Fitzwilliam Darcy

Fitzwilliam Darcy is the male lead in the Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice, and one of the archetypes of the Tall, DarkSome fans contend canonical Darcy is not actually dark & Handsome Romantic Hero. 
==In Canon==
Representing the 'pride' aspect of the title, Darcy snubs the heroine on first meeting, falls in love with her Fine Eyes, condemns her sister to spinsterhood by lying to his best friend, makes one of the worst proposals in the history of literature, explains himself by appearing in a wet shirt in a letterThe sole canonical source for his Christian name and turns out to be Tragically Misunderstood all along.
Relatively little is known about Darcy from the novel. He's tall, handsome, about 28, serious, reserved, bookish, enjoys music, attends church, and is of good character. He has an income of £10,000 a year, making him one of the wealthier men in England, a house in London, and an estate – Pemberley, with its park 10 miles around – near the fictional village of Lambton in Derbyshire. He's the joint guardian of his much younger sister, Georgiana, with his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam.
He's been played over the years by Laurence Olivier, Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, among others.
==In Fanon==
Darcy is sometimes portrayed as a typical Byronic hero, owing more to the Brontës than to Austen. Tree counters that At no point does Darcy brood. In fact, he smiles quite a lot. He is not at all Brontëan.het_reccers: Shipper Manifesto: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) (accessed 5 May 2015) 
As Elizabeth never addresses him by his forename & Colonel Fitzwilliam is a popular minor character, much fanfiction abbreviates 'Fitzwilliam' to 'William' or even 'Will' or 'Wills'; his male intimates often call him 'Darce'.
==Fandom==
Darcy was popular long before the 1995 BBC adaptation but Firth's smouldering performance made him a phenomenon. One fan explains:
==Fannish Opinion==
==Fanfiction & Pairings==
Darcy is a major character in most P&P fanfiction. The canonical Darcy/Elizabeth dwarfs all other pairings, and until recently was virtually the only pairing written at all seriously. Stories that break up Elizabeth & Darcy are very rare but not entirely unheard of. The most common het partners for Darcy are Anne de Bourgh followed by Caroline Bingley, though they tend to die in childbirth freeing him for Elizabeth. There are a few well-known stories that pair him with Jane or Kitty Bennet. 
Among the handful of m/m slash stories on the net, the most popular pairings are probably with Charles Bingley (buddysex) followed by George Wickham (hatesex), but there's also at least one example with Colonel Fitzwilliam, genderswitched-Elizabeth, and even William Collins. They're often, but not always, crackfic.
Non-explicit Darcy/Elizabeth stories are common but truly gen works are relatively rare. Humour and stories that show Darcy's viewpoint on his search for Lydia are probably the most common, but gen stories sometimes explore his relationship with Georgiana, Wickham, Colonel Fitzwilliam or his parents.
==Meta==
Discussion of Darcy's character often centres around possible explanations for his initial rudeness, for example, that he is shyelizabeth-hoot: The Ubiquitous Shy Question (repost) & comments (accessed 5 May 2015) or even has Asperger's.elizabeth-hoot: A rant. (accessed 5 May 2015) The extent of his character transformation during the course of the novel is a related topic. Despite his usual fanfiction portrayal as a sex god, whether or not he is a virgin on marriage is another common topic. There's a lot of discussion of the merits of the Darcys of the various adaptations, as well as the character in bookverse vs adaptions-verse.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
Gen
*One Has All The Goodness by James. Darcy's PoV on the search for Lydia & Wickham (1998)
*Five Times Fitzwilliam Darcy Shared a Bed With a Woman by sixbeforelunch. Vignettes, largely from Darcy's backstory (2009)
*Two Monks Invent Mr. Darcy by Bow. Popular metafic commenting on the different Darcys of various adaptations; pastiche of the 'Two Monks Inventing Things' blog (2014)
Darcy/Elizabeth
*A Shade in His Character by Rebecca E. Popular dark-Darcy (2002–4; WiP)
*The Color of Love by Jane Greensmith. Darcy has synaesthesia (2003)
*The Fortune He Ought to Have by Victoria CL. Swapped at birth novel (2004)
*Disenchanted by Kara. A rare example of a magical AU; Darcy is a mage and part of a secret organisation that defends England against dark magic (2007)
*Of Time Gone By by Bekah. Darcy is deaf from childhood brain fever (2007–8)
*Given Good Principles by GraceCS. Lambton's curate acts as Darcy's mentor (2010–11)
*Anomaly by Elizabeth. Darcy is asexual before he meets Elizabeth (2011)
*A Long Engagement, or the Improvement of Human Reason, as illustrated in the long and tortuous courtship of Edward Bennet, squire, and Philadelphia, Lady Darcy by hl & Tulina. Genderswap (2011)
*The True Adventures of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Time Traveler by Kathy. Darcy travels in time to bring about his marriage to Elizabeth (2011)
*A Marital Education by Yahtzee. Darcy is impotent. A rare story in which he isn't a sex god. The most kudos'd story for the character on AO3 (2012)
*For a lot more examples, see the Pride and Prejudice article
Other Het Pairings
*To Bear Is to Conquer Our Fate by Shemmelle (Kitty/Darcy). Forced marriage scenario after Kitty is compromised by Wickham (2007)
*Particular Attachments by Allison OM (Darcy/Kitty). AU in which Darcy eventually courts Kitty after Jane dies and Elizabeth marries Bingley (2008)
*Neither Duty Nor Honour by buckbeakbabie. Darcy has a child from a previous marriage with Anne de Bourgh (2011)
*Unexpected Perfection by LJ Summers (Darcy/Jane). (2011–12; WiP)
Slash
*Good Opinion by Helen Raven (Darcy/OMC) (1997)
*Colonel Fitzwilliam Lends Darcy Both Hands, Mouth, and Various Other Body Parts by Lissa (Darcy/Colonel Fitzwilliam). Crackfic (2003)
*"Having Been Rebuked" by Coyotegirl (Darcy/Bingley). Posted to Slash Cotillion and no longer on the web (2004 or before)
*Profanation of Our Joys by Malini (Darcy/Wickham) (2005)
===Fanart===
*Mr. Darcy by MacElbereth. Watercolour anime-influenced Darcy with Pemberley in the background (2004)
*Mr. Darcy by lordofmeesi. Pencil portrait of Macfadyen-Darcy (2007)
*Darcy's Rejection by Fereshteh. Digital portrait after the rejection at Hunsford, based on Macfadyen (2008)
*Assembly by gppr. Digital portrait of Darcy & Bingley; not based on an adaptation (2009)
*Darcy by snow-jemima. Pencil drawing of Firth-Darcy at the Lambton inn (2010)
*Dread Pirate Darcy by janey-jane. Cartoon (2010)
*Mr. Darcy by rocketsky. Watercolour three-quarters portrait based on Firth (2011)
*Mr. Darcy by sokkenn. Digital portrait based on The Look in the 1995 adaptation; one of the most popular moments for artwork (2011)
===Vids===
===Meta===
*Darcy, Deceit and Disguise by Anghraine. Darcy vs Wickham (2009)
*Patronage Rant by Anghraine. The extent of Darcy's character transformation (2009)
*Stereotyping the Hero by Elizabeth Hoot. Book-Darcy vs 1995-Darcy (2011)
==References & Notes==
Category:Pride and Prejudice