Why do we still fall for Mr Darcy? Women's favourite fictional icon is a dominant patriarchal male - no wonder modern men are confused, writes Cherry Potter
Mr Darcy is women's favourite fictional romantic icon. According to a recent British poll conducted by the Orange Prize for Fiction, 1,900 women across the generations voted for Mr Darcy as the man they would most like to go on a date with. He was also the fictional character women would most like to invite to a dinner party - which strikes me as odd, as surely Mr Darcy would spend the evening either gazing at the ceiling grunting with boredom or glowering at the guests.
Whatever, there are three new fictional Darcys in the movie pipeline. In Bride and Prejudice, a contemporary Bollywood reworking of Jane Austen's classic opening in Dublin next week, proud Mr Darcy has been transformed into an arrogant American tycoon who is rude and condescending towards Lalita (the Elizabeth Bennet character) and her Indian family. Despite his stunning good looks she, of course, loathes and despises him ... until, well, you know the rest.
The Edge of Reason, the Bridget Jones sequel, is due for release in November. The first Bridget Jones movie ended with our feisty, fun- loving eponymous heroine ensconced in her happy-ever-after moment with virtuous, faithful Mark Darcy/Colin Firth.
Apparently, movie pirates have offered $10 million for a perfect digital advance copy - which is either a brilliant publicity stunt, or another sign of the enormous popularity of films with characters called Mr Darcy, particularly if they are also played by Colin Firth. I don't envy Matthew MacFadyen (from the TV series Spooks) who is stepping into Firth's shoes in the latest star-studded feature adaptation, which is being filmed at this very moment.
When Firth starred in Andrew Davies's 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, he became forever identified in the eyes of multitudes of adoring women (probably owing to the scene when he clambered out of the lake after an early morning swim) with the character of a man who may be repressed and difficult but, at the same time, is morally upright and devastatingly sexy.
Of course, Austen's novel betrays nothing of Darcy's actual sexuality or lack of it. Apart from being subject to the obvious restrictions of a female writer in Regency times, she may also have realised that the best sex scenes reside in the secret imagination of her readers. But what she does provide is a perfect blank screen on to which Darcy's admirers, by identifying with Elizabeth Bennet, can project that most archetypal of all female fantasies - that they will be the one and only woman to discover the key to unlocking a man's tortured soul, thus setting free his hidden passions.
It's natural that such a fantasy held sway over women two centuries ago. When society was deeply patriarchal, men like Darcy really were severe, remote and all-powerful - in the novel, Darcy even describes himself as "selfish and overbearing". Women were separated from men by all sorts of formal conventions which left them little opportunity to get to know men until after they were married. The question is, why does Darcy continue to have a compelling hold over women, particularly educated literary feminist women, in the 21st century?
For instance, in response to an Orange prize quest for "watershed novels" which had changed readers' lives, Carole Welch, associate publishing director of Sceptre, chose Pride and Prejudice because "it fanned the flames of my desire to read ... which led to me becoming a publisher". But then she adds the downside: "It encouraged me to fall for moody, charismatic, seemingly unattain- able men, with unfortunately less happy results than for Jane Austen's heroine."
Here is the rub - Austen leaves us to assume that her heroines' marriages are happy despite portraying very few idyllic marriages in the rest of her texts.
Also, Austen's deification as a novelist is such that one hardly dares to point out that when it comes to marriage and what goes on behind the bedroom door, she herself had no first-hand experience. But as modern women with our wealth of relationship experience and all the benefits brought about by feminism, we should know better.
The fact is that dark, smouldering, moody, charismatic, arrogant Darcy types, whom we hate at first sight and then later find ourselves falling in love with, often - particularly after we have married them - turn out to be rigid, dominating and controlling.
What message is this Darcy fixation sending to men? On the one hand, women say they want men who are emotionally intelligent, sensitive, flexible, who enjoy sharing equally and are fun to be with. But these same women are swooning over a fictional character who is the epitome of the dominant patriarchal male. No wonder men are confused.
Far from swooning over the latest Pride and Prejudice adaptation, those of us who have experienced the dark side of the Darcy syndrome should be warning younger women who may be in danger of repeating our mistakes. I'm sure Jane Austen would be cheering us on. - (Guardian Service)
Cherry Potter is the author of Screen Language, I Love You But ... and Seven Decades of Romantic Comedy