Mr. Darcy is a proud and arrogant man, particularly to those that he considers of lower
social status. It is suggested that he is a member of the old
Anglo-Norman aristocracy, as indicated by his own name as well as that of his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. At the dance, he does not dance with any ladies outside his own party because he believes them to be beneath him in class and beauty. He does, however, mention later on to Elizabeth that he does not find it easy to make new acquaintances and finds it hard to converse with people he does not know. This shows a sort of shy, perhaps even reclusive nature in Darcy that is not illustrated before this point in the book. After receiving Mr. Darcy's letter of explanation, Elizabeth notes: that she has never "seen anything that betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjust—anything that spoke him of irreligious or immoral habits; that among his own connections he was esteemed and valued". For example, his behaviour with Bingley is more than brotherly as he rescues him from what he believed was a bad marriage and is a constant companion at his side. Through Elizabeth, he learns to be less boastful and arrogant because he realizes that his actions have deeply affected others. This arrogance is seen in his first proposal to Elizabeth whereby he acts with more pride rather than in a loving manner. Despite the way in which Elizabeth often mocks him, she is surprised by his "gallantry" as he persists in pursuing her. Vivien Jones notes that Darcy's handsome appearance, wealth and original arrogance signify to the reader that he is the hero of a romance novel. Wickham's irresponsible elopement with Lydia allows Darcy to demonstrate that he now feels responsible for Wickham's continued bad behaviour by his silence – if he had made Wickham's bad character known, Lydia would have been safe. Darcy chooses to involve himself in arranging Lydia's marriage, risking his own reputation. Elizabeth dismisses him at first as "intricate", though she adds that "intricate" men are at least "amusing". Though Darcy treats Elizabeth with contempt, he always finds her to be "uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes" and is "caught by the easy playfulness of her manner". At one point, Elizabeth notes that "Mr. Darcy is all politeness" and speaks of his "grave propriety". The term "grave propriety" is meant ironically, noting that Darcy is polite, but only in the sense that he possesses the mere civility of "the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world". In the 18th-century idea, a man was expected above all to be pleasant and pleasing, and so it was better for a man to lie rather than say anything which might offend. When the lightweight and pretentious Miss Bingley lists all the attributes of "an accomplished woman", Darcy says "To all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading", indicating he wants more from a woman than what Miss Bingley thinks is necessary. Nicolson further argued that a character like Mr. Darcy reflects changes in British life as the Romantic age was a time when "What mattered was authentic, self-generated worth". Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth early on, but he sees her as unfit socially as a wife; however his feelings for her are such that he decides to forgo convention to marry the woman he loves, fitting him into the mould of a Romantic hero. After Darcy gets over his prejudices against marrying the middle-class Elizabeth, the scholar Bernard Paris wrote that Darcy "becomes the most romantic figure in the book" while at the same time upholding traditional British values as "he uses his great power in the service of both order and desire". The scholar Alison Sulloway noted that Darcy has little patience for polite society with its false courtesies and superficial talk, and much prefers to be running Pemberley or to be outdoors. Darcy's heroic stance is shown by the way he pursues Elizabeth despite her rejection of his first offer of marriage, showing the depth of his feelings that he often has trouble expressing properly. Even though Darcy is sometimes clumsy at expressing his love for Elizabeth, his tendency to speak only what he really feels stands in marked contrast to the polished words of Wickham who never means what he says. The scholar Josephine Ross wrote that the picture today of Darcy as asexual says more about the standards of our time rather than of the Romantic era, noting when Elizabeth tells him that Wickham has seduced her sister Lydia, he can only "observe her in compassionate silence"; despite clearly wanting to touch Elizabeth he does not as that would not be proper for a gentleman. Ross wrote: "Had he taken her in his arms and covered her with kisses, the atmosphere of that critical scene could not have been more thrillingly charged". The very fact that Elizabeth is impressed by the beauty of Pemberley's gardens, hills, forests, fields, valleys, streams and pastures, which show Darcy's commitment to appreciating the beauty of nature, further underlines the point. In the 18th century, it was normal for spouses to address each other by their surnames, and Elizabeth Bennet's parents, for example, address each other as Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet despite having been married for 20 years; by contrast after his engagement, Darcy for the first time calls his fiancée Elizabeth, which shows the depth of his love. A sign that this is a marriage based on love is the fact that Darcy is described as having an annual income of 10,000 pounds, yet Elizabeth refuses to marry him until she finally decides she loves him. The British cultural critic Robert Irvine described the appeal of Mr. Darcy to women as that of an "absolute and unconditioned male need for a woman". Irvine argued that this was a female "fantasy" that was only possible in a context of general powerlessness on the part of women. The character of Mr. Darcy reflects this trend. Barfoot argued that for Austen "civilization is not a gift, but is a possession that needs to be earned and sustained by practice"; in this regard, the fact that Darcy takes good care of his estate shows his basically civilised nature which he hides under his veneer of snobbery and coldness. The scholar James Brown observed that at the time transport via the mud roads of Britain was hugely expensive, citing the remark by the novelist Sir Walter Scott that it had cost him 50 pounds to travel from Edinburgh to London in 1828; in today's money the sum was equal to 2,500 pounds. Irvine argued that the union of Elizabeth and Darcy at the end of the novel was meant by Austen as a symbol of the union of the national and regional elites in England, forging together a united nation. Irvine argued that Elizabeth appears to be unworthy of Darcy not because of their differences in income level, but because of the class divide as she contemplates the glories of Pemberley. Against the interpretation that
Pride and Prejudice is primarily a novel about class, the American scholar Susan Morgan argued the novel is about character, stating Mr. Wickham may not be as wealthy as Darcy, but his commission in the militia would have made him an eminently respectable man to marry in Regency England. Morgan wrote that though Darcy is rich, he does not represent "society" as some would have done, because he is reserved, vain, and quasi-isolated from society. ==Cultural influence and legacy==