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. (Chapter 1)

Nice point! I had not ever noticed how depressed Emma is about loosing Miss Taylor before either but it makes her deciding to take up Harriet as friend and a project that much more reasoned. Emma is bored and lonely which I don’t think is noticeable at first because of the way she is described in the first paragraph. I come away from that description with the idea Emma’s life is all strawberries and cream but actually we are plopped into Emma’s life just when it begins to get a bit vexing. I don’t mind solitude but Emma really has a bucketful all to herself with only dear Mr. Woodhouse for company. I think Emma has an incredibly strong will to be able to constantly tackle and retackle the job of keeping her father’s spirits up and necessarily keeping her own up for him when really she could use some attention herself. (;D)