Mr. Knightley! [please insert cheers here.]
So, without further ado, may I present...
Mr. Knightley is knightly. If you've heard that once, you've heard it 100 times. No WONDER he gets so angry sometimes. If I got a pun like that on my name all the time, I'd be mad too.
But that's kind of off-topic here, so let's get back.
In the beginning of the story, Mr. Knightley is "a sensible man of seven or eight-and-thirty," who has been a friend of the Woodhouse family for a long time. This is owing to several facts:
a) he's next to them in social status,
b) he is the older brother of Isabella Woodhouse's husband, and
c) his expertise in handling Emma's invalid father is second only to Emma's herself.
Mr. Knightley is friendly, blunt and honest- sometimes painfully so- but he can also be commanding or intimidating, and once moves Emma to tears- of shame.
When Emma makes friends with Harriet Smith, Mr. Knightley sees Harriet's worship of Emma as a bad thing, but doesn't mention it to Emma, taking the advice of Emma's old governess, who had recently married and moved out of the family. He takes it gracefully- even gratefully- showing that he's humble as well. When he's wrong, he admits it, and when he's proved right- which happens more often- he doesn't gloat. He can be sarcastic and dry while still behaving in a perfectly gentleman-like manner.
If you don't know who my favorite Austen hero is now...well, I think it's obvious. He's second only in heroism to Sir Percy Blakeney, who is the awesomest (yes, I KNOW it's not a word. It's the only word that can describe Sir Percy, though.) hero in the history of literature and media in general.
ANYWAY.
Mr. Knightley is gentle and courteous, and hates seeing less fortunate people being belittled because they're annoying or talk too much. Yes, I'm talking to you, Miss Bates, so listen up. However, if he's trying to say something to Miss Bates, and she talks over him, he just talks louder until she's forced to answer his questions AFTER they've been asked. :)
Even though he loves Emma, Mr. Knightley doesn't let that cloud his judgement of her actions. During the Box Hill party, he scolds Emma severely because she was rude. However, even though he's jealous of Frank Churchill- the guy's young, handsome, and seems to have Emma's affection- he doesn't try to be spiteful or separate the two. He's somewhat miserable, but he won't let that spoil Emma's happiness.
I'm sorry that this post has been a little mixed-up, and maybe I'll do more on Mr. Knightley tomorrow. However, I'm in somewhat of a hurry right now, so I'll have to end this post. Again, I apologize and hope people keep reading this blog!
Notes: It's hard to believe, but I'm actually going to be busier now that school's out, so I might not have time to post every day like I have been. I'll try my hardest, though! I'll either continue on Mr. Knightley tomorrow or pick a different topic. Maybe I'll post an "Which Austen Heroine Are You?" quiz. I've been wanting to do that for a while! :)
PLEASE leave comments. I'd love to know what your opinions are!
-Miss Jane Bennet
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