Mr. Darcy / Fitzwilliam Darcy

Basic Information

• Original names: Mr. Darcy, Fitzwilliam Darcy
• Korean rendering: Mr. Darcy / Fitzwilliam Darcy
• Age: About 28 (estimated)
• Income: £10,000 a year
• Estate: Pemberley, Derbyshire
• Family: A great aristocratic family; Lady Catherine de Bourgh is his maternal aunt
• Residence: Pemberley and a London townhouse
• First appearance: chunk_01 (Chapter 3)

Character Profile

The character who embodies the “Pride” in the novel’s title, Pride and Prejudice. He is a great landowner with an annual income of ten thousand pounds and the vast Derbyshire estate of Pemberley. Tall, handsome, and noble in bearing, he nevertheless makes an extremely poor first impression because his pride prevents him from accommodating himself to society. In reality, however, he is honest and generous, with a capacity for profound affection. Elizabeth’s rejection changes him at the deepest level.

Development by Event

Act I: Pride on Display (Chapters 1–13)

• EVT-003 At the Meryton assembly, his handsome appearance and ten-thousand-pound income first attract attention, but his proud manner costs him everyone’s goodwill before the evening is over. He dismisses Elizabeth as merely “tolerable.”
• EVT-004 Before long, he finds himself drawn to the “beautiful expression of her dark eyes.” He admits his interest to Miss Bingley, though Elizabeth remains entirely unaware of it.
• EVT-007 Elizabeth’s walk to Netherfield leaves him “divided between admiration and doubt.” He concedes that exercise has made her eyes even brighter, yet coolly judges that her “low connections” diminish her prospects of marriage.
• EVT-009 “Bewitched”—he recognizes that Elizabeth has completely captivated him, but tries to reassert rational control by telling himself that he would have been in danger were it not for her connections.
• EVT-010 Relieved by Elizabeth’s departure, he deliberately suppresses his feelings. During the final two days he speaks scarcely ten words to her and concentrates only on his book.

Act II: Restraint and Intervention (Chapters 14–27)

• EVT-016 He dances with Elizabeth at the Netherfield ball. When directly confronted about Wickham, he changes the subject rather than defend himself. He watches gravely when Sir William Lucas hints at a Bingley–Jane marriage and listens to Mrs. Bennet’s public predictions. These observations become the basis for separating Bingley and Jane.
• EVT-019 He draws Bingley back to London and conspires with Bingley’s sisters to separate him from Jane. He even conceals Jane’s stay in London from Bingley. Though he bases his decision on the belief that “Jane appeared indifferent,” his own class prejudice is in fact at work.

Act III: Proposal and Rupture (Chapters 28–36)

• EVT-026 After arriving at Rosings, he visits Hunsford Parsonage almost every day. He behaves strangely, once sitting in silence for ten minutes, and encounters Elizabeth “by chance” on her walks no fewer than three times.
• EVT-028 He makes his first proposal at Hunsford Parsonage: “In vain have I struggled... how ardently I admire and love you.” Yet half the declaration dwells on Elizabeth’s inferiority, his humiliation, and the obstacles posed by her family. Her refusal leaves him “pale with anger.” He admits separating Bingley and takes pride in it. “This is your opinion of me!”
• EVT-029 He writes through the night and delivers his letter the next morning. [Bingley] He cites Jane’s apparent indifference and the family’s impropriety as his reasons for objecting, regretting only that he hid Jane’s presence in London. [Wickham] He reveals the whole history: Wickham’s voluntary surrender of the living for three thousand pounds, his dissipation, and his attempted seduction of Georgiana. “Disguise of every sort is my abhorrence.”

Act IV: Transformation (Chapters 37–54)

• EVT-036 He unexpectedly meets Elizabeth again at Pemberley. His manner is utterly changed—a gentle voice, a request to be introduced to the Gardiners, and permission for Mr. Gardiner to fish. He shows a humility and consideration seen neither at Netherfield nor Rosings. Elizabeth’s rebuke has produced genuine change.
• EVT-037 The day after his arrival, he introduces Georgiana to Elizabeth at once, offering her the highest mark of respect.
• EVT-038 He is shocked by the news of Lydia’s elopement. He paces the room in deep thought and leaves after “one serious, parting look.” It is inferred that he resolves at this moment to intervene in secret.
• EVT-042 (Revelation) The day after leaving Derbyshire, he goes to London, pays Mrs. Younge for information about Wickham’s whereabouts, settles all Wickham’s debts, purchases him an ensign’s commission, and provides Lydia’s settlement. His motives are a sense that his own pride kept Wickham’s crimes from becoming known, and a desire to make Elizabeth happy.
• EVT-043 He withdraws his interference with Bingley and permits his return to Netherfield (inferred).

Act V: Second Proposal and Marriage (Chapters 55–61)

• EVT-046 His second proposal: his feelings are unchanged, but one word from her will silence him forever. Lady Catherine’s visit paradoxically gives him courage to try again: Elizabeth’s failure to reject him before his aunt gives him hope. “You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous.”
• EVT-048 He marries Elizabeth. At Pemberley, Elizabeth’s liveliness softens his temper and improves his manners.

Core Relationships

• Elizabeth: Attraction → restraint → proposal/rejection → letter/transformation → secret rescue → second proposal/marriage
• Bingley: His closest friend; Darcy assumes superior judgment but incurs a moral debt by separating him from Jane
• Georgiana: He is her affectionate brother and protector; she is his only immediate family
• Wickham: Childhood companion → betrayer → enemy; unforgivable after attempting to seduce Georgiana
• Lady Catherine: His aunt; she expects him to make a dynastic marriage with Miss de Bourgh, but Darcy is indifferent

Translation Notes

• Preserve the tonal progression from the early “proud, above his company,” through the middle “not more eloquent on tenderness than on pride,” to the later “so desirous to please, so free from self-consequence.”
• “Disguise of every sort is my abhorrence” is at once his central principle, his flaw, and his virtue; the translation must retain this complexity.
• The elevated epistolary style of the letter in Chapter 35 differs distinctly from the colloquial dialogue; the translation must reflect that difference in register.