I really hope Jane Austen knows that it’s 2018 and Elizabeth Bennett is still That Bitch™️ to all of us young ladies like shout-out to my homegirl thanks for writing her
Austen’s women blush all the time, for numerous reasons (interestingly, most frequently on behalf of somebody else who ought to be embarrassed but isn’t, like when Lizzy and Jane blush for Lydia and Wickham when the newlyweds arrive at Longbourn, or when Elinor blushes for the manipulative Lucy), but the men either “colour” or “turn red” when they’re embarrassed, guilty, angry, etc., which, Lord love ‘em, they frequently are. Darcy turns white the first time he claps eyes on Wickham in Meryton (while Wickham turns red), he grows “pale with anger” when he gets demolished by Lizzy at Hunsford, and listens with “heightened colour” as she keeps on wrecking him. But when they meet again at Pemberley, “the cheeks of each [are] overspread with the deepest blush.” He’s unique that way. I thought you’d all want to know.
I saw a gifset the other day of all the ~romantic~ moments of Darcy and Elizabeth but none of the painfully awkward moments like this that are the real magic of their story.
like! people always reference pride & prejudice as the archetypal “normal girl falls for mysterious brooding antihero” story but they overlook the part where lizzy drags darcy so fucking hard he leaves town and then apologizes for talking to her the next time they meet even though they’re at his literal house