Fair comments Agnes, and yes I purposely highlighted the darker, less likeable characteristics of both. I did however, make the point of the post:
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would either have considered the other if a suitable alternative (as in Peter's Captain Bingley etc) had come along. Would Darcy have stepped up to the mark and made a determined effort to win Lizzie, or she even considered him with a suitable alternative on the scene..?
In the eight months during which neither Darcy and Bingley wore hearts on sleeves, Jane suffered in silence and Lizzie never gave a thought to Darcy as a husband or lover, in Lizzie's case she could have been tempted by both Wickham ( a ghastly mistake that would have been) and Colonel Fitzwilliam had either been able to offer her financial security. With his wealth and position, Darcy could have married many times within his social circle confessing amongst it all that he found difficulty mixing with people outside it.
Pride and Prejudice (not forgetting it was originaly meant to be
"First Impressions" didn't have two opposites finding a halfway point where they both changed, but rather two forms of fault where both needed some adjustment. It was both their acceptance of the faults that I think was the focus of the book. Darcy's admiration and love of Lizzie did grow gradually despite his reservations on its suitablity. Lizzie, on the other hand and by her own admission, was completely wrong in her feelings about Darcy. If, as Peter's tale indicated, a suitable male had entered Lizzie's realm, Darcy would have lost out. The same thing may well have reversed if the young and lovely Lady Twitterington Chocolate Milkshake had happened to visit the Meryton assembly ( or indeed any assembly) and Darcy had seen her across a crowded room in the best "Some Enchanted Evening" manner. Lizzie I feel, would hardly have batted an eyelid. Darcy had mortified her pride and she would have moved on and forgotten him. It is always worth keeping in mind that Netherfield and Jane and Bingley's non-event romance was the focus and the reason Darcy was in Meryton at all. With a house and a sister in London and living two hundred miles north it's surprising he and Lizzie met at all.
