This is the opening to a paper I wrote in grad school that thought you all might like:

Jane Austen's Emma bears some resemblance to a hall of mirrors, or at least to Sir Walter Elliot's dressing room. Themes, motif, characters, events, personality traits--almost all have reflections, shadow-selves, mirror images. In many chases these reflections enhance the richness of ideas, give nuance and new shades of meaning. Mr. Knightley and Robert Martin show off each other's strength of character; Emma and Mrs. Elton vie for the prize of being the proudest and most vain woman in her set. Frank's flattering attention to Emma is reflected in Harriet's adoration of Mr. Knightley after the ball, and Emma's relationship with Harriet is echoed in Mrs. Elton's attentions to Jane Fairfax. Both Emma and Jane Fairfax have difficult, nervous parental figures. Reflections abound, and they abound no where as much as in how nearly everyone is quite happy to engage in their own bit of matchmaking.

So--here's the question--whom do you see as matchmakers in the novel (in addition to Emma), and do you think Austen approved of matchmaking?