Without opining on your friend's comments, and whether or not Darcy's true to Regency standards, my reaction to Darcy is that he's simultaneously too good and too bad. He does, and is, what Austen needs him to do, and be, to serve the plot.
He's supposedly a gentleman, considerate of the feelings of others, and he is most of the time (which is to say, when it serves the plot). But the comment at the beginning of the novel, the one that turns Lizzy so determinedly against him, are not the words of a considerate gentleman. No true gentleman would say that about any woman, and certainly not about a truly pretty one. You can give me all the "He didn't think she heard him" excuses, but it still doesn't match his self-description as a gentleman. But if he doesn't utter that insult, bang goes Miss Austen's plot.
And how about an intelligent man proposing to a woman he supposedly admires partly for her intelligence and wit by telling her how creeped out he is about her family?
And how about assuming that she'll say yes despite those insulting remarks, and despite his having put the kibosh on the Jane/Bingley match.
Again, though, if he proposed in a more romantic manner, expressed some contrition about what must, in light of the proposal he's just made, seem like a ridiculous interference in his friend's affairs, if he'd done anything upoi'd expect a guy violently in love to do to win the owner of his heart, well, once more, bang goes Miss Austen's plot.
Yet, later, at Pemberley, he's so attentive and courteous, you'd almost think he got taken over by a body-snatching pod from outer space. Then he suddenly turns into the ace detective, the only one who can track down Darcy. The super-matchmaker, the only one who can get Wickham to the altar. Once more, he's the guy Austen needs him to be, doing the things she needs him to do, to move the story she's planned along
Plus he's ridiculously handsome, ridiculously rich, ridiculously competent, ridiculously well-read. And he gets the girl at the end. And what a girl! Any guy who's actually read P&P, any straight guy anyway, has probably fallen a little in love with Lizzy by the end of the book. And the guy who gets her is a guy so outside the average guy's sphere of experience, that he might as well actually be from outer space.
And you wonder why guys don't like him?
The average guy feels about him roughly the same way Mr. Knightley felt about Frank Churchill.
Don't get me wrong. I love P&P. And I love the romance between D&E. But I haven't lost my ability to look at it from a male perspective.
As for me, if I wanted to hoist a few with one of Miss Austen's heroes, give me Captain Wentworth as a drinking companion.
JIM
He's supposedly a gentleman, considerate of the feelings of others, and he is most of the time (which is to say, when it serves the plot). But the comment at the beginning of the novel, the one that turns Lizzy so determinedly against him, are not the words of a considerate gentleman. No true gentleman would say that about any woman, and certainly not about a truly pretty one. You can give me all the "He didn't think she heard him" excuses, but it still doesn't match his self-description as a gentleman. But if he doesn't utter that insult, bang goes Miss Austen's plot.
And how about an intelligent man proposing to a woman he supposedly admires partly for her intelligence and wit by telling her how creeped out he is about her family?
And how about assuming that she'll say yes despite those insulting remarks, and despite his having put the kibosh on the Jane/Bingley match.
Again, though, if he proposed in a more romantic manner, expressed some contrition about what must, in light of the proposal he's just made, seem like a ridiculous interference in his friend's affairs, if he'd done anything upoi'd expect a guy violently in love to do to win the owner of his heart, well, once more, bang goes Miss Austen's plot.
Yet, later, at Pemberley, he's so attentive and courteous, you'd almost think he got taken over by a body-snatching pod from outer space. Then he suddenly turns into the ace detective, the only one who can track down Darcy. The super-matchmaker, the only one who can get Wickham to the altar. Once more, he's the guy Austen needs him to be, doing the things she needs him to do, to move the story she's planned along
Plus he's ridiculously handsome, ridiculously rich, ridiculously competent, ridiculously well-read. And he gets the girl at the end. And what a girl! Any guy who's actually read P&P, any straight guy anyway, has probably fallen a little in love with Lizzy by the end of the book. And the guy who gets her is a guy so outside the average guy's sphere of experience, that he might as well actually be from outer space.
And you wonder why guys don't like him?
The average guy feels about him roughly the same way Mr. Knightley felt about Frank Churchill.
Don't get me wrong. I love P&P. And I love the romance between D&E. But I haven't lost my ability to look at it from a male perspective.
As for me, if I wanted to hoist a few with one of Miss Austen's heroes, give me Captain Wentworth as a drinking companion.
JIM