Back to Blog
Darcy in pride and prejudice6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Ailwood notes that in their first meeting, he waits until he gets her attention and then insults her: “not pretty enough to tempt me”. Darcy “is the hero in whom sexual desire is most overt and overpowering … The Sexual charge is stronger in Pride & Prejudice than any of the other novels … (P.86)”, he wrote.ĭarcy falls in love with Elizabeth entirely against his will and upbringing. ![]() One member recollected that Richard Jenkyns in A Fine Brush of Ivory had described Pride & Prejudice as erotic. Elizabeth, however, is constrained by female propriety and can only gaze unreservedly at Darcy’s portrait and his magnificent house and property – handsome, lofty and fine. Ailwood believes that the male (or erotic) gaze, focalisation or the one who sees, and scopophilia, gaining sexual pleasure from looking, were the keys to understanding the passion. The powerful sexual desire experienced first by Darcy and later by Elizabeth is expressed by Austen using many innovative narrative techniques. Sarah’s analysis was part of her doctoral thesis entitled What a Man Ought to Be. Charlotte Bronte’s criticism of Jane Austen in which she stated: “the passions were unknown to her” was entirely reversed during a discussion of member Sarah Ailwood’s analysis of Pride & Prejudice by JASACT members at their November meeting. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |