Darcy is a very hard character to figure out. In the course of the book he goes from behaving like a rude, snobbish upper-crust, class- conscious social wallflower who wants to categorise women into his own ideas of their worth, to a gentlemanly, passionately romantic humanitarian who his housekeeper has always thought is the very finest of men. Lizzie's changes of heart and mind can be almost put down to knowing she is behaving badly and against her better self and, like quite a few Austen heroines (Emma Woodhouse a fine example, Marrianne Dashwood another) can almost claim youth, inexperience and emergence of previously untested feelings as excuses. Even Bingley, despite being five years younger, has a balanced and benevelont attitude to everything and everyone. Darcy, at twenty seven and despite his heoics with Lydia's fiasco, would seem to still have a great deal of attitude and behaviour changing to do from the man he has been so far in his life. Anne Elliot, of a similar age is a marked exception to Darcy in maturity. She almost deserves sainthood living with Sir Walter and her weird sisters.
