Emma

Her reference to it as "being the greatest amusement in the world" seems to show Emma's feeling of superiority based on her inflated sense of intelligence, education and social status. Even though she knows that meddling with other people's lives can be dangerous, she continues to play "matchmaker" throughout the novel. In fact, in the first portion of the novel, it is Emma's arrogance, meddling nature and snobbery which seemingly permeate her character. That is, until the dominant figure in her world, Mr. Knightley, provides rebuke, guidance and good example. Austen makes it abundantly clear that Emma's deficiencies are a product of her upbringing. Her existence has been too privileged. She has been made to feel too important and has received far too much praise and deference from her peers. She has not had to earn the respect of others, or acknowledge a superior authority. As a consequence, she lacks self-discipline, has no compunction to work, and therefore fails to develop the full potential of such an intelligent woman. She is arrogant, egotistical and controlling. She overrates her capacities and is too confident of her knowledge, judgment and perception. Because she is accustomed to having reality arranged for her, she is given to fantasizing and to assuming that things are probably as she wishes or imagines them to be. She has a weakness for flattery and for people who feed her ego. She tries to avoid competition, to cut down rivals, and to evade unpleasant realizations. It is no irony that in describing Mrs. Elton as a "vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of her own importance (who means) to shine and be very superior" (pg. 253 )Austen lets Emma provide the reader with a damning self-portrait.
             Emma's character slowly evolves during the course of the novel. Austen uses a subtle yet defined structure to identify Emma's faults and map out the progress in her "rite of passage" to true gentility.