Inspired by the intellectual pursuits of a dear friend, I have taken upon myself to accomplish a resplendent and ambitious summer reading list. Among the first of the volumes that came into my hands, I am somewhat loathe to admit finishing Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in which I found many a valuable mention amidst much firth and frivolity.
Perhaps to my detriment, I daresay Mr. Darcy and I are somewhat alike. He is perceived in none other than a derogatory and demonstrative manner. Of the impressions I make and the commentary I read, I find a commonality of confluence between our characters. When people meet me, they normally regard me as dour, stern, and far too serious for my age. Rest assured that I worry about things with the hope only that you must not as a consequence. My friends say they are glad to know me, but had they not had cause to familiarize themselves beyond the trivialities of First Contact, they would not in any case have taken pains to delve deeper. Said her sister Jane, “Even Mr. Darcy may improve on better acquaintance.”
My Darcy appears cold, aloof and condescending. The characters make much about their predeliction that he be proud and prejudiced. I find him by contrast to be a guarded sort, possessed of taciturn circumspect for want of relationships of trust among those with whom he associates. Having been wronged by a “friend” in Wickham and then besmeared and slandered by the same, he takes great pains to be wary of his company. Like that character, I am wary and cynical towards the motivations of others when they meet me, having often been made a target for usury and abuse in the wake of my gracious outreach.
Being of few words and not given to frivolity himself, Mr. Darcy appears disenchanted with the types of associations that permeate high society. I don’t gather that he enjoys the excesses of wealth and status. He himself is the type of person one wants in their circle of influence, one of low maintenance but high yield who makes great utility of what means come to his disposal. He deserves his personal pride, for what he does with his means and made of himself. The charitable acts and sacrifices he makes ought procure the good opinion of all, but we learned from Shakespeare that only the evil that men do lives after them.
Beneath the stern and seemingly unfeeling exterior of Mr. Darcy lies a sincerely generous, compassionate and loving nature. Perhaps some feel he makes strange overtures and decisions, but the weightier matters of life and propriety demand from him a tenacity and resilience against the world. And his hand shall be against every man and every man’s hand against him (Genesis 16:12).
No comments:
Post a Comment