nurs3gir1:

luvtheheaven:

darthmelyanna:

drst:

dollsome-does-tumblr:

i just read a washington post article on romcoms aging poorly due to the pushiness (and oft-stalkery conduct) of the male characters therein, and it got me thinking about pride and prejudice, and specifically darcy saying, “one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”

because, like, that’s the seldom-portrayed romantic dream in the patriarchal hellscape that is our world, isn’t it?

a dude being willing to say, “i understand if you don’t feel the same way about me, and i’ll leave you alone forever about this if my attention is unwanted.”

so simple, yet so wonderful in its basic human decency

Darcy also brings up his proposal a second time after being rejected only after some significant time has passed and Elizabeth’s behavior toward him has changed. She also makes the first overture in that conversation, indicating to him it may be safe to revisit the subject.

By the end of the book, Darcy has taken Elizabeth’s criticisms wholly on board, and he’s gone from “you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you” to “one word on this subject will silence me forever.” He’s even regretful that she knows what he did to help her family, what he did out of love for her.

The first proposal is a train wreck. It’s all about how he loves her but doesn’t respect her. The second must be agony for him. He’s still just as much in love as ever, but he respects her enough that he doesn’t want her to act out of gratitude. He loves her enough to respect her when she says no.

Somewhere there’s a post about how men think they’re Mr. Darcy when they’re actually Mr. Collins, who thinks it’s adorable when women say no. Silly females, trying to entice men by playing hard to get! Someone could probably write a whole dissertation on how men in Austen’s novels react to the word no.

And of course, as someone else commented, this was written by a woman….

This.