Pride and Prejudice: The Darcy Discourse

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite classics novels. I absolutely love the witty, independent Elizabeth who adores her older sister and the complex, gentlemanly Mr. Darcy who goes to the farthest lengths to help those he cares about. They are wonderful characters that realize their flaws and try to change themselves. Their relationship is interesting with how they view each other turning a complete 180 as the story progresses.

What I noticed about the story structure is that it is one that is very frequently used in east Asian media: a normal girl meets a bad boy of some status, and something about the girl catches the boy’s interest, and although she hates him at first, he changes into a better person because of her influence and the two end falling in love. These stories always include a male love rival who is also vying for the girls’ attention (like Wickham) and a female love rival who fights the main girl for the main guy (like Miss Bingley). I don’t know if the story of Pride and Prejudice was unique during the time that it written, but I assume that East Asia really liked the structure and decided to use it in almost every story.


And I don’t blame them. Something about Darcy’s character is very appealing, and I think it’s in the fantasy of many people to meet a mysterious man who is super interested in you and he ends up being the perfect gentleman and the two of you fall in love and live happily ever after.  And he’s filthy rich, which is always a plus.

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