The appeal of the character of Emma Woodhouse in Jane Austen's novel Emma depends on her ignorance of herself and of her own unlikable qualities. She is a comic character for that reason. Had she been from the beginning of the novel aware of herself, her self-centeredness, her snobbishness, and all her other defects, she would have been anything but a comic character, would have been thoroughly unlikable, and would have had little appeal for the reader.
If Emma were simply a woman ignorant of her flaws and kept to herself, however, she would not make the delightful character she does indeed make. Emma is a woman who cannot help but meddle in other peoples' affairs, specifically affairs of the heart. Her recipe for happiness, for others and finally for herself, is love and marriage. And she sees herself as the force destined to bring men and women together for the sake of love and marriage. Precisely because she is so unaware of anything but the most shallow considerations in life and love, she leaves disasters---if comic disasters---everywhere in her wake.
Emma is introduced to us as a spoiled young woman who is about to have her life altered dramatically---at least in its externals. We read that Emma has lived a protected life:
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. . . . The real evils . . . of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself (Austen 1).
Emma is thrown into the world of more common folk, however, as the result of circumstances beyond her control but neatly attuned to the comic intentions of the author. The change in socioeconomic circumstances, however, does not change Emma for the better, but instead gives her greater impetus a...