Emma Undiscovered
In Shakespeare’s tragic play Hamlet, the character Polonius lent his son some advice which has become one of the most quoted lines in all of William Shakespeare’s writings:  “[T]o thine own self be true, and it must follow, as night the day, Thou canst be false to any man.”  (Hamlet/1.3.84-86).  Unfortunately, Polonius never had an inclination of following his own advice.  Indeed, his death could be blamed directly on his dereliction of  such good counsel.  One cannot keep poor Polonius out of mind while reading the misadventures of Emma Woodhouse.  Although, Emma, who like Polonius is constantly self-deluding herself from reality, she never meets anything remotely close to the same fateful doom as Shakespeare’s tragic character (at least not in this story).  Furthermore, Emma neither truly discovers anything about herself, nor does she ever truly change herself.