are easier to do than undo.

Emma's penance is severe but the punishment fits the crime.

She freely chose to destroy Harriet's natural attachment to a worthy man who loves her sincerely, & to create an attachment in her to a person her own fancy found more suitable by pretense & willful blindness. It is her responsibility as a human to restore what she stole, & to suck up the frustration of the process being a slow one.

I grant anyone's arguments that Emma is young & that at her age I was equally disinclined to long hours visiting people who made good natured nonstop verbal assults on my senses & understanding, & to dislike people who did everything better than I did, but that's not the point. Emma's position of power in the relationship & the community and her understanding of & readiness to use that position in her dealings with others, & to hurt feelings when she considers it appropriate, gives her the responsibility to deal benevolently & wisely, or avoid interference.