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Darcyist ranting
Aug. 21st, 2009 09:47 amAwhile back, somebody linked me to an Austen quiz - or I stumbled across it - or something, but anyway, I shall not post the result of it, because I am (self?)-righteously peeved.
I think all Darcyists should have a manifesto, the first line of which should be:
Darcy is NOT Heathcliff. Or Rochester. Or any other of those amoral, self-dramatising Victorian monstrosities.
To expand on that thought, the first and most obvious reasons:
(1) Darcy is a Georgian gentleman.
(2) Heathcliff is a Victorian . . . something. Gentleman somehow doesn't seem quite the right word.
Which is to say, their social backgrounds are as utterly different as two nineteenth-century Englishmen's could be.
The actual line of this quiz result was "After all, you like your blokes to be caring and gentle – perhaps because you know those brooding, temperamental types are more trouble than they’re worth! So stuff the Darcys and Heathcliffs"
You know, somehow it would never have crossed my mind to describe Darcy as temperamental or mercurial or whatever. Maybe it's because Elizabeth thinks of his "usual sedateness", or maybe because he smiles more than any other character but Elizabeth, or maybe because of how critical he is about Bingley's impulsiveness (and that's a far step from 'temperamental') -- under good regulation is probably the phrase that most describes his ideal of himself. *shudder* And I thought the comparisons of Darcy to Rochester were bad! The only similarity to Heathcliff, psychopathic creep that he is, is nationality and the fact that they were both played by Laurence Olivier.
Honestly, I'm starting to wonder what book these people are reading. It isn't mine, to be sure. I'm going to indulge in an exhaustive list of Darcyisms (from my version) just to vent:
( Read more... )
I think all Darcyists should have a manifesto, the first line of which should be:
Darcy is NOT Heathcliff. Or Rochester. Or any other of those amoral, self-dramatising Victorian monstrosities.
To expand on that thought, the first and most obvious reasons:
(1) Darcy is a Georgian gentleman.
(2) Heathcliff is a Victorian . . . something. Gentleman somehow doesn't seem quite the right word.
Which is to say, their social backgrounds are as utterly different as two nineteenth-century Englishmen's could be.
The actual line of this quiz result was "After all, you like your blokes to be caring and gentle – perhaps because you know those brooding, temperamental types are more trouble than they’re worth! So stuff the Darcys and Heathcliffs"
You know, somehow it would never have crossed my mind to describe Darcy as temperamental or mercurial or whatever. Maybe it's because Elizabeth thinks of his "usual sedateness", or maybe because he smiles more than any other character but Elizabeth, or maybe because of how critical he is about Bingley's impulsiveness (and that's a far step from 'temperamental') -- under good regulation is probably the phrase that most describes his ideal of himself. *shudder* And I thought the comparisons of Darcy to Rochester were bad! The only similarity to Heathcliff, psychopathic creep that he is, is nationality and the fact that they were both played by Laurence Olivier.
Honestly, I'm starting to wonder what book these people are reading. It isn't mine, to be sure. I'm going to indulge in an exhaustive list of Darcyisms (from my version) just to vent:
( Read more... )