When considering any character’s function, you are focusing on why the author has put them in the text. They may be there to create suspense, to help the reader understand other figures in the text, to provide a catalyst to the plot, or to support a theme. A character in comedy may function in any of these ways, but to understand their role more fully, you also need to consider what elements create comedy in your text — for example, exaggeration, hyperbole, irony and wit — and what your characters bring to these elements.
At first glance the Knightley brothers seem unlikely comic characters. They have fine but unexciting qualities — they are loyal and constant, truthful and sensible, full of solid, serious integrity. As such, Austen risks them being seen as less attractive, or potentially humourless, especially compared to wittier figures such as Frank Churchill. George Knightley, moreover, with his 16-year seniority to Emma, and his advice and admonitions to her throughout the text, is a quasi-parental force in the novel.
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