Mainly country people of the upper class, the characters of "Emma" are turned into total individuals with strong personalities all their own by use of Jane Austen's unique characterization. Her characters reveal themselves through thoughts, action, and dialog with very little physical description given. The characters are placed in various situations, such as dinner parties, balls, neighborly visits, and shopping trips, which in each setting the character develops and reveals more personality. The Christmas Eve party at Randalls, the dinner party at the Coles, the strawberry party at Donwell, the ball at Crown Inn, and the picnic at Box Hill are significant situations which, for example, expose the romantic fancy in the heroine Emma, an upper class snob who possesses an acute sense of social rank in Highbury where her family is first in consequence and last in fortune.
             "Emma doing just what she liked, highly esteeming Miss Taylor's judgments, but directed chiefly by her own. The real evils, indeed, 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." At the beginning of the novel Emma is ruled by self-delusion, romantic fancies, and intellectual vanity. Thus she believes she can manage the affairs of others and perform perfect matchmaking. Furthermore, Emma derides those of lower social standing and plainly rejects any one below genteel. The haughty attitude is evidenced when the spoiled Emma attempts to isolate herself from the yeomanry, "A young farmer...he is below it." Emma proudly demonstrates her stuck up and elitist attitude, which leads her to possess a forceful personality and a want to always be in control. This compulsive perfectionist tendency of Emma's guides her to choosing the feeble-willed Harriet Smith, whose tenderness according to Emma means weakness, lack of will, a softne...