As much as we insist that this is not true, our choices, actions and thoughts are rarely unaffected by the conditions into which we are born. Our culture and society play a huge role in the person we become, shaping our opinions and worldviews from birth. This truth is no better illustrated than in Jane Austen's Emma. In Emma, ​​Austen uses narrative style, characterization, and the narrative device of wordplay to illustrate the ever-present power of hierarchical control. Emma's plot seems to revolve around the superficial theme of strategic matchmaking. But while this is an important aspect of Emma, ​​it primarily serves as a catalyst to illustrate the much larger idea of ​​social authority present in the novel. Puns play a huge role in the development of Emma's plot. “…Emma is itself a play on words, anagrammatic in theme…and plot structure” (Grey 181). Puns in Emma involve matching and rearranging verbal characters. This mirrors the plot of the book, in which characters are matched and rearranged as potential spouses. (Grey 181). In the same way that rearranging the tiles of the alphabet changes their meaning, different pairings in Emma demonstrate different aspects of the individual's character. Emma's theme is expressed through wordplay by the need of games to stick to the rules. Emma's society is based on strict adherence to the rules dictated by the “bourgeois aristocracy” (Grossman 1). Similarly, word games are based on following the rules, and when the rules of the game are broken this usually coincides with the violation of the rules of the social game. Frank and Emma break social rules when they obviously gossip about Jane Fairfax and mock her attachment to Mr. Dixon by spelling out ... middle of paper ...... Conscience": Richardson, Austen and Stylistic "Influence." Style Spring 2001 : 18+. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 21 March 2012. Byrne, Sandie. "Jane Austen's Emma." , Frances. "Jane Austen, Emma and the Impact of Form" 61.1 (2000): 157. Gale Student Resources in Context. David., A. Walton, and Austen." Studies in Family Planning 30.3 (1999): 143. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. March 21, 2012. Hale, John K. "Austen's 'Emma'." The Explicator 59.3 (2001): 122 Gale Student Resources in Context. Network. March 20. 2012.