Darcy’s Letter

I love Darcy’s letter to Lizzy. At this point in the story, Lizzy needs to hear about Wickham, and about Jane and Bingley’s attachment, from Darcy’s perspective, and to know something about what has motivated him to act the way he has acted. She has to have her eyes opened to her own wrongheaded biases, she has to reassess the actions of her own family and acknowledge their shortcomings, and she has to see past Darcy’s attitude and realize that there is much more to him than just pride and arrogance. She needs to read this letter. It’s in this letter that Darcy’s true character is revealed – his sense of justice, his integrity, his love for his sister, his honest regard for his friend’s happiness, his dislike of falseness, and very importantly, his respect for and trust in Lizzy, because without respect and trust, Darcy could never have written her a letter like this.

The fact that Darcy even wants to explain himself to Lizzy proves that he still holds her in high regard. His own sense of justice makes it impossible for him not to bring his side of the story to her, and he believes that she knows it would be wrong of her not to read his letter – as he says, “my character required that it be written and read”, and “ I demand it of your justice” (129). He trusts her with incredibly private information about his family affairs and the scandal involving his sister and Wickham, and he has confidence in her that she won’t talk about it to anyone else. He risks offending her by telling her the truth about the impression her family makes on him, but at the same time, he is being honest, and that shows respect, also - painful as it might be for Lizzy to hear. He tells her during the disastrous marriage proposal, “disguise of every sort is [his] abhorrence” (127), and now with this letter there’s a level of honesty between them that was missing before.

Darcy’s motives for breaking up Bingley and Jane’s romance are noble, even though they are insulting to Lizzy, as a Bennet. He explains that he acted “to preserve [his] friend from what [he] esteemed a most unhappy connection” (131), not only because he believed the Bennet family to be socially inferior, but also because he didn’t believe Jane had any real feelings for Bingley. So, Darcy believes there should be real love in marriage. He is a romantic at heart! We knew this already, of course, because he has just proposed to Lizzy despite the fact that she is part of this inferior family too, but this shows that he doesn’t just believe in it for himself, but for his friend also. He tells Lizzy that he watched her sister to see if she showed Bingley any particular interest, and to him it appeared that she didn’t, so he really had no scruples about persuading Bingley to move on. “He expressed no regret for what he had done” (134), and though this temporarily satisfies Lizzy that she has been right to hate him all along, she eventually has to admit that he may have had a point regarding Jane’s behavior towards Bingley. By the time she has read the letter a few times, she has become completely convinced that she was wrong about almost everything that she was so sure of before.

The fact that Darcy doesn’t even know what exactly he has been accused of regarding Wickham only makes his account more credible, because he gives Lizzy the whole picture and lets her figure out from this information what part of what Wickham’s story is a lie. Even without knowing what he has to defend himself against, he knows the truth will explain his actions. The contents of the letter justify everything Darcy has done, with regard to Wickham, and they explain, if not exactly justify, his actions regarding Jane and Bingley. We’re given access to what was happening off-stage, so to speak, and now previously inexplicable or unforgivable acts take on a different character. Lizzy reads and re-reads the letter “with the closest attention”(135). Regarding Wickham, “ every line proved more clearly” that Darcy was “entirely blameless”( 135) “How differently did everything now appear in which [Wickham] was concerned!” (136). Lizzy goes through an agony of enlightenments and realizations. “Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (137). Although it takes Lizzy a little bit of time to accept the truth, this letter is a great turning point for her. It’s such an honest letter, it conveys everything it needs to convey, and it explains all Darcy’s actions up to this point. By reading Darcy’s letter, not only does Lizzy learn about Darcy’s character, but she also learns about Wickham’s, and her own too.