Blooms Literary Themes - THE HEROS ... - ymerleksi - home

Pride and Prejudice 187at times to be uncritically borrowing the popular Burney-Richardsoncharacter type and situation in Pride and Prejudice—altering them, ifat all, only by toning them down a bit. Mr. Darcy is not the picture ofperfection that Sir Charles Grandison is, but he shares many of theadvantages of Sir Charles and Lord Orville. He has, for instance, a“fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien . . . and ten thousanda year” (II.10). He has mental powers that command respect. He isnot as powerful and important as Sir Charles Grandison, but he is theowner of a large estate and a giver, and withholder, of clerical livings.He marries a woman who, like Evelina, is embarrassed by the inferiorityof some of her nearest connections, although even Mrs. Bennetcan scarcely approach the supreme vulgarity of Madame Duval.But Darcy is a Charles Adams in spirit, if not in circumstances.It is his exaggerated conception of the importance of his advantages,his supercilious determination “to think well of myself, and meanlyof others” who are not so fortunate that causes him at times to soundvery much like a caricature of the Burney-Richardson hero. He maynot expect to have to address “an angry & peremptory refusal” to afawning, lovelorn Elizabeth Bennet; but during Elizabeth’s visit atNetherfield he is anxious lest, by devoting so much of his conversationto her, he may have been encouraging her to hope for the honor ofhis hand. On the eve of her departure from Netherfield, we are told:“He wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admirationshould now escape him, nothing that could elevate her with thehope of influencing his felicity. . . . Steady to his purpose, he scarcelyspoke ten words to her through the whole of Saturday” (II.60). Theidea of a proposal which is humiliating to a heroine may come fromCecilia. But the language of Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabethsounds like something that might have come from Charles Adams’slips, rather than the gallant, ardent language of a Delvile. DuringDarcy’s proposal, we are told that “his sense of her inferiority” was“dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence hewas wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit” (II.189).And when Elizabeth rebukes him, he declares that he is not “ashamedof the feelings I related. . . . Could you expect me to rejoice in theinferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hopeof relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?”(II.192).