You know, even as a young English literature student, I still got: Knightley was the *real* hero of the Jane Austen books, not Darcy.
Unlike Darcy, Knightley never had to learn to be good and polite in the first place. He was, instinctively, a decent person. He always was. He didn’t need a woman (like Darcy did) to make him realize so.
Darcy bitched about silly spinster girls at a dance party who wasted his time. Knightley never would have.
And, in the most powerful scene of that novel, Knightley called out Emma for how horrible she was to Miss Bates. Even though he was, as we learned later, quite madly, in love with Emma.
But, despite his feelings, he still had to tell her: “Stop being a spoiled brat and act like a decent fucking human being for once.”
That’s why Mr Knightley is one of the greatest heroes in literature. His morality.
It's sad to realise this is actually true...
