"Indeed, Mr. Knightley does look like a benevolent, all-seeing monitor crucial to the conservative fiction of Austen's day. Hovering like a chaperone around the edges of every major scene...he is always on the lookout for wrongdoings and nonsense,always alert in his benefactions for the poor and innocent. Knightley himself confesses that with Emma his role as a moral censor has been particularly obnoxious...Alternately beaming with heartfelt approval when Emma acquits herself properly, and frowning with pain whenever she misbehaves, he has been half paternal and half pedagogical in his watchfulness."
Johnson, Claudia L. “Emma: ‘Woman, Lovely Woman Reigns Alone.’” Emma. Ed. George Justice. New York: Norton 2012. Print. 424-425
I chose this passage because it discusses something that I also noticed while reading the novel. Mr. Knightley does play the role of a watchful guardian or protector, not unlike that of a father figure, or even an elder brother. He's constantly watching over Emma, and scolding her for her wrongs and blundering about because her own father won't do it himself considering that he sees her as a perfect child with no faults in her character and personality. However, his role is also likeable to that of a mentor or a teacher because he does flirt with her and compliment her because of his interest in a potential match with her. He knows that she is a girl of some genuinely good qualities and spirit, but he wants to teach her to see the folly of her actions before proceeding in his pursuit of her.