Tumblr crosspost (4 June 2020)
Feb. 22nd, 2022 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineI’ve been thinking about P&P as usual, and I really feel the moment that most represents early Darcy to me is this:
That is: he assumes that of course she’d be enthusiastic if she knew he was interested, because lol who wouldn’t, so it’d be inappropriate to let her imagine he’s thinking of marriage when he (obviously!) can’t marry her. It combines “I am such a good catch that any woman would be eager to have me” and “she is far beneath me” and “leading her on would be Wrong” all at once.
The thing I find interesting is how smoothly they all bleed together here, to the point that he can’t even really disentangle them. And yet, of course, part of this is coming from principle (wrt women specifically, in this case) and part of it from sheer snobbish arrogance, and those are really quite different things.
I do think part of his development is … well, Austen imagined pride as always part of Darcy’s character, and I definitely agree. He becomes less snobbish, in particular, as seen in his relationship with the Gardiners (it’s a pity that it’s so overlooked, because I think that it, even more than his relationship with Elizabeth herself, is where we see the most change). But he’s still a proud man in many ways, and I think that part of his character development is less abandoning pride than separating it out from principle, which he very explicitly does at the end.
He wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him, nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity.
That is: he assumes that of course she’d be enthusiastic if she knew he was interested, because lol who wouldn’t, so it’d be inappropriate to let her imagine he’s thinking of marriage when he (obviously!) can’t marry her. It combines “I am such a good catch that any woman would be eager to have me” and “she is far beneath me” and “leading her on would be Wrong” all at once.
The thing I find interesting is how smoothly they all bleed together here, to the point that he can’t even really disentangle them. And yet, of course, part of this is coming from principle (wrt women specifically, in this case) and part of it from sheer snobbish arrogance, and those are really quite different things.
I do think part of his development is … well, Austen imagined pride as always part of Darcy’s character, and I definitely agree. He becomes less snobbish, in particular, as seen in his relationship with the Gardiners (it’s a pity that it’s so overlooked, because I think that it, even more than his relationship with Elizabeth herself, is where we see the most change). But he’s still a proud man in many ways, and I think that part of his character development is less abandoning pride than separating it out from principle, which he very explicitly does at the end.