swamp ophelia

So in the book and in most versions of the film, I read Emma as asexual and on the aromantic spectrum. If it weren't for Mr. Knightley--her friend, someone she's known all her life and who loves the same people she loves, a good man whose world is totally intertwined with her own, someone who both challenges her and who she is totally comfortable around, someone who makes her laugh (and who she can make laugh), someone she trusts absolutely--I think Emma would have stayed comfortably single for the rest of her life. Knightley doesn't think that, and maybe Jane Austen didn't think it either (who knows), but that's where I land. Only someone with a precise mixture of qualities could ever make Emma fall in love, and George Knightley is the one person in the world who embodies all of those qualities. If it weren't for him, she would never be "tempted" (as she says) to fall in love and would have been totally happy as a single woman. (I can see her having a permanent female companion of some kind, but I do think it would be platonic. I think she'd be very happy with a female partner, though it would be difficult to find someone who was strong enough a personality to resist her tendency to rule others but also laid back enough that they wouldn't fight all the time.)

In the 2020 film, I do think Emma is sexually attracted to Knightley. But again, I think that's a situation where he is the one person in the world she could ever be attracted to. She is still firmly on the asexuality spectrum--I guess you'd call her demi, but she is the next thing to straight-up asexuality as I read her. I definitely get a kind of "What??? Is going on????" sense from her after their big dance when she realizes she's attracted to him. She's excited by it, but it's also clearly unfamiliar to her. And ladytharen points out that when she kisses Knightley for the first time (and I love so much that she's the one who initiates), there's a sense of experimentation about it. She kisses him, sits back with a "huh" look on her face (I definitely noticed it this time!), and appears to be contemplating whether that works for her. I totally get the impression that she's never thought about kissing before and whether she would like it. But she's in love with this man (even though she never thought she'd fall in love) and she knows that kissing is what people in love do, so she gives it a try. She doesn't seem to have an immediate YES moment, but I think when he kisses her back and she gets used to it, she realizes that, yes, I like this, I want to explore this more. I definitely see their future sexual relationship as very much being about Emma figuring out what she does and doesn't like (Knightley would like anything, so long as it's Emma). And I think she would develop very strong likes and dislikes and be good about communicating them. Maybe she's still not super into intercourse. Maybe she is. But either way, she's going to have figure out how she feels about it, and the lovely thing is that you totally believe that Knightley would be along for the ride.