Mr. Darcy Elizabeth's love. Morgan wrote that the gratitude that Austen meant for Elizabeth to feel for Darcy "...is a gratitude that, despite all the obstacles which realism can provide, despite time, conventions, and misunderstanding, despite her wrongs and his own limitations, Mr. Darcy can see Elizabeth honestly and can love her as well." One critic, Wilbur Cross, wrote at first Darcy displays outrageous arrogance to Elizabeth, but the novel ends with an "almost pitiable humiliation of Darcy", which was a testament to the power of women to tame men. The character of Fitzwilliam Darcy has appeared in and inspired numerous works.
Mr. Darcy for people of Meryton, this proves his social superiority as his "London manners" are described variously in the novel as "fashionable" and "elegant". Irvine argued that the union of Elizabeth and Darcy at the end of the novel was meant by Austen as a symbol of the union of the national and regional elites in England, forging together a united nation. One scholar Rachel Brownstein noted of all the Austen romances that of Darcy and Elizabeth is the only one where the couple began as complete strangers at the beginning of the book, making "Pride and Prejudice" the most romantic