Mr. Elton was the very person fixed on by Emma for driving the young farmer out of Harriet’s head. She thought it would be an excellent match; and only too palpably desirable, natural, and probable, for her to have much merit in planning it.
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 4. Emma goes into full matchmaking mode, as she sets out to pair Harriet with Mr. Elton to make her forget about Mr. Martin. Emma’s blindness, manipulativeness and misjudgments, especially with regard to her matchmaking efforts, are satirized here. Having misread the signals from Mr. Elton, she thinks he is the perfect match for Harriet. She doesn’t see that he is too much of a social climber to settle for the socially inferior Harriet and wants to marry a rich wife. The irony is that he has no romantic feelings for Harriet, has set his sights on Emma and will soon propose to her.