Ah! Mr Darcy!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a lovelorn single lady must be in want of a Mr Darcy. Of all the potential lovers fiction has proposed over the centuries, Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy remains one of the most desired among sensible women, despite his coming into being over two hundred years ago.

What is Mr Darcy’s enduring allure? How does he still manage to capture the minds and hearts of all who adore him? And how can this Georgian character still be so relevant in modern romantic fantasies?

In my opinion, it comes down to the power of love and its ability to overwhelm the senses. Moved by his passion for Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy is willing to go against his understanding of good reason and common practice, against even his own (albeit flawed) nature, in order to declare his love for Lizzy and marry her.

Every woman dreams of inspiring such an ardent love as this – a love so strong as to induce a man to behave in a manner unfamiliar to him, to go against convention and societal expectations. A love that is equal to them both despite apparent inequalities.

This love trope has been spun multiple times, and there are variations of Mr Darcy in many popular books and films from Pretty Woman to Bridget Jones’s Diary to Fifty Shades of Grey. The concept being that a man seemingly superior in looks, manners, consequence, or financial position will fall in love with a woman who may appear to be an unequal match on the surface, but who deep down is his equal in all that matters.

In Bridget Jones’s Diary, Mark Darcy, a lauded human rights’ lawyer with proper English manners and a somewhat superior air, falls for plain, frumpy, chaotic but loveable Bridget, who – like many of us – feels like an idiot most of the time. 

The fact that Mark Darcy is played so impeccably by the actor Colin Firth, who is also responsible for immortalising Mr Darcy in the 1995 BBC television production of Pride and Prejudice, is no coincidence. No one can deny the influence this casting has had in cementing both Mr Darcys as admirable and desirable lovers in the hearts and minds of women everywhere.

In the 20th century movie version of Darcy in Bridget Jones’s Diary, the character Mark takes his admiration for Bridget a step further than even Mr Darcy’s for Elizabeth, by declaring that he doesn’t think she’s an idiot at all and in fact, likes her very much, just as she is.

And there, my friends, is the clincher – to be loved just as we are, and for who we are. And by being loved, being seen, when all others are blind.

Mr Darcy should not have given any regard to Elizabeth Bennet as a potential partner given her station which was significantly beneath his, but his ability to rise above societal dictates, defy convention and follow his heart, to see the true essence of Lizzy and her undeniably valuable attributes, casts him as the best of all men. It demonstrates that he is a man capable of insight, compassion, intelligence, generosity, and true affection. 

THAT, I believe, is the allure of Mr Darcy.