Mr. Darcy - Gothic Hero in the Sitting Room

“What superpower do you have?” asks The Flash.

“I’m rich,” said Batman

A dark and brooding gentleman, powerful, wealthy, disdains most people and opens up to very few, has been long recognised as the quintessential gothic romantic hero. There are many iterations of this hero in our stories. There are many qualities in a man that can make him worthy of esteem, admiration, even care, but there are a very distinct set of qualities in a man that make a young woman silenced in awe, that confuse her about who she is and what she wants to be, that makes her crazy. Mr. Darcy, despite not battling dragons or fighting formidable foes, despite the majority of his story being told on country strolls or in sitting rooms, is nevertheless a strangely popular and widely adored romantic hero. Darcy is tall, dark, rich and doesn’t simp. But is that all? What is it that makes this hero and this love story so enduring?