Re: Were Lizzie or Darcy really good catches?

Okay, Amy, this is going to be lengthy (well, it is Sunday (-

Disagreeing is what makes the world go round. What an awful world it would be otherwise. I make no claim to be right in my views, just the right to air them. (-:

We see things as we see them. I constantly keep in mind (because it's a point that always makes me think) that Jane Austen originally titled her book First Impressions. This is just a personal view, but I think it was changed to Pride and Prejudice better to highlight the wrongs of both more than just First Impressions which was a little all encompassing rather than relating to the two main characters. It could relate to the Meryton gossip society just as much as Mr Hurst's breakfast sausage. In Darcy and Lizzie's cases, their first impressions mattered little until a closer relationship was forged. Till then they were unimportant because they were as strangers. As an example, Caroline's impressions, first or otherwise, of anyone could be discounted because of her snobbery, false values and personal discrepancies, jealousy and overall spiteful personality. Pride, unless of the false variety is not a fault, prejudice is always one. Darcy actually suffered from both. His prejudices were against those below his level of breeding and wealth as insuffiecient to mingle with socially. ( socially, because he seemed to treat his workers, staff etc in a decent manner) and his pride was not just of achievement but of himself for being who he was and superior to others. Pride and Vanity combined then?

As to your statement of them being a very good match; sorry, but for me, they were anything but. We are told at the end that they all lived happily ever after, but without details. Can I really believe that twenty seven year old Darcy, stated by Charles Bingley to be someone to avoid when bored, and a man who wanted to character analyse his best friend, would suddenly become a tamed lion and a doting father because of a woman he hardly knew outside of a few verbal debates? That he and Lizzie would agree any more than we are doing here? In strong views and not being shy to air them, they were a perfect match. As candidates for marriage, not so. Too much Yin and too little Yang in both.

I don't speak much of class differences because Mr Bennet was a gentleman estate owner and the Bennets were not a poor family at the time of the story and lived well socially. But behaviour-wise they were acres apart and the ridiculous class rules of the period extended that even further. Darcy probably had some of Lady Catherine's attitudes as regards to high living with servants catching dust motes before they landed on his riding boots and ordering hailstones not to make a noise on his conservatory roof. . Lizzie allowed he own first impression to become extreme prejudices on the basis of hasty judgements and Wickham's lies. For someone intelligent, despite her claims of humour and loving to laugh, had she aired her views other than privately she would have looked really foolish later. I know Jane Austen's approach ws that love conqueres all, but in the case of Darcy and Lizzie it might have lost the battle..(-:

p.s: Anne Elliot would have better suited Darcy and Frederick Wentworth Lizzie.....but I'm not going dowen that path..(-: