Is Mr Darcy Inconsistent?

One 1813 review of Pride and Prejudice was glowing in its appreciation of Jane Austen’s new novel, praising the characters as well-rounded and plausible save for one exception: Mr Darcy. Darcy’s ‘abrupt’ transformation from fashionable indifference to ‘ardent lover’ didn’t ring true according to the anonymous critic, reprinted in Pride and Prejudice: A Sourcebook (Routledge Guides to Literature). This criticism has been often repeated, and dealing with the transformation of Darcy’s character has caused particular challenges for dramatizers.

It’s important to note that Darcy’s transformation is only abrupt in the sense that we don’t see it taking place gradually. It does occur over many months, but Jane Austen famously refused to write scenes involving men by themselves, or men in purely male company. The precise details of the change in Darcy are not documented minutely – indeed Darcy himself is unable to tell Elizabeth when he first fell for her (BBC Pride and Prejudice screenwriter Andrew Davies has other ideas!) – but this doesn’t mean it happened quickly or arbitrarily. It’s just that we were following Elizabeth, so didn’t get to see it taking place.

Also, while Mr Darcy is unarguably altered morally by his relationship with Elizabeth, we do not see him return to a situation like the Meryton town ball to see the change in his social character. When he returns with Bingley to Netherfield he is once again cold and difficult to read, so he hasn’t suddenly developed an ability to recommend himself to those outside his usual social circle. (Admittedly he has to listen to Mrs. Bennet’s thinly-veiled insults.) The easy manner he has with the Gardiners is displayed, of course, from the comfort of Pemberley, his own estate. In other words, some of the change in Darcy is in fact a change in the context in which he is seen by Elizabeth. The transformation is not, I think, as abrupt and extreme as critics have argued.

Nevertheless, actors playing Darcy have had to display both sides of his character while retaining Mr Darcy’s basic believability. In the 1980 BBC Pride and Prejudice series, David Rintoul’s Darcy never completely sheds his aloofness. When he greets the Gardiners at Pemberley he is friendly but retains his seriousness and something of his offish-manner. His love for Elizabeth has of course transformed him, but he remains the stiff English gentleman, rather than suddenly inhabiting the body of an overly tactile Californian therapist.

The BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice series approaches Darcy in a more radical manner. Through Colin Firth’s characterization we are shown his transformation. Andrew Davies said that, in Jane Austen’s novel, we never find out much about the men, and he wanted to rectify this by exploring the male characters, most obviously Mr Darcy. Darcy’s emotional struggle is actualized physically, rather than through dialog (except for the iconic ‘I shall conquer this. I shall!’ after his fencing session.) His change isn’t minimized in the name of believability, but presented starkly and explicitly, as painful and violent.

The 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie is in a sense the opposite of the 1980 TV series. Matthew Macfadyen’s Darcy, from the first scene, appears uncomfortable and rather vulnerable. His co-star Keira Knightley said ‘on the page, Darcy reads as being very cold, but Matthew is so vulnerable through his big manliness that he gives Darcy extra qualities.’ Socially awkward and snappy with Bingley at the town ball, rather than obviously superior and cold, it is obvious from the beginning that we are not seeing the gentleman at his best. Condensing Pride and Prejudice into a single movie of course requires compromises, and the choice here appears to have been to present Darcy as a more-than-meets-the-eye character from the start.

This is, in any case, how these matters appear to me. All dispositions tend to a particular evil and mine – I confess – is to give my opinion a little too decidedly at times. Hearing others analyze Darcy is, to many, like listening to someone reviewing your kids and them giving them a score, so feel free to disagree most ardently with my account!