“I hate Darcy.”

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

He’s handsome and rich, and full of pride. She’s intelligent and not rich, and full of prejudice. Much misunderstandings follow before they unite in matrimony. The man is Fitzwilliam Darcy. The woman is… oh well, first meet another woman. She says, “I hate Darcy.” Gulnaaz is a Delhi University (DU) student.

Dear readers, we may not harbour such intense sentiments for this Darcy, but he certainly is more intimate to thousands of DU students. Darcy happens to be the hero of Pride and Prejudice. The novel is in the university’s first-year English Literature curriculum. It was written by the great Jane Austen of England—the coming December marks her 250th birth anniversary. Literature scholar Gulnaaz is drawn to the book not only for the sake of getting good grades, but also due to a genuine love for Jane Austen’s smart, witty writing. Her feelings for Darcy are more complicated.

“Hating Darcy is a part of my journey to understand him,” Gulnaaz explains in a lively and playful disposition. “I see Darcy not as a hero, but as a confused and proud young man, he gains my love only later in the book.”

These could as well be the sentiments of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel’s aforementioned heroine, who too initially dislikes Darcy, before letting him gain her love. Gulnaaz now makes a confession: “I love to say I hate Darcy only to honour Jane Austen, who wanted her reader to be initially prejudiced against her hero, before the reader is obliged to change those feelings.”

Gulnaaz in fact has ended up so fascinated by Darcy that she has written a poem on her understanding of Darcy’s approach to love. This afternoon, she reads it aloud, sitting in her college classroom with fellow Jane Austen fans. Gulnaaz agrees to share the poem with the rest of us.

What Pride Hides

I spoke a little, and way too late.
The words I chose were made of stone –
they were meant to protect what I would not show,
they built a wall instead.
I watched her –
sharp like the light of morning –
burning away the fog
I was living in.
She saw through pride,
and that scared me more
than ever would.
I thought love was quiet,
a private war between the head and the heart –
but hers was wind, alive and true,
and mine, a storm afraid to begin.
I knew from her eyes
there was no judgment, just truth –
a mirror I ever wanted to see,
but needed to see nonetheless.
Now I know –
pride is just fear
in a better coat.
And love –
it humbles the proud,
and redeems the blind.

PS: Photo shows Aviral, Hridyani, Manya, Fahad, Tanushree, and Gulnaaz