Pride and Prejudice: Character Certificate

The pleasure in the book communities lies in the fact that it makes time travel look quite possible. A book written in such older times, still relevant! How? Has the society evolved significantly? or it's just the fashion that has developed? (okay! That has not well-developed either, let's just say it's different!) 

A mother pestering her daughters to marry the men of good fortune. A minimally involved father running in when things go wrong. A teenager chasing a playboy and the playboy being his obnoxious self. A woman compromising into an arranged marriage. An employee,  being a yes-man to his employer. A capitalist lady exhibiting her snob. A friend seeking dating advice (obviously has to go wrong!). A mean girl boasting for attention. An inexpressive lady misunderstood as indifferent; an independent woman, disrespectful; an introvert man, arrogant and rude (as usual!).

To all the women who have read and loved Pride and Prejudice, have adored and admired Mr. Darcy. Why is he then, often accused of being rude and arrogant? The poor guy was just an introvert. Isn't it still relevant to the quiet ones, to come-off as off-putting. But let's take a caterpillar as our metaphor. As the cocoon is lost you see its beautiful wings to admire.

More like it's SRK for the most women in the Indian context, Mr Darcy has set a standard for women all over the world, to do their wishful thinking. Good for fascination, but merely fictional! We all know the "Palats" and "Dupattas entangling in the watches" are good for movies and books. But let's consider the "bare minimum" - what we call in the recent times. 

Though all of pride and prejudice seems relevant to the time, what is that "bare minimum" we speak of that we are questioning? Why are we obsessed with the articulate Mr. Darcy? 

1. Consent

"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

2. Understanding 

"A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

3. Acceptance

"I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever."

4. Apology

My object then," replied Darcy, "was to show you, by every civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to. How soon any other wishes introduced themselves I can hardly tell, but I believe in about half an hour after I had seen you.

6. Consistency and Expression

"You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever"

Honesty

“Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.” 

“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”

It was just an attempt to defend all the fellow misunderstood introverts, ambiverts and anxious ones, often labelled as arrogant, bitch-faced, rude, indifferent, and so on. 

Don't loose your uniqueness to mediocrity.

A lot has indeed changed in years, but the question that I asked before remains - "Is it just the fashion that has changed over time?" 

Because, if 'dating apps' is the standard we are setting, or we can say (sub-standard?) Might as well go back to the ballroom dances (atleast we can dance in pretty dresses that way!)

Nikita Pandit