Fitzwilliam Darcy is the central character of the novels. A proud, wealthy yet reserved and formal man, the novels focus primary on his developing yet conflicted feelings towards Elizabeth Bennet and his various attempts to either forget her or secure her affections. His romantic dilemma covers a larger struggle between his instilled ideas of acceptable behavior and his true decency of character. Away from his interaction with the Bennets, Darcy is depicted as intelligent and industrious. He willingly attends to his affairs both in London and Derbyshire and sets out to educate Charles Bingley in the management of country estates. His London interests include the shipping of cargo through the docks. At Cambridge Darcy competed with his friend Dyfed Brougham for prizes in mathematics. Darcy was also a champion swordsman at Cambridge, a fact which plays a major role in the second novel.