Darcy's Romance in the Backbone of Pride and Prejudice: Part III

The three stages of the romance's resolution:
  • FD indirectly reveals his love of EB to CB (A.1), and this is before EB's realisation that FD is exactly the man for her (A.2).
  • The second proposal (B.3), with two tension-builders (B.1 and B.2).
  • Meeting of minds of FD and EB (C.1 to C.3).
Quotation A.1 Vol III Ch 3 (Ch 45) p271, in which FD reveals to Miss Bingley that he loves EB.
"'Yes,' replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer, 'but that was only when I first knew her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.'"


Quotation A.2 Vol III Ch 8 (Ch 50) p312--EB's realisation that FD is the man for her is after, not before, FD's indirect telling Miss Bingley of his re-evaluation of EB.
"She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man, who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her."


Quotation B.1 Vol III Ch 11 (Ch 53) p336. FD is reticent again, and EB thinks it is because she is even less marriageable after Lydia's elopement. They walked out together
"...and when occasionally, unable to resist the impulse of curiosity, she raised her eyes to his face, she as often found him looking at Jane, as at herself, and frequently at no object but the ground. More thoughtfulness, and less anxiety to please than when they last met, were plainly expressed."


Quotation B.2 Vol III Ch 12 (Ch 54) p342. EB has been thinking how unlikely it is that FD will want to propose again and making light conversation with him about his sister.
"She could think of nothing more to say; but if he wished to converse with her, he might have better success. He stood by her, however, for some minutes in silence; and, at last, on the young lady's whispering to Elizabeth, he walked away."


Quotation B.3 Vol III Ch 16 (Ch 58) p366. FD proposes again to EB.
"'You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.'"


Quotation C.1 Vol II Ch 18 (Ch 60) p380. EB asks FD when he fell in love with her, and he replies as follows.
"'I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.'"


Quotation C.2 Vol III Ch 18 (Ch 60) p381. FD can, now that he has been accepted, be perfectly open with EB.
"'....Lady Catherine's unjustifiable endeavours to separate us, were the means of removing all my doubts. I am not indebted for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your gratitude. I was not in the humour to wait for any opening of your's. My aunt's intelligence had given me hope, and I was determined atonce to know every thing.'"


Quotation C.3 Vol III Ch 18 (Ch 60) p382. EB asks Darcy why he returned to Longbourn.
"'My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me.'"

So, Darcy's romance forms part of the spine--along with Elizabeth's falling in love-- that holds the novel together. It is powerful and enthralling. Austen stresses in the second proposal by Darcy that the crucial element in this romance is the meeting at Pemberley (the first two chapters of Volume II).

Quotation D Vol III Ch 16 (Ch 58) p370, in the second proposal by Darcy, referring to their encounter at Pemberley. My Aunt and Uncle, Mr. Darcy. My sister Jane stayed with them while she was in Cheapside.
"'My object then,' replied Darcy, 'was to shew you, by every civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to. How soon any other wishes introduced themselves I can hardly tell you, but I believe in about half an hour after I had seen you.'" I surmise that within that half-hour after the protagonists surprise each other by meeting at Pemberley, Darcy has re-evaluated not only his own unacceptable conduct in the first proposal but how he sees Elizabeth. His wishes to love her and be loved by her, his desire to marry her and his need for her, all surface for him in that half-hour.

Darcy is a finely-drawn character and the most interesting aspect of the way Austen wrote him is the comparative sparseness of the text in which he is depicted. I suspect that this has allowed many readers to project their own feelings about an ideal mate onto him and that the various adaptations propel many readers to do that.

Fate and the author give Darcy the chance to do something to prove himself worthy of his intended--the arranging of the marriage of the Wickhams. He keeps this as secret as possible partly through a sense of honour--he does not really want Bennet to feel indebted--and partly to prevent the gossiping Mrs Bennet from spreading the tale throughout the county. Imagine how fast she could make Darcy's action known by telling the 24 families she dines with!

Darcy is one of Austen's most imaginative creations and probably responsible for the enduring widespread popularity of Pride and Prejudice The name Darcy alone is enough to make a reader conjure up a composite mental picture of the ideal tall, dark, handsome and wealthy romantic hero.

Now for a panegyric, from Joanna Richardson, The Regency, Collins, London, 1973, p127.
"Miss Austen -- as one must call her -- drew upper-middle class life in the English provinces; the hopes and intrigues and pleasures and disappointments of the limited class which she knew. She knew them intimately, she considered them with devastating shrewdness. She described them with humour, compassion, occasional tartness, and with inevitable accuracy. The Regent was her chief admirer. Posterity admires the English understatement of her style, the brilliance of her characters and dialogue, the authentic portrayal of a stratum of Regency society."
The quotations I have listed are enough, I hope, to bring Darcy alive as a character whose interest lies in the way he comes to know and love Elizabeth Bennet, rather than as a prototype of untold romantic heroes that he has become.

[Page numbers in the quotations refer to R.W. Chapman's third edition, OUP 1932, as revised by Mary Lascelles and reprinted 1965, 1988.]

Further Reading
  1. John Wiltshire, "Reading Pride and Prejudice Now", Sensibilities Number 20, June 2000. ISSN 1323 - 8418 Sensibilities is the Journal of JASA, the Jane Austen Society of Australia. (By the way, John Wiltshire might not agree that the romance is the backbone of Pride and Prejudice).
  2. --------------, (forthcoming book from CUP) Recreating Jane Austen.


Reference Tables     Back to Part I


Geoff K. Chapman is an amateur literary and history enthusiast living with his wife and two sons in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. With his wife he has visited the Jane Austen Centre in 40 Gay Street, Bath, and has no hesitation whatever in heartily recommending it.

Illustrations: C.E. Brock, 1895