Mr Knightley Character Analysis

Mr. Knightley “a sensible man about seven or eight-and-thirty, was not only a very old and intimate friend of the family, but particularly connected with it as the elder brother of Isabella’s husband” (7). This close connection, makes him a constant visitor at Heartfield, thus a prominent figure in Emma’s life. In contrast to Mr. Woodhouse perception of Emma as perfect, Mr. Knightley sees faults in Emma’s character, and often sees through her little schemes, and able to make precise observations regarding her relationships with other people. Mr. Knightley’s clear sightedness of her, along with his propensity to reprove her for her behavior, places him in a position of replacement father-figure, she does not have to endure from Mr. Woodhouse.
Third, with Harriet’s marriage to Mr. Knightley, Emma would no longer have the position of authority that she ultimately wishes most and would witness the rise of one from the benign position of protégé to the powerful position of patroness. It is only now, after this realization, that Emma believes her “happiness depended on being first with Mr. Knightley, first in interest and affection…and only in the dread of being supplanted, found how inexpressibly important it had been”
Knightley. Indeed, when she is given the proposal, what is astonishing is Emma’s total lack of emotional response to Mr. Knightley. Instead, her victory over Harriet is gloated over in her own mind: “to see that Harriet’s hopes had been entirely groundless, a mistake, a delusion, as complete a delusion as any of her own—that Harriet was nothing; that she was every thing herself” (340). One might expect Mr. Knightley to be foremost on her mind, but in fact she instead dwells on defeating Harriet who strangely turned out, in Emma’s mind, to be the greatest threat to her egotistic self-affirmation: by accepting Mr. Knightley’s hand, ironically, she must subordinate herself to the father figure. It is precisely for this reason that accounting for Mr. Woodhouse immediately generates anxiety: in abandoning her father and accepting Mr. Knightley’s hand, Emma would be totally surrendering the phallus. By convincing Mr. Knightley to move in to Hartfield, Emma can retain the illusion of the masquerade: she can play the role of the dutiful wife to Mr. Knightley while simultaneously maintaining her incestuous attachment to her