By comparing conventional women and effeminate males, Austen puts the limelight on the masculinity of Emma Woodhouse. Unlike her father, Emma is able to “supply her visitors with conversation in a much more satisfactory style” Emma (p.14). With the exception of Mr. Knightley, Emma rules her household and neighbourhoods. Her rule continues throughout and is reinforced at the closure of the novel through her marriage with Mr. Knightley. Mr. Knightley attributes that Emma has been the mistress of the house and everyone in Highbury since she was twelve years old. According to Trilling, as “moral life for all men is an essential element of their power” ; the character of Miss Woodhouse is an anomaly in “that she has a moral life”. The contrast of Emma’s masculinity to male effeminacy produces the comedy in the novels gender role reversal. Even the handwriting of Mr. Elton and Frank Churchill is weak and effeminate. However, “Emma’s handwriting is the strongest” Emma (p.193). The other women of Highbury, gallant bachelors and Mr. Woodhouse cannot hold a candle to Emma’s sexual coolness. She is more masculine than they are. They are “children who have learned nothing of the guide of the world”, Trilling has noted.
Through the portrayal of woman of superiority in ironic gender role reversal, Jane Austen contends that the effeminate and gallant males cannot be compared to the masculinity of strong women, especially that of Emma Woodhouse. The effeminate masculinity of these men is presented to show the masculinity of Emma. Claudia Johnson asserts that “Emma purges masculine gender codes from the ostensible excesses of sentimental gallantry and feminized display, redefining English manhood instead as brisk, energetic, downright, natural, unaffected, reserved, businesslike, plain-speaking gentlemanly, to be sure but not courtly” (Equivocal Beings p.201). In this way, Johnson refutes convention and social order and supports that “woman, lovely woman reigns alone”. Through Emma Woodhouse, like Austen, was an anomaly in her time, the heroine excels today as not the exception but the rule – the rule of both men and women.
Emma Woodhouse is a very strong character, “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition” (p.01). She possesses a fortunate life style with the luxury of independence. However, she is a woman of both faults and virtues. The decision to either refuse or accept the proposal of marriage is an empowerment of which Emma Woodhouse is fully aware. Emma is aware of the rights of matrimony. She is not like the stereotype women who find marriage as a shelter behind the man. Most women of the nineteenth century look for marriage as a way of financial support, forgetting the essence of marriage- love. Most women had little choice but to marry and upon doing so everything they owned, inherited and earned automatically belonged to their husband.
Emma deviates from the traditional views on the subject of marriage prevailed during the Victorian period. Emma wants to have more power to be the superior of her acquaintance; especially her frequent quarrels with Mr. Knightley. Such quarrels map a dual battle between the sexes – men and women. Jane Austen through Emma’s adoption of the masculine role presents a heroine who is different from women of that time who would simply not have been allowed to argue with a man of Mr. Knightley’s stature, as they were commonly expected to be meek and submissive. Emma is arguing with Mr. Knightley as a man would have done, without a sense of inferiority. Austen portrays a woman with an equal gender role to a man. She is against the patriarchy of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Emma Woodhouse defies the social code which was embedded into the norms of that time. She serves as a new role model to those of her society like Miss Bates, Jane Fairfax and others.
Emma has different views on marriage. She declares that a woman in her position should not be inclined to marry. She rejects the notion of marriage of the Victorian era. She finds the role of women in marriage as a passive one. So, she firmly rejects this passivity as her expected state after marriage. She dismisses Harriet Smith’s wonder that, with all of her charming qualities she “should not be married or going to be married” Emma (p.55). Emma explains that:
“My being charming, Harriet, is not quite enough to induce me to marry; I must find other people charming—one other person at least. And I am not only, not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of ever marrying at all.” Emma (p.55)
Emma seems to share her creator’s avarice of marriage which was supposed by Austen to have destroyed the freedom and happiness of a lady. Austen could ‘afford’ to remain a spinster. However, for women in general in her time marriage was the only option to live honourably. Emma does not want financial security from marriage since she has fortune enough to support her for the rest of her life. Jane Austen has placed Emma Woodhouse in the position of gender dominance associated with men. What is more, she possesses a considerable deal of power associated with men’s masculinity. Le Roy Smith finds that in Austen’s fiction “some women, instead of acceding dependence, sustain their self-esteem by a compensatory striving for power and takes the form of imitation of the dominant male” . Emma does not want to lose such power and ‘masculine’ dominance. Emma openly tells Harriet that she does not intend to marry without love;
"Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! But I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine" Emma (p.55).
Emma wants a marriage based on love and equality. Otherwise she does want to be the ruler of Highbury. She justifies her refusal of marriage not to “be fool to change such a situation as mine” Emma (p.55). Emma does not want to be a submissive partner in marriage and the husband to be the dominant partner. This is because of the patriarchal society that sees marriage as only a financial security. Emma wants a marriage of equal minds and equal hearts; a marriage based on mutual love; and that is what she succumbs to as an ultimate need for a woman. Even to the end, she retains her masculine behaviour attaining power.
Jane Austen’s hero, Mr. Knightley is an ideal model of gentlemen and modern masculinity. He is an icon of the modern masculinity which has been most successful relying upon such a controlled model of behaviour rather than absolute oppression or dominance over women. Mr. Knightley’s approach is against the patriarchal dominance over women and men in Highbury and Donwell. Mr. Knightley maintains a masculine identity which does not depend on the control of women as it was during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the portrayal of Mr. Knightley, Jane Austen demonstrates the modern conception as perceived by John Tosh that: “masculinity should not be subject to prescription. It should ideally express individual choice” Emma announces confidently that “Mr. Knightley does nothing mysteriously” Emma (p.147). Emma asserts that Mr. Knightley’s predictability emphasizes his deliberate behaviour. He is not an overly confident or hyper-aggressive individual. He is a well-organized man void of the crises of the masculinity of the men of the Victorian era. Knightley’s name is well and intentionally chosen, for not only does he continually bring into the daily life of Highbury the spirit of chivalry, but more importantly he exemplifies the kind of behaviour Jane Austen considers necessary for the maintenance of a morally founded society . The name ‘George Knightly’ merges the patron saint of England with the chivalrous knight. Such fusion of images makes the gentlemanly Mr. Knightly an idealistic figure.
In Emma, Jane Austen documents Mr. Knightley as a model of structured masculinity which was vital to the social stability of England in the period following the French Revolution Joseph A. Kestner argues in his important study, “Jane Austen: Revolutionizing Masculinities”, that Austen’s later works "imprint on the British nation a new conception of masculinity and male subjectivity." He states that Austen demonstrates the culture renegotiating masculinity specifically because of the trauma of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The idea of British maleness constructed by Austen in Emma was one advanced during the remainder of the nineteenth century. Claudia Johnson argues that Emma documents a shift in England’s conception of masculinity by “diminishing the authority of male sentimentality, and emasculating men and women alike with a high sense of national purpose. Johnson indicates that Knightley performs a new “humane” British masculinity. However, he recalls a pre-Burkean tradition of “gentry liberty, which valued its valued its manly independence from tyrannical rule”, Johnson (p.199). Mr. Knightley is an English man with English customs. He is aware of the transformations of England at the social and the historical level. Sarah Ailwood argues that “Austen particularly emphasizes the Englishness of Mr. Knightley’s language and conversation by comparing him with Frank Churchill” Ailwood (p.221). Mr. Knightley stands for the English masculinity and Frank Churchill stands for the French masculinity. Their first names indicate their masculinities. He tells Emma about Frank:
“ .. your amiable young man can be amiable only in French, not in English. He may be very 'aimable,' have very good manners, and be very agreeable; but he can have no English delicacy towards the feelings of other people: nothing really amiable about him." Emma (p.97)
The English plain masculinity is contrasted with the French gallant masculinity. Frank Churchill lacks the English sincerity. Mr. Knightley targets this superficiality when he disputes Emma’s description of Frank as “amiable.” This contrast of Frank’s gallant masculinity with the Knightley’s gentleman masculinity has encouraged some critics to view Mr. Knightley as an exemplar of the English masculinity. Claudia Johnson argues that the plain style of speech and conversation employed by Mr. Knightley “is a matter of national import, constituting the ‘amiable’, the true English style, as opposed of course to the ‘aimable’, the artificial, the courtly, the dissembling, the servile, and (as the tradition goes) the feminized French” Johnson (p.201). Jane Austen portrays a national picture of the English masculinity through Mr. Knightley. The sense of Englishness is the taste of Austen’s writings. Knightley summarizes the nature of Frank’s masculinity when he observes: “He is a disgrace to the name of man” Emma (p.280). Put it simply, Frank is not a man, not a masculine, at all by any English paradigm. He is feminine. Mr. Knightley remarks about Frank Churchill’s handwriting: “I don’t admire it …. It is too small – wants strength. It is like a woman’s writing” Emma (p.194). Churchill according to Knightley is gallant only in a debased manner. Mr. Knightley constructs for the English culture the new English masculinity. Mr. Knightley is “good-natured, useful, considerate and benevolent. He is not a gallant man, but he is a very humane one” Emma (p.145) states Emma to Mrs. Weston. Mr. Knightley speaks “in plain, unaffected gentleman-like English” Emma (p.294) with Emma at the end of the novel. Knightley is England as Emma has recognized in her excursion to Donwell Abbey: “It was a sweet view- sweet to the eye and the mind English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive”, Emma (p.236). Indeed, Knightley's model of masculinity may have supplied England with precisely the kind of masculinity it needed to avoid a large-scale cultural crisis in the wake of the French Revolution.
Sarah Ailwood argues that Austen constructs Mr. Knightley as a model Englishman through three elements which continue the pattern of desirable masculinity in her earlier novels: the house, his middle-class value for work and domesticity and his embodiment of English character, Ailwood (p.215). His house, the Donwell Abbey symbolizes the British masculinity. It is desirable as the desirable masculinity of Mr. Knightley. Emma finds the house resembling Mr. Knightley so, it is just what it ought to be, and it looks what it is. It is perfect as its owner is. The social construction of Donwell and its appearance form the foundation of Austen’s construction of desirable masculinity. There is an ideal relationship between a gentleman and the land in his possession. Jane Austen was a novelist when England was in great turmoil. England was the focus of conflicting views among the gentry class as to the proper appearance of the landscape. ‘A gentleman’s residence’ is at the heart of Austen’s thinking about landscape. It is seen at its best when inhabited by people who work in harmony with what nature provides. The Donwell Abbey symbolizes Mr. Knightley who is the icon of the English masculinity. Austen draws the landscape of Donwell as a part of the gentlemanliness of Mr. Knightley through the eyes of Emma:
She felt all the honest pride and complacency which her alliance with the present and future proprietor could fairly warrant, as she viewed the respectable size and style of the building, its suitable, becoming, characteristic situation, low and sheltered—its ample gardens stretching down to meadows washed by a stream, of which the Abbey, with all the old neglect of prospect, had scarcely a sight—and its abundance of timber in rows and avenues, which neither fashion nor extravagance had rooted up… It was just what it ought to be, and it looked what it was—and Emma felt an increasing respect for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and understanding. Emma (p.243)
The most significant factor in this description of Donwell is this sentence “It was just what it ought to be, and it looked what it was”. This sentence reminds the readers “what men ought to be”. The Donwell is just what it ought to be as what Mr. Knightley ought to be. The landscape of Donwell is as perfect as Mr. Knightley. Donwell is a place that Emma respects with its owner due to its influence and authority. The landscape is the reflection of the owner and the reflection of Donwell through the eyes of Emma is the reflection of her desire to the masculine virtue of Mr. Knightley. The image of the landscape is used by Austen to construct a new form of desirable masculinity. The view of Donwell according to Emma is “a sweet view – sweet to the eye and the mind; English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright without oppressive” Emma (p.236). Emma sees the appearance of Mr. Knightley as ‘bright without oppressive’. This is the desirable masculinity that is without oppression. Austen constructs a new form of masculinity in which there is no oppression or subordination. Mr. Knightley is bright and desirable man in the eyes of Emma because of his masculinity. Mr. Knightley is not a gallant man who finds himself superior over men or men. The gentle behaviour of Mr. Knightley towards the people of Highbury and Donwell including Emma herself indicates the new masculinity in England. Sarah Ailwood states that
“Mr. Knightley, like Donwell Abbey, is just what he ought to be, and he looks what he is. He achieves this authenticity because his gender identity is governed by personal choice and the necessity of being true to himself, rather than performing socially accepted roles in his relationships with women.” Ailwood (p.231)
It is Knightley’s behaviour that makes him just what he ought to be and looks what he is. These socially accepted roles done by Mr. Knightley constitute his desirable masculinity. Such masculinity is in accordance with the theory of the masculinity of Connell and John Tosh that states masculinity is performative.
Knightley is both a virile man of industry and dignified man of gentility. Knightley upholds the aristocratic tradition of the English society despite the impact of the people of his class who stand for the dominant masculinity of the Victorian period. One aspect of his gentlemanliness is his duty towards his society. He is always helping them to manage their lives easily. He tells Emma: “There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chuses, and that is, his duty: not by manoeuvering and finessing, but by vigour and resolution” Emma (p.95). Mr. Knightley’s approach to masculinity is that to do manly according to one’s duty. It is his duty towards all the members of the Highbury society that constructs Mr. Knightley’s masculine behaviour. He was in favour of Martin to marry Harriet Smith. He was against Emma’s bad behaviour towards Ms. Bates. He was a gentleman towards all the people of his community.
Knightley’s duty towards Robert Martin is a sign of his gentlemanliness. Austen probes this duty when she introduces the dispute between Emma and Knightley about Martin’s eligibility as a husband for Harriet Smith. Mr. Knightley opposes Emma’s views of the relations between economic standing, social rank and masculinity. Through this controversy between Emma and Knightley, Austen presents a new masculinity in which there is no subordination not only over women but also over men. Austen does oppose the hegemonic masculinity of the Victorian period. Knightley avers that Martin’s manners have sense, sincerity and good humour to recommend them and his mind has more gentility. Knightley is against the patriarchy of the society in which Robert Martin is no longer than a farmer.
Robert J. Merritt states: “when Austen presents Martin, she implies that Knightley has guided his tenant to read Young, the agricultural authority who knew more about agrarian writing than anyone in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.” This indicates that Mr. Knightley has done his duty towards his community. He finds Martin eligible to marry Harriet Smith whereas Emma does not. Mr. Knightley finds Martin a gentleman farmer since the production of food is the business of the gentleman, Knightley.
Mr. Knightley, owner of the largest estate in Highbury, embodies the highest standards of hospitality and philanthropy as he continuously cherishes the society. He has a strong belief that comes with very significant social responsibility. However, his sense of social responsibility extends to a moral understanding of his masculine duty towards society. Sarah Ailwood states that:
“Mr. Knightley’s sense of moral responsibility as a landowner and as a privileged member of the community is also reflected in numerous acts of generosity throughout the novel such as his gift the apples to Jain Fairfax and the use of the carriage to collect Jane and Miss Bates for the Cole’s party” Ailwood (p.218).
This last action prompts Emma to comment to Mrs. Weston: “I know no man more likely than Mr. Knightley to do the sort of thing—to do anything really good-natured, useful, considerate, or benevolent. He is not a gallant man, but he is a very humane one; and this, considering Jane Fairfax's ill health, would appear a case of humanity to him” Emma (p.145). Emma recognizes the desirable masculinity of Mr. Knightley because of his dutiful behaviour towards everyone in Highbury. Mr. Knightley is a phenomenal masculine figure who is able to synthesize within his body that is passing away and the world that is coming. To do so, Mr. Knightley must maintain a rational and desirable masculinity rather than the aggressive and hegemonic masculinity advocated by the Victorian society. Claudia Johnson finds that “Knightley to be an impressive figure because he is a model of chivalry, who performs male duties in neither an anachronistic nor an overly progressive way. He is a new type of English masculinity because he ‘desentimentalizes’ and ‘deheterosexualizes’ virtue making it available to women as well as men” Johnson (p.191).
Mr. Knightley plays the major in the change of Emma towards marrying herself instead of marrying others. Emma as the mouth of Jane Austen does not want to marry because she finds the society treating women not as intellectual equals. The gender hierarchy within the conventional marriage of eighteenth and nineteenth century would seriously threaten the autonomy and power of Emma as it was the case with Jane Austen. Emma wants power and freedom. Marriage was thought as a kind of surrender in her society like the marriage of her sister Isabella to John Knightley. Austen presents Isabella in the novel to show the passive woman role in her society, and make Emma look better by comparison. However, it is Mr. Knightley who treats her as an equal without any feeling of subordination though she is sixteen years younger than he is. Linda Hunt in her book A Woman’s Portion: Ideology, Culture and the British Female Novel Tradition, articulates that Emma’s development in the novel in terms of her gendered social roles through marriage: “With his – Knightley’s – aid Emma must learn to fill the her life with the duties of her sex and social position and this means accepting her limitations, subordinating her will, in order to achieve the best possible happiness a woman can hope for as a good wife to a good man”. This is what happens at the end of the novel; Emma as a good wife for Mr. Knightley as a good man. Both of them are intellectually equal. No one loses his or her power or independence. They enjoy mutual understanding with the security “for a moment or two, nothing was said … till she found her arms down within his and pressed against his heart” Emma (p.279).
Mr. Knightley is the main source for Emma to gain her self-awareness. She has the power and dominance all over the people of Highbury except Knightley. He is the only one in Highbury who corrects the faults of Emma with regards to Harriet, Mr. Elton, and Frank Churchill. The shift of Emma from Mr. Elton to frank and finally to Mr. Knightley involves the ascending movement of Emma’s character from self-deception towards her self-awareness. The Box Hill is the turning point in the life of Emma. This point reveals to Emma how she was self-deceived by herself and by the flattery of others. The Box Hill with the help of Mr. Knightley makes Emma discover her faults. She discovers that she is not in love with Frank and believes that he harbors no genuine interest in her. She realizes the hollowness of his flattery and he is not the ‘man that ought to be’. The Box Hill is the best chance for Emma to change her life. Her faults are at hands. Mr. Knightly is the mentor. Even Miss Bates is before her and in this moment Emma fears she will become the Miss Bates of the next generation, herself the object of derision and dismissal. As a result, she abuses Miss Bates. Mr. Knightley engages to correct her error as he is used to do. However, Mr. Knightley arrives with a greater sense of the grievousness of her affront; Emma’s heart is prepared to accept the reproof. Emma's attractiveness also nose-dives after the Box Hill incident. After cruelly insulting Miss Bates, Knightley properly gives her a strong and severe lecture, and at last Emma's feelings are extremely struck:
“Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck. The truth of his representation there was no denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates! How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in any one she valued…? As she reflected more, she seemed but to feel it more. She never had been more depressed… Emma felt the tears running down her cheeks almost all the way home, without being at any trouble to check them, extraordinary as they were.” Emma (p.246)
Her tears "mark the turning point of Emma's development; signify an emotional as well as a mental commitment to a new mode of conduct and to the necessity of Mr. Knightley's approval. She at last recognizes that her intelligence, wealth, and social pre-eminence require kindness, rather than contempt, towards Miss Bates." Her tears indicate that “Emma could not resist” before Mr. Knightley as a man as well as a mentor lover. Through her tears, she surrenders to her need for an equal man with whom she finds power, freedom, and equality. She surveys all the men of Highbury from Elton, Frank and Knightley. She discovers a new masculinity in Mr. Knightley which is different from that of her society and the society of Jane Austen. However, she has been in several stages of transformation. Knightley was the catalyst for her self-awareness. Harriet was too the catalyst for her to discover the desirable masculinity of Mr. Knightley when she finds that Harriet Smith is in love with Mr. Knightley. So, after the Box Hill she recognizes through her eyes as well as her heart the truth of her strong desire of Mr. Knightley and the real nature of the masculinity of Mr. Knightley:
“Emma's eyes were instantly withdrawn; and she sat silently meditating, in a fixed attitude, for a few minutes. A few minutes were sufficient for making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like hers, once opening to suspicion, made rapid progress. She touched—she admitted—she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley, than with Frank Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet's having some hope of a return? It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!” Emma (p.267)
Her eyes play a greater role to understand herself and to understand Mr. Knightley’s insight into her character. So, she “looked at Mr. Knightley.—It seemed as if there were an instantaneous impression in her favor, as if his eyes received the truth from hers, and all that had passed of good in her feelings were at once caught and honored” Emma (p.253). She finally surrenders to a man who is going to protect her power in Highbury. Mr. Knightley responds to her request to stay with her father. He decides to move from Donwell and stay in Emma’s house. Sarah Ailwood states that “Emma realises that marriage to Mr. Knightley is in fact compatible with her own self-preservation. This view of the marriage between Emma and Mr. Knightley – as being founded on equality and allowing Emma to retain her individualism – contradicts much scholarly opinion on the novel, which tends to view Emma’s individualism as socially disruptive and in need of Mr. Knightley’s restraining hand.”
Jane Austen constructs in Emma a new form of masculinity which preserves an equal understanding for both man and woman. This masculinity preserves the individuality of Emma. Mr. Knightley retains her power through his acceptance of leaving his house to take care of Mr. Woodhouse. Moreover, his conversational style with Emma indicates a belief in woman as moral and intellectual equals that strongly contrasted with the masculine behavour of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Austen wants no dominance either for the man or the woman. And this is what happens at the end of Emma. Mr. Knightley is the icon of such constructed masculinity by Jane Austen.