Thursday, April 2, 2020
Darcy in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries
I forget the exact episode of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries that discusses what would presume to be the first instance of Darcy showing interest in Lizzie. The night of the presumed to be bad dinner party, Lizzie and the gang go out for drinks and arcade games. From Lizzie's perspective, we learn Darcy was in the corner with Caroline. From Charlotte and Jane, we learn that Darcy seemed to be focused on Lizzie and did not seem to know how to show his interest in a socially acceptable way. In the novel, we as the readers do not really see Darcy's interest till he proposes and it seems out of line. In watching these videos, Darcy comes across as kind of awkward and socially inept, but not necessarily out of line in his behavior. We see Lizzie's judgment of him first. My question is, what can we gleam from this series about Darcy and how this speak to the human condition?
Image source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/pride-and-prejudice/fitzwilliam-darcy
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Lizzie is not good on picking up on subtle clues from Darcy. I find this funny because she thinks Jane is doing good by playing things cool with Bing Lee and being subtle. Lizzie cannot even recognize when someone is being subtle with her.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I was largely thinking about as well. I think Darcy's actions had to be slightly tweaked for a modern setting, because nowadays if a man that you kind of detest suddenly proposed to you, it would not only be shocking, but come off as creepy. This series probably wanted to do its best in avoiding Darcy coming off as creepy with our slightly changed social norms than in the time of P&P--so other characters noticing his interest and flirtations when Lizzy was otherwise blind to him eliminated the possibility of him being creepy, and rather put it on Lizzy's own lack of perception concerning men.
ReplyDeleteWhile the producers made Darcy less creepy to fit a modern setting, I thought they did a good job with making Wickham more of a creep with him blackmailing Lydia with the video. In Pride and Prejudice, I felt like Wickham came off as more charming and was forced to do the right thing by marrying Lydia.
DeleteEmily- I think your comment about the role of other characters sharing their perceptions of Darcy's interest in Lizzie is so interesting. They definitely put a spotlight on what those characters have to say, more so than the book does for sure. They dedicated an entire episode to comparing Jane's and Lizzie's views on the people in their lives! But what's interesting to me is that I think Austen did try to do this in the novel too. At the end of Chapter 32 she writes, "[Charlotte] had once or twice suggested to Elizabeth the possibility of [Darcy] being partial to her, but Elizabeth always laughed at the idea" (132). I think these details just get lost in the whole text of the novel. Especially when those conversations don't play out in front of us in the book the way they do in the series.
DeleteI agree with Emily in that the character of Darcy and his advances towards Lizzie both had to be tweaked a bit to fit our current social environment. I thought it was interesting a bit later on when Caroline was on the vlog with Lizzie and they talked about walking in front of Darcy while he was working in the lounge... It seemed a little strange to me that they didn't really modify this scene aside from Lizzie saying "it was weird that you wanted us to walk in front of him, but whatever," because I thought that was one of the "creepier" parts of the novel.
ReplyDeleteAs for the scene in the bar earlier on, I think it was interesting that we not only got the perspective from Lizzie (as it was often the only perspective we saw in the vlog) but also that of Charlotte and Jane too. I think, as Emily mentioned, this really speaks more to Lizzie's character and how unaware or disinterested she is when it comes to men and their advances.
I also agree with Emily. The makers of this series were really thinking of everything, and one thing they surely thought about was the fact that probably a lot of people watching this series had not actually had the perspective of reading the novel first. This slight detail really helps audiences adjust I think to the story in a modern setting, whereas if they had kept it the same and made Darcy proposing the first time we see he has any interest, they could have been taken out of the experience due to the strangeness of this. Really have to commend the makers of this series; like I said, it seems like they thought of EVERYTHING
ReplyDeleteSadie, yes, I agree - I think the intention is exactly to make Darcy awkward and socially inept - he's shy and weird. And because he isn't a Regency-era wealthy dude, he can't just hide himself away on his estate where he feels comfortable. It's helpful, I think, to getting us to see the Darcy of the novel in a new way. I think he certainly is presumptuous and overbearing, but also just awkward AF and that's one of the nice insights the LBD team is able to bring to the novel with their update.
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