A Closer Look at Darcy

Mr. Darcy is not my favorite Austen character. I could lose friends over this, but I’m here to defend this heresy. 

I’m not saying Darcy is unlovable. He has redeeming qualities, but he’s not the dreamboat that Mr. Knightley is. Hear me out. 

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1. He’s unlikeable in public. Darcy is generally shy and awkward. That’s fine. He’s not smooth with new people. Also fine. His inner circle knows he’s a decent guy. Great. However, he’s not friendly and he doesn’t care. He can be nice, but he’s not generous with his kindness. He reserves his manners only for his comfort zone. He could work on that. 

Does it matter? Maybe not. If Lizzy doesn’t mind his lack of charisma, then they can be loners together. If she’s bored easily and hoping for a more interesting social life, she might be disappointed if he doesn't change. Will she settle willingly into his comfort zone, or will she try to change him and drag him out of it?   

2. He broke up Bingley and Jane. This is huge for me. Darcy encouraged his friend to end a relationship based on an assumption. He didn’t fact check. He didn’t say, “Hey Charles, why don’t you have a frank conversation with your lady and see what she’s thinking?” It bothers me how he trusted his judgment enough to act on it. His insensitivity to Jane’s perspective shows he either 1. Didn’t consider he could be wrong, or 2. Didn’t care because Jane was inferior, or 3. Didn’t empathize enough to see the risks he was taking. Of course we don’t know which, but seriously.  

Does it matter? Darcy is used to being the man in charge. Maybe he knows when to back off, and maybe this error was a one-off. We don’t know. If his high opinion of his opinion runs deep, he will be making decisions for Lizzy without her input and she’ll probably fight back. 

3. His generosity is not heroic. One of the last straws that melts Lizzy's heart for Darcy is when she finds out he paid for her ridiculous sister’s wedding, saving the Bennet family from social and moral destruction. Lizzy seems especially touched that he was secretive about it. 

My cynical side has questions. Didn’t Darcy know Lydia would blab every detail of her wedding and the truth would get back to Lizzy? Of course that doesn’t undo the goodness of what he did. Darcy was being kind and out of his box. Go, Darcy. Lizzy is good for him, clearly. But to be fair, what he did wasn’t anywhere near sacrificial. There’s a nagging chance he was working for his own motives, but of course we can’t say for sure. 

Does it matter? I dunno. I know some amazing men who serve others and give of themselves without applause. They invest time, money, and resources, and are rarely rewarded in kind. They don’t give with strings attached, they just give. Is Darcy generous with no strings? It's too soon to say. We can hope he acted out of pure kindness because Lizzy encouraged a generous spirit in him. Maybe together they’ll be the most philanthropic snoots in all of England. 

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Does any of this matter? 

I think we love to love Darcy's unwavering love for Lizzy. She ignored him, insulted him, and acted the spitfire, but his devotion and attraction were eternal. The hyperbole sounds like stability, and stability is alluring to women. We love that he persisted after her, that she became more beautiful to him once he knew her, and that he loved her sparkling mind and not just her face. We forgive her a little if Lizzie was enamored by his house, and by her status as his wife. A non-cynical interpretation is that Lizzie married for love and happened to also gain fortune and status. 

I believe Lizzy and the reader both rush to the final proposal without feeling the weight the facts we just witnessed. They must marry or the sky will fall! We feel that because Lizzy overcame Darcy’s awkwardness, she’s triumphed and understood him at last. All misunderstanding has dissolved into nothing.

All of this clarity feels wonderful, but Lizzy has yet to experience what it will mean to love someone deeply who cannot possibly meet her every expectation. She will also learn what money can and cannot buy. She is in love, and she's not asking questions. 

Jane manipulated us with this dichotomy: you can marry for noble reasons or non-noble reasons. Love is noble. Money, duty, status, and power are non-noble. We must root for the noble. We must champion love. All of that may be true, but whether she meant to or not, Austen also gave us a vivid example of how all those motivators become equal once you commit. You marry the person’s character. The question of Why fades into a question of Who. The noblest of noble reasons for choosing a person will not undo the realities of who they are. 

I'm sure Darcy and Lizzy had a great chance at a happy marriage. At the risk of characterizing myself as a Scrooge of romance, I have to say: we end novels where we do for good reason. Take a close look at the final scene. Darcy & Lizzie are happy ever after in the big house, and Lady Catherine is on her way over for a visit, still reeking of superiority and arrogance. Austen signals, sly as ever, that the joyful couple has some learning, tolerating, negotiating, and navigating to do. 

Did Darcy go on to flourish in likeability, empathy, and generosity? We'll never, ever know. 

If I read P&P again, I’ll be watching for answers to this question:

Who would Darcy be with a mediocre income and an average home? 

Happy [belated] Valentine's Day, and God bless Jane Austen!