Lizzy and Darcy

Jane Austen sets up quite a different love story between Lizzy and Darcy. Normally a classic love story consists of the two people meeting and instantly falling for each other. However it took a little longer for Lizzy and Darcy to find love for each other. They actually barely tolerated each other when they first met. Austen’s use of a condescending tone sets up this dynamic very well for how this relationship began. When Darcy first notices Elizabeth it says “he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till caching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me…’” (p12) So they start off with Darcy condescending her and Elizabeth being offended by him. It’s not exactly the kindling’s of love.  They’re cold attitude toward each other continues, especially when Elizabeth goes to visit Jane at Netherfield. Elizabeth argued with him and exceedingly tried to offend him by making little jabs at his personality. Austen uses a bit of foreshadowing to set up how Lizzy and Darcy’s relationship will progress. When Lizzy and Darcy were both at Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s, Charlotte said to Lizzy “My dear Eliza, he must be in love with you, or he would never have called on us in this familiar way.”(p153) However Elizabeth declares this impossible for she is too certain of their dislike for each other. This does stem into the irony that Austen uses throughout Pride and Prejudice.  Austen uses irony especially in Lizzy and Darcy’s case. Their whole relationship is ironic because at first they hated each other but they end up falling in love with each other.  From the previous quote, Lizzy couldn’t possibly imagine that Darcy could be in love with her, but then shortly after, he proposed to her.  Once he declared his love for her the book said, “Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression.”(p161) It was very ironic that after she showed him countless times her clear feelings of dislike that he loved her.  Then once Lizzy actually found out the truth about Darcy she fell in love with him, ironically because she thought her dislike of him wouldn’t change. Even when Lizzy told her sister of her and Darcy’s engagement she found it hard to believe “Oh Lizzy! It cannot be. I know how much you dislike him.” (p313) So even her sister found it hard to believe and it was so ironic that Lizzy should end up loving him in the end because in the beginning of their relationship that barely seemed impossible. Through Austen’s use of tone, foreshadowing and irony, the reader sees Lizzy and Darcy’s relationship progress from hardened to dislike to loving each other.