“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.”

Austen shows that her heroine starts out from a position of strength and fortune. The omniscient narration allows the reader to see Emma as outsiders would —as someone who is fortunate both in her external circumstances and in meeting with no adversity. However, the word “seemed” denotes that there may be a disparity between Emma’s appearance of perfection and the reality of her situation.

“She would notice her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners. It would be an interesting and certainly a very kind undertaking; highly becoming her own situation in life, her leisure, and powers.”

Austen adopts a third person close perspective to show Emma’s motives for adopting Harriet as her protégée. To replace Miss Taylor, the governess Emma has just lost, she will act as governess to a girl who needs guidance. Emma’s labeling of her “undertaking” as “interesting” before “very kind” , indicates that Harriet’s improvement will be the means of alleviating her boredom and the channel for her talents.

“The misfortune of your birth ought to make you particularly careful as to your associates. There can be no doubt of your being a gentleman’s daughter, and you must support your claim to that station by every thing within your own power, or there will be plenty of people who would take pleasure in degrading you.”

Emma decides to frame the obscurity of illegitimate Harriet’s origins as an advantage. Within this mystery, Harriet can lay claim to being a gentleman’s daughter and style herself as worthy of marrying Mr. Elton. The mystery also creates imaginative space for Emma to style Harriet in accordance with who she wants her to be, rather than on who she is.