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 notices that she is not in love with Frank and believes that he harbours no honest interest in her. She realizes the hollowness of his flattery and he is not the ‘man that ought to be’ in her life. The Box Hill is the best chance for Emma to change her life. Her faults are at hands and they are easy to be changed. 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 ridicule 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 insult; Emma’s heart is ready 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! … 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. Emma at last realises that her cleverness, prosperity, and social supremacy require gentleness, rather than disdain, 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. Then she finds the man whom ought to be. This man is Mr. Knightley. 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. 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 favour, as if his eyes received the truth from hers, and all that had passed of good in her feelings were at once caught and honoured” 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 behaviour 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.