Mr. Darcy Loves You Just The Way You Are

I can’t help but love the stories of the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen.  There is something about the way the characters and stories unfold that has captured my attention since I was a young woman.   I seem to live in a world where everything goes so fast; therefore, a fictional story about a relationship developing over months, years and decades has become the greatest of fantasies.  Heathcliff and his obsession, Mr. Rochester and his dark secret, and Mr. Darcy and his pompous ways, in my mind, rival even the smokiest of modern men.  That also goes for the men that play them: Ralph Fiennes (Wuthering Heights), Colin Firth (Pride & Prejudice), and the most recent Michael Fassbender (Jane Eyre and also starring in X-Men First Class).  It’s not that any of these actors are particularly hot, but the intensity of their performances are sure to make any female swoon.  I know I’m not the only one.  The stories have been retold in countless ways, the very hilarious Bridget Jones’s Diary I & II, for example. 

Not only are the men of these stories amazing, but so are the women.  They have their faults, jump to conclusions, and err like the best of us.  However, they are also often quick witted, clever tongued, and cleverer written.  They are incorrigible and seen that way by their male counterparts, but somehow the men always seem to come around and desire what they at first disliked.  They realize that in fact these women embody everything that they want, a smart, outspoken, independent human being who doesn’t blend into the wood work.  That ladies and gentlemen is the sexiest of all characteristics- a man who actually wants you for exactly who you are.  In the end of these classic tales, these men would bend over backward and walk through fire in order to keep their lady loves from changing.  And isn’t that what everyone hopes for?  Someone who loves you “just the way you are?”  Not only do these men love them for who they are, but the women wouldn’t have it any other way.  They demand that the men they settle down with love them for who they are or take a hike, and in the end, this is what makes the union that much more special. 

I know I’m not the only woman who loves these books and characters.  I also know that life doesn’t work out like a novel (though at times I wish it did), but I think there is a great lesson in these characters and stories to be learned.  One doesn’t really have to change in order to be with the person one loves, because as long as you have the other person’s best interests at heart, then being yourself is enough.   Also- the very common, don’t judge a book by its cover and that honesty (as long as it’s polite) is the best policy.  You are enough because you are what you have to give and if anyone tells you different, crush on their arch nemesis, escape to the countryside and become a school teacher, or marry someone else and then haunt them after you die... or you could just move on.