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.
Pride and Prejudice become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and paved the way for many archetypes that abound in modern literature. For more than a century, amateur and professional dramatic adaptations, print continuations and sequels, and film and TV versions of "Pride and Prejudice" have reimagined the original novel's memorable characters and themes to reach mass audiences. The 2005 film "Pride & Prejudice", starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, is the most recent Hollywood adaptation of the book. The novel opens with Mrs. Bennet trying to persuade Mr. Bennet to visit Mr. Bingley,