intellect were said to be evident from an early age, although she rarely had time to study the books she desired due to the amount of time taken up by social visits and other mundane activities that were a part significant. of the rural nineteenth century