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 House, near Lambton, Derbyshire
Family
Romantic interest(s)	Elizabeth Bennet
Parents	Mr. Darcy and Lady Anne Darcy (formerly Anne 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 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

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 slights Elizabeth Bennet at their first meeting, but then is 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 he 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, yet expressing his ardent love, 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 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 character. 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 that Darcy's intervention to help Elizabeth may have cost him as much as a year's income). Darcy also felt himself partially responsible in failing to warn Elizabeth's family and the public of Wickham's true character. His performance contrasts sharply with that of another Jane Austen character, in Mansfield Park, where Mr. Crawford, immediately before proposing to Fanny Price, attempts to obligate her to him by securing one of her fondest hopes—a naval officer's commission for her brother—which costs him, Crawford, essentially nothing.)

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. The couple reflect on their mistakes made, and Darcy thanks Elizabeth for showing him the error or his ways: "by you, I was properly humbled".

Darcy in Meryton is depicted as cold and aloof, a man with a large sense of personal pride that frequently expresses itself as arrogance. His distant manner and apparent contempt for those around him earns the disdain of Elizabeth and many others, particularly in light of the claims of the charming George Wickham—that he was wronged by Darcy. But it is eventually revealed that these first impressions are erroneous; that is, Darcy's seemingly arrogant character masks a sincerely generous and upright nature, and it is Darcy, in fact, who was wronged, by Wickham—whose own character is revealed to be untrustworthy and duplicitous. Even Darcy's interference between Jane and Bingley is explained as being motivated by genuine concern for his friend rather than of malicious intent; although, on re-examining his behaviour, Darcy acknowledges that his interference was harmful and wrong.

Depictions in Film & Television

Further information: Jane Austen in popular culture: Pride and Prejudice

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 Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV serial), 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	A Bollywood 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

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.

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) together via an interconnected family tree of people and events.^{[citation needed]} According to Farmer's works, both were recipients of radiation resulting from a meteorite that struck Wold Newton in Yorkshire in the 1790s (this event actually occurred). 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.

Helen Fielding has admitted she "pillaged her plot"^[3] 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 watches the scene in the fourth episode where Darcy (Colin Firth) comes out of a pond wearing a wet white shirt numerous times,^[4] and refers to the Darcy and Elizabeth of the TV series as "my chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or, rather, courtship".^[5] 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".^[4] 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.^[6] Colin Firth has found it hard to shake off the Darcy image,^[7] and he thought that playing Bridget Jones’s Mark Darcy, a character inspired by the other Darcy, would ridicule and liberate himself once and for all from the character.^[8]

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.^[9][10][11]

Footnotes

1. ^ Pride and Prejudice. Chapters 25 and 35.
2. ^ Pride and Prejudice. Chapter 59.
3. ^ Penguin Reading Guides - Bridget Jones's Diary Retrieved on January 4-2008.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" Helen Fielding. Penguin Books, 1999. (ISBN 014303443X)
5. ^ MTV.com - 'Pride & Prejudice': The Way They Were (Nov 23 2005) Retrieved on January 4-2008.
6. ^ The Independent - There's no escaping Mr Darcy (9 June 2000) Retrieved on January 4-2008.
7. ^ BBC News - Star takes pride in new Prejudice Retrieved on January 4-2008.
8. ^ Vanity Fair (Italy) - Me Sexy? only to that crazy Bridget Jones (Oct 16, 2003) Retrieved on January 4-2008.
9. ^ 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. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/71. 
10. ^ 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. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2890510. 
11. ^ Moskowitz, C (3 June 2010). "Biologists Learn Why Mice Go Gaga for Urine". FoxNews.com. FOX News Network. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/03/biologists-learn-mice-urine-darcin/. Retrieved 9 June 2010.