Mr. Darcy

Fitzwilliam Darcy
Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet by C. E. Brock (1895) She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.
Full name	Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy
Gender	Male
Age	28
Income	£10,000+/year
Primary residence	Pemberley, near Lambton, Derbyshire
Family
Spouse	Elizabeth Bennet
Romantic interest(s)	Elizabeth Bennet
Parents	Mr. Darcy and Lady Anne Darcy (née Fitzwilliam)
Sibling(s)	Georgiana Darcy

Fitzwilliam Darcy, generally referred to as Mr. Darcy, is one of the two central characters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. He is an archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's protagonist. The story's narration is almost exclusively from Elizabeth's perspective ; she is portrayed as the sympathetic figure, and Darcy hardly so until the later chapters of the novel—as knowledge and ironic events are revealed to Eliza (Elizabeth). Usually referred to only as "Mr. Darcy" or "Darcy" by characters and the narrator, his first name is mentioned twice in the novel.^[1]

Character

Mr. Darcy by C. E. Brock, 1895

In the novel, Mr. Darcy is a wealthy gentleman with an income exceeding £10,000 a year,^[2] and the proprietor of Pemberley, a large estate in Derbyshire, England. Darcy first meets Elizabeth Bennet at a ball, where he slights her by refusing to dance with her, and by making rather demeaning remarks about her while she is within earshot. Gradually he becomes attracted to her and later attempts to court her while simultaneously struggling against his continued feelings of superiority. Ironically, Darcy disapproves when his friend Bingley develops a serious attachment to Elizabeth's elder sister Jane, and subtly persuades Bingley that Jane does not return his feelings (which Darcy honestly believes). He later explains this seeming hypocrisy by asserting "I was kinder to [Mr. Bingley] than to myself". Although he doesn't realize it, Elizabeth's discovery of Darcy's interference in Bingley and Jane's budding relationship, and Mr. Wickham's tale of how Darcy mistreated him, has caused her to dislike him intensely.

Eventually, Mr. Darcy declares his love for Elizabeth and offers her a proposal of marriage. He reminds her of the large gap in their social status. Elizabeth is offended and vehemently refuses him, expressing her reasons for disliking him, including her knowledge of his interference with Jane and Bingley and the account she received from Mr. Wickham of Darcy's alleged unfair treatment toward him. Insulted by Darcy's arrogant retorts, Elizabeth claims that the way by which he proposed to her prevented her from feeling concerns for him she "might have felt had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner". Darcy departs in anger and mortification and that night writes a letter to Elizabeth in which he defends his wounded honour, reveals the motives for his interference in Jane and Bingley's relationship, and gives a full account of his lifelong dealings with Wickham, who had attempted to seduce and elope with Darcy's younger sister, Georgiana, the previous summer.

Although initially angered by Elizabeth's vehement refusal and harsh criticism, Darcy is shocked to discover the reality of how his behaviour is perceived by others, particularly Elizabeth, and commits himself to re-evaluate his actions. A few months later, Darcy unexpectedly encounters Elizabeth when she is visiting his estate in Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle Gardiner. Elizabeth is first embarrassed to be discovered at Pemberley, having only visited on the belief that Darcy was absent; however, she is surprised to discover a marked change in Darcy's manner. Having responded to Elizabeth's criticism, Darcy is now determined to display the "gentlemanlike manner" she accused him of lacking and astonishes her with his kindness towards both her and her relations.

On discovering that Elizabeth's youngest sister Lydia, has fallen prey to and run off with Mr. Wickham, Darcy tracks them down and induces Wickham to marry Lydia, thus saving both Lydia and her family from social disgrace. Darcy's intervention was done not to win Elizabeth—he attempted to keep her from knowing of his involvement—but rather to ease her distress (the narrator hints through Mr. Bennet that Darcy's intervention to help Elizabeth may have cost him as much as a year's income: "Wickham's a fool if he takes [Lydia] with a farthing less than ten thousand pounds"). Darcy also felt partially responsible for failing to warn Elizabeth's family and the public of Wickham's true character.

Darcy then releases Mr. Bingley to return to Longbourn and woo Jane, accepting his misjudgement of her character. Accompanying his friend to Longbourn, Darcy proposes to Elizabeth again, who accepts him.

Depictions in film and television

Film

Year	Actor	Role	Film	Notes
1940	Laurence Olivier	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice
2001	Colin Firth	Mark Darcy	Bridget Jones's Diary	An adaptation of the novel Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. Fielding's novel is loosely based on the novel Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 BBC TV series, and Colin Firth's portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy.
2003	Orlando Seale	Will Darcy	Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy	A Modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
2004	Martin Henderson	William "Will" Darcy	Bride and Prejudice	An Indian adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
	Colin Firth	Mark Darcy	Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason	An adaptation of the novel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding and a sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary.
2005	Matthew Macfadyen	Mr. Darcy	Pride & Prejudice
2016	Sam Riley	Mr. Darcy	Pride and Prejudice and Zombies	Based on the parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Television

Year	Actor	Role	Television program	Notes
1938	Andrew Osborn	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice
1949	John Baragrey	Fitzwilliam Darcy	The Philco Television Playhouse	Season 1, Episode 17 - "Pride and Prejudice"
1952	Peter Cushing	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice
1957	Franco Volpi	Darcy	Orgoglio e pregiudizio	An adaptation in Italian.
1958	Alan Badel	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice
	Patrick Macnee	Mr. Darcy	General Motors Theatre	Episode - "Pride and Prejudice" (Originally aired on December 21).
1961	Ramses Shaffy	Darcy	De vier dochters Bennet	An adaptation in Dutch.
1967	Lewis Fiander	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice
1980	David Rintoul	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice
1995	Colin Firth	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Pride and Prejudice	The adaptation and Colin Firth's portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy inspired Helen Fielding to write Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Colin Firth portrayed the character of Mark Darcy in both film adaptations of Fielding's novels.
	Soccer (voice: Larry Brantley)	Wishbone as Mr. Darcy	Wishbone	Season 1, Episode 25 - "Furst Impressions"
2001	(voice: Maurice LaMarche)	The Big Brain	Futurama	Season 3, Episode 7 -"The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"
2008	Elliot Cowan	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Lost in Austen	A fantasy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in which a modern woman trades places with Elizabeth Bennet.
2012-2013	Daniel Vincent Gordh	William Darcy	The Lizzie Bennet Diaries	A modern adaptation where the main character Lizzie tells the story of Pride and Prejudice through video blog format.
2013	Matthew Rhys	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Death Comes to Pemberley	A continuation based on P.D. James' book with the same name..

Analysis

Vivien Jones notes that Darcy's handsome appearance, wealth and original arrogance signify to the reader that he is the hero of a romance novel.^[3] Wickham's irresponsible elopement with Lydia allows Darcy to demonstrate that he now feels responsible for Wickham's continued bad behaviour by his silence - if he had made Wickham's bad character known, Lydia would have been safe. Darcy chooses to involve himself in arranging Lydia's marriage, despite the risk to his own reputation.^[4]

The 18th century had been a time of "Cult of Courtesy", a time that prized delicacy, refinement and exaggerated politeness above all, leading in the words of the British writer Adam Nicolson that "...wide swathes of English 18th century life become fragile and dainty, in a way that no age in England, before or since, has managed...In some ways, natural human dignity had been sacrificed on the altar of a kind of rococo politeness....Acceptable behavior had become toy-like and it was not long before the anti-heroic fashion for a delicate sensibility ran out of control. Manliness, or even the ability to survive had in fact almost entirely deserted those [who] were suffering from the cult of sensibility".^[5] In the 18th century idea, a man was expected above all to be pleasant and pleasing, and so it was better for a man to lie rather say anything which might offend.^[6] By the early 19th century, a tougher, more brooding version of masculinity was starting to come into the vogue and the character of Mr. Darcy exemplified the trend.^[7] Nicolson described the differences between Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy as follows: "Mr. Bingley is a[n] 18th century man: handsome, young, agreeable, delightful, fond of dancing, gentlemanlike, pleasant, easy, unaffected and not entirely in control of his own destiny. Darcy is fine, tall, handsome, noble, proud, forbidding, disagreeable and subject to no control but his own...Darcy is a 19th century man, manliness itself, uncompromising, dark and sexy. And it is Darcy, of course, whom the novel ends up loving".^[8] The character of Mr. Darcy very much reflected the changing standards of English masculinity as unlike the heroes of the 18th century with their excessive politeness and unwillingness to offend, Mr. Darcy says whatever he likes, which showed his authenticity and honesty, which were the most important attributes for a man in the new Romantic age.^[9] Even after Mr. Darcy apologizes to Miss Bennet for his brusque rudeness, his honesty meant that change of heart was sincere, and not the polished words of a follower of the cult of sensibility. More broadly, the character of Mr. Darcy showed the emergence of a new type of rawer masculinity that could not tolerate the foppish, superficial values of the previous century.^[10] Nicolson called Darcy "the template on which the severe and unbending model of Victorian manliness is founded".^[11] Nicolson concluded that: "The implication of the novel is that there is something better than politeness and that the merely civil is inadequate...Darcy is 'silent, grave and indifferent', words in this new moral universe which signal pure approval".^[12] Nicolson further argued that a character like Mr. Darcy reflected changes in British life as the Romantic age was a time when "What mattered was authentic, self-generated worth".^[13]

The British cultural critic Robert Irvine described the appeal of Mr. Darcy to women as that of an "absolute and unconditioned male need for a woman".^[14] Irvine argued that this was a female "fantasy" that was only possible in a context of general powerlessness on the part of women.^[15] At the time of the French Revolution where elites all over Europe felt threatened, there was a tendency in British literature to glorify the aristocratic and gentry classes as the personification of British values and in contrast to the French who guillotined their old elite to create the grasping, vulgar new elite of Napoleonic France, for the British middle class or "middling sort" as Austen called them to emulate the landed elite, which however retained its social superiority.^[16] The character of Mr. Darcy reflected this trend.^[17] When Mr. Bingley suggests that he might like to one day build an estate like Pemberley, he is informed by Mr. Darcy that it is not the estate itself, but rather what it contains, its cultural heritage like the family library that makes Pemberley special as Mr. Bingley cannot be the heir to a family library built up over generations like the one Mr. Darcy is the heir to.^[18] In this way, Austen suggests that there is more to Mr. Darcy than the proud and sneering man at the Meryton assembly, that there is a deepness to him as people like him are custodians of the national culture.^[19]

Cultural influence and legacy

The character of Fitzwilliam Darcy has appeared in and inspired numerous works. Both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet feature as part of science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer's 'Wold Newton family' concept, which links numerous fictional characters (such as Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes) via an interconnected family tree of people and events. According to Farmer's works, both were exposed to radiation from a meteorite that struck Wold Newton in Yorkshire in the 1790s (a documented event). This allowed them to be the ancestors of many other famous literary characters, some of whom possessed unusual or even superhuman gifts and abilities. Numerous re-imaginings of the original work written from the perspective of Mr. Darcy have also been published, among them American writer Pamela Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy, and English author Janet Aylmer's successful novel Darcy's Story published in the UK (ISBN 9780952821021) and later in the United States (ISBN 9780061148705).

Helen Fielding has admitted she "pillaged her plot"^[20] for Bridget Jones's Diary from Pride and Prejudice. In Bridget Jones's Diary and its sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones is constantly mentioning the 1995 BBC adaptation and repeatedly watches the scene in the fourth episode where Darcy (Colin Firth) emerges from a pond wearing a wet white shirt,^[21] and refers to the Darcy and Elizabeth of the TV series as "my chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or, rather, courtship".^[22] When in The Edge of Reason Bridget becomes a journalist, she is flown to Italy where she is to interview Firth about his (then upcoming) film Fever Pitch, but finds herself only asking him questions about Mr. Darcy and the filming of the "pond scene".^[21] This scene was shot but not included in the film adaptation of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. This scene can be seen in the DVD's extra features. Colin Firth's "pond scene" made it into Channel 4's Top 100 TV Moments.^[23] Colin Firth has found it hard to shake off the Darcy image,^[24] and he thought that playing Bridget Jones’s Mark Darcy, a character inspired by the other Darcy, would both ridicule and liberate him once and for all from the iconic character.^[25]

Darcy's status as a romantic hero transcends literature. In 2010 a protein sex pheromone in male mouse urine, that is sexually attractive to female mice, was named Darcin in honour of the character.^[26][27][28]

On 9 July 2013, a 12-foot (3.7 m) fibreglass statue of the figure of Mr. Darcy emerging from the water was installed in the Serpentine Lake of London's Hyde Park for a promotion of British television's UKTV channel.^[29] Modelled on actor Colin Firth who played the role in the 1995 BBC miniseries, the statue will make the rounds of several English lakes before its final installation in Lyme Park, a location where the programme was partly filmed and already a pilgrimage site for Pride and Prejudice fans.

Footnotes

1. Pride and Prejudice. Chapters 25 and 35.
2. Pride and Prejudice. Chapter 59.
3. Jones, Vivien; Austen, Jane; Tanner, Tony (2003). Pride and prejudice (2003 Penguin ed.). New York: Penguin Books. pp. xi–xii. ISBN 978-0-14-143951-8.
4. Sherry, James (1979). "Pride and Prejudice: The Limits of Society". Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 19: 609. doi:10.2307/450251. Unknown parameter |is= ignored (help)
5. Nicolson, Adam Seize the Fire Heroism, Duty and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar New York: Harper, 2005 pages 166-168.
6. Nicolson, Adam Seize the Fire Heroism, Duty and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar New York: Harper, 2005 pages 165-167.
7. Nicolson, Adam Seize the Fire Heroism, Duty and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar New York: Harper, 2005 pages 171-172.
8. Nicolson, Adam Seize the Fire Heroism, Duty and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar New York: Harper, 2005 page 172.
9. Nicolson, Adam Seize the Fire Heroism, Duty and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar New York: Harper, 2005 page 172
10. Nicolson, Adam Seize the Fire Heroism, Duty and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar New York: Harper, 2005 page 172.
14. Irvine, Robert Jane Austen, London: Routledge, 2005 page 152.
15. Irvine, Robert Jane Austen, London: Routledge, 2005 page 152.
16. Irvine, Robert Jane Austen, London: Routledge, 2005 page 61.
17. Irvine, Robert Jane Austen, London: Routledge, 2005 page 61.
18. Irvine, Robert Jane Austen, London: Routledge, 2005 page 61.
19. Irvine, Robert Jane Austen, London: Routledge, 2005 page 61.
20. Penguin Reading Guides - Bridget Jones's Diary Retrieved on January 4-2008.
21. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" Helen Fielding. Penguin Books, 1999. (ISBN 014303443X)
22. MTV.com - 'Pride & Prejudice': The Way They Were (Nov 23 2005) Retrieved on January 4-2008.
23. The Independent - There's no escaping Mr. Darcy (9 June 2000) Retrieved on January 4-2008.
24. BBC News - Star takes pride in new Prejudice Retrieved on January 4-2008.
25. Vanity Fair (Italy) - Me Sexy? only to that crazy Bridget Jones (Oct 16, 2003) Retrieved on January 4-2008.
26. Brennan PA (May 2010). "On the scent of sexual attraction". BMC Biol. 8 (1): 71. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-71. PMC 2880966. PMID 20504292.
27. Roberts SA, Simpson DM, Armstrong SD, et al. (June 2010). "Darcin: a male pheromone that stimulates female memory and sexual attraction to an individual male's odour". BMC Biol. 8 (1): 75. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-75. PMC 2890510. PMID 20525243.
28. Moskowitz, C (3 June 2010). "Biologists Learn Why Mice Go Gaga for Urine". FoxNews.com. FOX News Network. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
29. Lyall, Sarah (9 July 2013). "Pride, Prejudice, Promotion? Mr. Darcy Rising". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2013.