Emma's Life Introduced

One of the things that struck me about Emma is that Austen describes her as "clever" (1). Is she really clever? Maybe she is in relation to the people around her, but later in the novel she continually fails to read people correctly or pick up on obvious hints. Emma is also fully aware that "having rather too much her own way" and "think[ing] a little too well of herself" will not do her any good (1). But she chooses to ignore these characteristics because they don't seem very important. In reality, they are characteristics that could lead to rather large problems.

(The book pages I will be referencing come from this version of "Emma" -

Austen, Jane. Emma. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1999. )