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anghraineI'm sure this one will be super suspenseful.
Day 2: Who is your favourite male character?
Day 2: Who is your favourite male character?
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them.”
Speaking of formative characters: Fitzwilliam Darcy, an awkward, stiff, chilly, intelligent, ridiculously scrupulous, pompous, sharp-tongued, scheming, unfriendly, high-minded, deeply loyal introvert who insults people at parties, gives bad relationship advice, falls in love with a girl he publicly insulted, is comprehensively rejected by her (which he deserves), then turns out to be an incredibly kind landlord/boss/brother/philanthropist/everything-but-conversationalist who is trying to be agreeable, even though he fails pretty hard around people who annoy him. (It's the thought that counts.) Basically, if you took a plotting, monologuing supervillain, a snotty, kind of adorably awkward geek, and an upstanding, squeaky-clean hero, and rolled them all together, Fitzwilliam Darcy is what would come out.
Occasionally someone asks why people like Darcy so much. Is it because he's so hot? (But the fact that he is good-looking is virtually the only thing we know about his appearance.) Is it because he's clever? (Then why don't more of them flock to Henry Tilney?) Is it because he's such a good person? (All Austen's protagonists are good people...) Is it because he gets such a satisfying character arc? Maybe. But my incredibly deep theory is that it's because Fitzwilliam Darcy is awesome.
For me, he's never been a crush, but rather, one of the handful of characters I intensely identify with. People talk about him as the forerunner to alpha male romance novel heroes, but for me, the characters most like him are generally bitchy, hypercompetent friends who complain all the time but are unfailingly loyal (and have a plan!) when push comes to shove. And also for me, Darcy was the first one I ever ran across who was not a sidekick and never, never written as remotely pathetic. I imprinted on him at age eleven and have never looked back.
(Also, David Rintoul's Darcy annoys me the least of any of them, which makes him my favourite.)
In understanding, Darcy was the superior. Bingley was by no means deficient, but Darcy was clever. He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting.
Occasionally someone asks why people like Darcy so much. Is it because he's so hot? (But the fact that he is good-looking is virtually the only thing we know about his appearance.) Is it because he's clever? (Then why don't more of them flock to Henry Tilney?) Is it because he's such a good person? (All Austen's protagonists are good people...) Is it because he gets such a satisfying character arc? Maybe. But my incredibly deep theory is that it's because Fitzwilliam Darcy is awesome.
For me, he's never been a crush, but rather, one of the handful of characters I intensely identify with. People talk about him as the forerunner to alpha male romance novel heroes, but for me, the characters most like him are generally bitchy, hypercompetent friends who complain all the time but are unfailingly loyal (and have a plan!) when push comes to shove. And also for me, Darcy was the first one I ever ran across who was not a sidekick and never, never written as remotely pathetic. I imprinted on him at age eleven and have never looked back.
(Also, David Rintoul's Darcy annoys me the least of any of them, which makes him my favourite.)
In understanding, Darcy was the superior. Bingley was by no means deficient, but Darcy was clever. He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting.