What are some examples of Darcy showing himself to be an honorable and noble man? For example, he pays for Wickham and Lydia's wedding, he marries Elizabeth out of love and overcomes his class prejudices, anything else?
What are some examples of Darcy showing himself to be an honorable and noble man? For example, he pays for Wickham and Lydia's wedding, he marries Elizabeth out of love and overcomes his class prejudices, anything else?
Darcy overcomes his pride to entertain some respect for the Bennet's and their circle of friends. He eventually expresses humility for his haughty and arrogant treatment of Elizabeth.
In bribing Wickham, Darcy nobly hopes to repair the disgrace of his adventure with Lydia. Finally Darcy is rising in his relations with Mr Bennet, nearing almost the heights of Bennet's friendship with Wickham!
"Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself"
hmmmm, I know it is not really noble, but as he said later, he was allowed to follow his good principles in 'pride and conceit' (or something of the sort).
Could it not be true, that he bribes Wickham so the latter gets married to Lydia, so as to save Lydia's honour, so Darcy is free to marry Lizzie? It is pretty far-fetched, but if Lydia had not married Wickham, she would have been outcast and her family with her. Despite having gained respect for Lizzie's family, Darcy surely cannot get married to one whose sister went astray? Low connections can be overcome, but a sister who alledgedly lost her virginity... That's a bridge too far. So better giving Wickham money anyway and him as a brother-in-law there to always remind him of 'his weaknesses', than her family outcast and no Lizzie... At any rate it is not really honorable either to bribe someone to get married, to then ship them off to the north and hope (in secret) that you won't see them again or else bannish them from your estate.
I don't know, I find the question a little biased. A more to the point question would have been 'How does Austen give the impression of nobility and honour in Darcy?'. That is more up her street.
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
Ah, I may have missed that telling point. Isn't Austen endlessly funny?Originally Posted by kiki1982
"Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself"
In another thread I elaborated on that. It is about the time that Darcy ends up alone with Lizzie and Lizzie gets the letter from Jane... He seems to want to propose but his plans are cruelly thwarted. He seems to have a crisis where he has no idea what to do because he sees his future crumble, but then decides to do something.
He said he only did it for her, didn't he. Take that literally, and it is really a laugh!
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
Do you think that Darcy saving his sister Georgiana from her marriage to Wickham is up the path of nobility and honor?
Well, it might seem honorable, but I'd lie to think a little further...
Essentially, he did not save her at all. She confessed to an elopement (by accident Darcy turned up before she eloped) and he just said: 'Wickham, you can forget eloping with my sister.' Or at least forget her 30,000 pounds (that was probably the thing for Wickham).
Marriages were arranged back then between potential groom and guardian/father/(eldest) brother. They negotiated a marriage contract that specified the dowry and everything else (money to be saved etc) and then the couple got married. Eloping was out of the queston. Darcy did not save his sister from anyting, as far as I'm concerned, he just was there at the right time by accident.
He could have done something heroic if he had challenged Wickham to a duel (to avenge Georgiana's honour), but he didn't. In that, he was rather cowardly, actually.
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
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