Searching for Pride and Prejudice in the Postmodern

Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, “you are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.” Elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand, and her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances. 

This excerpt from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” marks the climax: Mr. Darcy’s second proposal. Although seemingly anticlimactic, the careful crafting of Mrs. Darcy’s words can’t help but deeply tug on our heartstrings. Elizabeth is now fully accepting of marriage, even giddy confessing her own feelings. In the film, the scene takes place in the middle of a field with pouring rain — quite a romanticized depiction. But I want this. We all want this. 

Regency era England certainly led to a fair share of love stories, even though during the time marriage was more commonly an economic proposition than anything. But what about these ordinary tales can we not get enough of, to fantasize over, to read every single line or watch every single frame with our hands over our mouths in excitement or lust? In this case, the idea of “the regular” transcends “the complex.” 

The idea of having almost an effortless romance, to have someone realize they love you unconditionally, appears perfect. Tension builds the butterflies in our stomachs, and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy certainly have these sparks. Their romance is still iconic today, one of the most fascinating aspects of its timelessness is the way Austen illustrates it as ordinary and achievable. It is the most realistic version of the enemies to lovers trope I have ever seen or read. 

Mr. Darcy’s brooding demeanor mixed with his mysteriousness and slightly sarcastic delivery perfectly contrast Elizabeth’s bubbly, talkative, and more than not, happy personality. She captivated him because she is different. At the beginning of the story, the two despise each other, even from the first impression. But the slow-burn fall into the bliss of romance sends them from loathe to love (one of my favorite tropes of all time). 

I can see where this narrative fits into a lot of our impressionable lives, especially after the past two years. Many of us are searching for the comfort of company or the everlasting lust that Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have. It’s a feeling and it’s a universal longing: our deep seeded desires to be main characters in a seemingly perfect royal world of brilliant fashion and an even more brilliant plot. 

Postmodernism represents a departure from 20th-century ideologies, thoughts, physical manifestations such as architecture, and even artwork. But that is why the success of Austen is truly phenomenal. It’s difficult to be timeless in the era of rejection, but these regency romance novels seem to transcend even decade dividers such as early modern, modern and post-modern. The very idea that we can be loved unconditionally and love unconditionally, as Mr. Darcy comes to love Elizabeth and vice versa, allows the story to remain universally sought after. 

Take the hand flex scene, for example, in the 2005 adaptation. Elizabeth is leaving Mr. Darcy’s estate after coming for her sister, and Mr. Darcy helps Elizabeth into her carriage, holding her hand until she is seated. After his hand leaves hers, the camera focuses solely on his hand, which he flexes, and you can almost see the electricity running through his veins. It was as if her touch amplified something within him. The scene is silent, but the emotions shine through. To have this minuscule yet captivating effect on someone is a desire  I believe is even more amplified today. 

I wouldn’t necessarily consider our generation the lost generation like Hemmingway commits to his characters in the early 20th-century, but I do consider many of us to be searching for some grand emotion to guide our lives. We need an escape in our own lives, and a budding romance checks all of those boxes; it gives us something to swoon over in a seemingly mundane world of uncertainty.