Tumblr crosspost (13 January 2021)
Apr. 6th, 2024 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineAn anon asked:
This is a weirdly specific P&P question, when Darcy and Wickham meet Austen says 'one looked white, the other red'. Which one does she mean?! I've seen fanfic do it both ways and I'm really not sure...
I replied:
I know I have a post about this somewhere, but couldn’t find it! In any case:
It’s one of my favorite little bits, because how you read it is so shaped by your ideas of the characters at the time. Before knowing the truth, it’s easy to assume that Darcy is blushing and Wickham is white with anger. Or you could assume that Darcy is pale with fear at the prospect of being exposed and Wickham is righteously angry.
Of course, in reality, their emotions are more or less the other way around. Wickham is so shameless that it’s hard for me to see him blushing about anything, but we know from him evading Darcy at the Netherfield ball that he’s afraid. And iirc Darcy colors on more than one occasion, and he certainly has every reason to be enraged on that one. So I think it’s most probable that Wickham is pale with fear and Darcy flushes in anger.
(It’s debatable, of course—that’s just what I think is likely.)
This is a weirdly specific P&P question, when Darcy and Wickham meet Austen says 'one looked white, the other red'. Which one does she mean?! I've seen fanfic do it both ways and I'm really not sure...
I replied:
I know I have a post about this somewhere, but couldn’t find it! In any case:
It’s one of my favorite little bits, because how you read it is so shaped by your ideas of the characters at the time. Before knowing the truth, it’s easy to assume that Darcy is blushing and Wickham is white with anger. Or you could assume that Darcy is pale with fear at the prospect of being exposed and Wickham is righteously angry.
Of course, in reality, their emotions are more or less the other way around. Wickham is so shameless that it’s hard for me to see him blushing about anything, but we know from him evading Darcy at the Netherfield ball that he’s afraid. And iirc Darcy colors on more than one occasion, and he certainly has every reason to be enraged on that one. So I think it’s most probable that Wickham is pale with fear and Darcy flushes in anger.
(It’s debatable, of course—that’s just what I think is likely.)