Thoughts on Emma Part 1

Through much of Volume one, I find one repeating theme: people who are obsessed with what society expects of them. In Werther and Adolphe, I saw people who were trying to fit in with society. Emma is an exception. Many of the characters in this novel are identified solely by how society defines them.
Emma takes Harriet under her wings. Harriet is significantly lower on the social totem pole than is Emma. When Harriet is offered marriage by Mr. Martin, of middle class, society expects that she will accept the offer. Mr. Knightley as well supports this decision. But Emma has her choose against society. Emma wants her to have her marry into a higher class. Emma's sole purpose in life seems to be to prove society wrong. She wanted deeply to prove to Hartfield that Mr. Weston can and will marry again, even though everyone thought he never would. Emma wants to show her town that Harriet can marry into a higher class, even if society shuns it.
Mr. Knightley does not approve of Mr. Elton as a sufficeint suitor for Harriet because his manners are weak. He is constantly looking at people in light of how they are viewed in society. He says that the Churchills were never shown in a good light, but that Mr. Weston is "depending, I suspect, much more upon what is called society for his comforts (93)."