was he domineering?
remote?
cold?
rigid?
patriarchal?
yes to all of these.
but he was also *discerning.* yes yes yes, there was all of that hating eliza's mother, but didn't elizabeth, as well? it's not as if eliza and darcy are so very different - both are acutely aware of the bennet's shortcomings.
what's hot about darcy is that he discerns how *exceptional* eliza is over all women of his acquaintance. she is the wit, she is the sparkle in an otherwise dull setting.
we love darcy because he had the sense to really see elizabeth. if i had to say what it is women really want it's to be seen, to be recognized. not looked at. SEEN. see us, see what's really there - the nuts, the craziness, the hardness, the bitter, the sweet. the creamy nougat center inside the dark chocolate and chile powder shell.
and really, who's our choice here? frank? (that limp noodle) wickham? (please - 19th century baby daddy.)
preferable to darcy would be the captain in 'persuasion' - oh, that letter he writes after nursing a broken, throbbing heart for over 10 years!! geez. i watch that film just for that one scene and i just dissolve. give me words!! lots and lots of heaving, throbbing words!
for my taste, though, i prefer knightley from 'emma'. he administers discipline (badly done, emma, badly done!) but then sacrifices his patriarchal seat to live with emma and her doddering old dad. love me, spank me - but then adore me. heh heh heh.
sick, but totally hot.
2 comments:
I think you're right about Darcy. It's that he has good goddamn taste. And also, that part of that is that he admires Elizabeth for, not in spite of, her own pride. He isn't a man who wants to change her. That is the most romantic thing of all.
exactly. taste. aesthetic and cultural discernment. what's so wrong with that? is it wrong to admire someone for that? to want to acquire it?
as for knightley - i think i may be a victim of the movie version more than the text. emma, of course, is my ideal - i love her - but the captain (what's his name?) in 'persuasion' melts me, too. not as much as darcy, but it's close.
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