Theory of Character: Emma

Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich. [...] Already I am caught. How is it possible to refuse the illusion that Emma Woodhouse was a woman whom I can discuss with as much unself-consciousness as the woman next door? At the very moment I refer to her (her: third person, feminine), I have already tacitly removed her from the novel, credited her with an independent life, and assumed a mimetic theory of character.*