In the middle of the novel, he is still proud and his proposal to Elizabeth clearly demonstrates this. He considers her social inferiority ‘a degradation’ to him and tells her so in his proposal. Here, his pride is presented through his own speech. His use of ‘degradation’ suggests that he feels that he has to lower his dignity and estimation in order to fall in love with her. This shows that he is still proud and snobbish as he proposes as if he is condescending to marry her. Moreover, Elizabeth feels that even though he ‘speaks of apprehension and anxiety’, ‘his countenance expressed real security’. Here, his action and expression demonstrate his pride. The use of ‘real security’ suggests that he feels absolutely positive about her acceptance of his hand as ‘security’ refers to the freedom from anxiety or doubt and well-founded confidence. This shows how proud and conceited he is as Elizabeth has never shown any sign of affection for him throughout their acquaintance. However, his confidence can be justified as in that society, women need to marry well in order to ensure their financial security after the death of their fathers; therefore it is reasonable for Mr Darcy to assume that his wealth would be enough to tempt Elizabeth to marry him.
Mr Darcy is also very caring, especially to his friends and family. In the middle of the novel, this is presented through his action of separating Jane and Mr Bingley. On the surface, it might appear to be an act of snobbery, but Mr Darcy has only done it because of his genuine care towards his friend and his desire to protect Mr Bingley from a bad marriage, as he says, ‘Towards him I have been kinder than towards myself.’ He consider the marriage between Jane and Mr Bingley inappropriate both because of the inferiority of Jane’s social status and his belief that Jane is indifferent to Mr Bingley, which leads to the fear that their marriage will not be a happy one. In the end of the novel, when he realises that he has misjudged Jane’s feelings towards Mr Bingley through his own observation, he ‘made a confession to him’. ‘Confession’ refers to an acknowledgement of one’s fault, which often comes with the wish of making up for the wrongdoing but sometimes attracts blaming. In fact, Mr Bingley is angry at him when he knows what Mr Darcy has done but Mr Darcy does try to make up for it. His action here again proves that Mr Darcy is caring towards Mr Bingley. He is also a caring brother. In the beginning of the novel, we can already see that he often writes long letters to Georgiana. We can infer from their close relationship that he must be caring towards her. However, his care for her is more evident in the middle of the novel when his housekeeper tells Elizabeth and the Gardiners that “whatever can give his sister any pleasure, is sure to be done in a moment.’ The use of ‘whatever’, ‘sure’ and ‘in a moment’ all suggest that Mr Darcy will do absolutely anything to make Georgiana happy without any consideration of the cost or effort needed. His action, along with Mrs Reynolds’ comment on it, proves what a caring brother he is.
In the beginning of the novel, Mr Darcy is proud towards people whose social status are lower than his, even towards Elizabeth whom he loves, however, after Elizabeth’s rejection and her criticism of his manners being not ‘gentlemanlike’, he becomes much more caring towards people he used to look down on. For example, in the middle of the novel, Mr Darcy is friendly towards the Gardiners who are socially inferior to him when he meets them at Pemberley. He even invites Mr Gardiner to fish there ‘with greatest civility’. His action here shows his development from a proud character to a more caring one. However, his care towards the Gardiners might have derived from his care towards Elizabeth. Although he has always been caring towards Elizabeth from the beginning of the novel, especially when he defences her from Miss Bingley’s attacks, it is more prominent towards the end of the novel. When he finds her distressed over the elopement of Lydia and Mr Wickham, he speaks to her ‘in a tone of gentleness and commiseration’. His tone and speech show how caring he is towards her and ‘gentleness’ and ‘commiseration’ suggest that he tries to calm and soothe her while showing sympathy and concern for her. Later, he tries to do everything in his power to help her and her family, which includes meeting, reasoning and bribing Mr Wickham whom he despises in order to make him marry Lydia, a woman whom he disdains. He later admits himself that it is ‘the wish to bring happiness to Elizabeth’ that leads him to do it. This self-sacrificing action demonstrates the level of his care and love towards Elizabeth.
In conclusion, Mr Darcy is presented as a proud character in the first half of the novel but he becomes more and more caring towards the end of the novel. In fact, he has always been caring to his friends and family from the beginning of the novel. His contrasting characters are mainly presented through his actions, speeches and other characters’ comments on him.
