The circumstances of Emma's unfortunate life and untimely death were caused primarily by a series of factors, or `traps' in Emma's life that prevented her from succeeding and finding happiness, and ultimately pushed her to her premature death.

During the time in which the book took place, society had very strict views on what is proper and right. According to society at the time, once married, women were to stay at home, bear and raise children, and commit themselves to satisfying their husbands. Emma, who spent most of her childhood on a farm, raised by her father, only knew about marriage and family dynamics from the hyper-romantic novels that she read as an adolescent. Accepting the notions from these books as reality, and building her own expectations based on them, Emma jumped at her first opportunity to wed, thinking that this would begin the exciting...