#darcy family

[curiousb]

The Darcy Family Album: Volume X

Still with the Darcys today (I had a lot of catching up to do with them), and it's time for a birthday get-together!

Eliza has invited her sister Martha, who has brought her sometime-boyfriend James with her. No one invited Grace the Stroppy Stray - she just showed up of her own accord.

That greeting kiss seems to have sealed the deal for James!

Grandma Mary is also here, eschewing her reclusive lifestyle for once.

Thanks to granddad Fitzwilliam's dedication to the cause - despite his creaking back - Agnes masters walking, just in time!

Aunt Georgiana is also here, and bizarrely, James has decided that she is the girl for him too! (Although they do have a history.)

While he reflects rather soberly on the unexpected turns that his love life has taken within the space of only an hour, his two paramours (not forgetting Olivia and Henrietta too) settle down together for a friendly game of chess.

Frankly, it's all a bit of a relief when the time comes to blow out some candles!

Younger twin Agnes actually goes first.

~ Scorpio 8 / 5 / 10 / 1 / 2

~ Adventurous / Grumpy / No Sense of Humour

~ OTH: Games

~ Favourite Colour(s): Lilac

And then Lewis is up.

~ Scorpio 10 / 5 / 4 / 2 / 7

~ Bookworm / Perfectionist / No Sense of Humour

~ OTH: Science

~ Favourite Colour(s): Olive Green Well, it seems that one of the few things they share - other than a birthday - is a humourless disposition!

Isabel would like everyone to know that she is there too!

Some angry washing up from Lewis.

Beat it, kid.

So he does - and goes to play with his little sister.

Knowing that her grandma is some kind of alienologist, Agnes is keen to find out whether they really have ray guns?

No, Georgiana! I'm with Martha - not best pleased at all with this romantic development! (Although how she can see what's going on from around a corner, I do not know.)

[doodleynan]

obsessed with this weird family

[kifkay]

Winx memes once again

[anghraine]

Speaking of the social context of P&P and Austen in general, and also just literature of that era, I'm always interested in how things like precisely formulated hierarchies of precedence and tables of ranked social classes interact with the more complex and nuanced details of class-based status and consequence on a pragmatic day-to-day level. I remembered reading a social historian discussing the pragmatics of class wrt eighteenth-century English life many years ago and finally tracked down the source:

"In spite of the number of people who got their living from manufacture or trade, fundamentally it was a society in which the ownership of land alone conveyed social prestige and full political rights. ... The apex of this society was the nobility. In the eyes of the Law only members of the House of Lords, the peerage in the strictest use of the word, were a class apart, enjoying special privileges and composing one of the estates of the realm. Their families were commoners: even the eldest sons of peers could sit in the House of Commons. It was therefore in the social rather than in the legal sense of the word that English society was a class society. Before the law all English people except the peers were in theory equal. Legal concept and social practice were, however, very different. When men spoke of the nobility, they meant the sons and daughters, the brothers and sisters, the uncles and aunts and cousins of the peers. They were an extremely influential and wealthy group.

"The peers and their near relations almost monopolized high political office. From these great families came the wealthiest Church dignitaries, the higher ranks in the army and navy. Many of them found a career in law; some even did not disdain the money to be made in trade. What gave this class its particular importance in the political life of the day was the way in which it was organized on a basis of family and connection ... in eighteenth-century politics men rarely acted as isolated individuals. A man came into Parliament supported by his friends and relations who expected, in return for this support, that he would further their interests to the extent of his parliamentary influence.

"Next in both political and social importance came the gentry. Again it is not easy to define exactly who were covered by this term. The Law knew nothing of gentle birth but Society recognized it. Like the nobility this group too was as a class closely connected with land. Indeed, the border line between the two classes is at times almost impossible to define ... Often these men are described as the squirearchy, this term being used to cover the major landowning families in every county who were not connected by birth with the aristocracy. Between them and the local nobility there was often considerable jealousy. The country gentleman considered himself well qualified to manage the affairs of his county without aristocratic interference.

"...The next great layer in society is perhaps best described the contemporary term 'the Middling Sort'. As with all eighteenth-century groups it is difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between them and their social superiors and inferiors. No economic line is possible, for a man with no pretensions to gentility might well be more prosperous than many a small squire. There was even on the fringe between the two classes some overlapping of activities ... The ambitious upstart who bought an estate and spent his income as a gentleman, might be either cold-shouldered by his better-born neighbours or treated by them with a certain contemptuous politeness. If however his daughters were presentable and well dowered, and if his sons received the education considered suitable for gentlemen, the next generation would see the obliteration of whatever distinction still remained. The solid mass of the middling sort had however no such aspirations, or considered them beyond their reach.

"...This term [the poor] was widely used to designate the great mass of the manual workers. Within their ranks differences of income and of outlook were as varied as those that characterized the middle class. Once again the line of demarcation is hard to draw..."

—Dorothy Marshall, Eighteenth Century England (29-34)

(There's plenty more interesting information in the full chapter, especially regarding "the poor," and the chapter itself is contracted from a lengthier version published earlier.)

[octobertomarch]

I believe this crossover fanart is long overdue. Should have done this sooner. Because it's hard to touch on Pride and Prejudice without talking about the legendary hand flex scene from the 2005 movie adaptation 😂🤣

And I'll be more than happy if Endo sensei also pulls off a hand flex panel for our dear Loid 🤩😍😍

ps.: yea the hands were rushed. I still cannot hands 😭😭😭

[green-mochi-blog]

When we talk about Pride and Prejudice we always discuss the change and the work Darcy did on himself, which is fine, because it was a major change and for good, which helped him be a better person

But we never talk about the change Elizabeth had to make, and not just in herself, but in her whole fucking family!

That woman had to hear from the mouth of the person she hated the most that her family was ridiculous and the cause of her dearest sister's misfortunes and sadness, and she didn't want to believe it. All to return home and realize that Darcy was right, her family was a mess!

Lydia was a derailed, shameless child with no sense of responsibility, and Kitty, despite being older, was following in her footsteps

Mary, despite all the hours she put into her studies, had no sense of selfawareness and no common sense, which made her embarrassing at social events.

The mother was vain, gossipy, ignorant and impertinent, and more likely she used to be just like Lydia in her youth. Probably the reason why she encouraged such behavior.

And the father, the one person Lizzy adored so much, was not only aware of all these shortcomings, he allowed them and even entertained himself with the ridiculousness of his wife and daughters, without bothering to correct them or set limits, something that he found annoying and uncomfortable.

And Lizzy would have been well on her way to becoming just like him if it weren't for Darcy's criticism.

Lizzy understood that any chance of fortune and happiness in the future for her or her sisters would be undermined by her own family.

They had already done it with Jane, and would continue to do so if Lizzy did nothing about it, so not only did she have to correct her own behavior, she also had to make an attempt to correct that of her family, which was nearly impossible for her without the support of her father and Jane, and unable to reveal what she knew from Darcy

[picasso22]

🥰

[thoumpingground]

So when Darcy went to fix the Lydia/Wickham situation, he first tried to get Lydia to return home, only bribing Wickham into marrying her when she wouldn't. This is sensible by modern standards, but we know from everyone else's reactions Lydia *failing* marrying Wickham would bring the Bennet family shame. Darcy knows this, and doubt he planned to leave the situation as is. So how did he originally plan to fix it?

I think Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy was gonna channel his inner Emma Woodhouse (didn't have to dig far, they're very similar people) and play matchmaker. In my headcannon Darcy checked his "Possible Husbands for Georgie" list against his "People who owe me Gargantuan favours" list and offer whoever came up money to marry Lydia.

Now, he would want to spare the Bennets of as much of the scandal as possible, and wouldn't want to take the merit in front of Lizzie, so all would most likely happen discreetly through Mr. Gardiner, while Lydia was in London, and she would move to her husbands immediatly after.

However, I wanna propose a different scenario: Lydia returns to Meryton. Scandal ensues, the Bennets are disgraced. Then, within two weeks, a random well-off man shows up intent on courting Lydia and *only* Lydia. He heeds nobodys warnings and gives no explanations. Lydia loves it. Every other mum in Meryton is furious. The Bennets are confused and paranoid. Imagine the drama. The intrige. The million questions still unawnsered long after Lydia eventually gets married and leaves. Bingley marries Jane (cause of course Darcy still told him he'd been wrong to pull them apart, and Bingley would) and Darcy's still somewhat around. Maybe him and Lizzie get together, maybe not, but every time the topic comes up he gets all sheepish and awkward and she gets suspicious and it's a thing. It's their new dynamic.

[bairdthereader]

Darcy's argument with her mom is one of the most painful scenes to watch. In the comics, we never really see this conflict firsthand, only bits of it, in retrospect through spoken dialog. On screen, it's visceral and intense and all too relatable for many of us. The animated purple smoke overlay, the muffled voices, the melancholy music, Darcy's clear anticipatory dread of this confrontation . . . all combine to show us just how toxic and horribly constant these interactions are for her.

But there's this glimmer of hope buried in all of that harsh brokenness. When Darcy fights back against her mom's abuse, the weapon she chooses is an incredibly powerful one: her friendships. "They will not laugh. My friends are supportive; my friends like me."

It's easy to miss the fact that Nick isn't the only one being welcomed into Charlie's expanding friend group, and Elle isn't the only one finding her place with new people--Darcy is, too. Of course she has Tara to lean on, but as Alice and the Heartstopper story so brilliantly and tenderly show, sometimes people need more help and support than one person can give, no matter how much that person loves them.

Darcy is developing bonds with people who accept her as she is, maybe for the first time, after years of repression and rejection at home. These new friends effortlessly welcome the self-proclaimed "disaster," the girl who makes everything into a joke, the girl who hides half her life, the girl who loves so deeply but finds it impossible to believe that anyone would love her in return.

Those friendships, the support Darcy knows she can count on from them, give her both the courage to fight and the truth to speak to the battle. She can say--and truly believe--that even if her parents refuse to see her beauty and uniqueness and unabashed, stunning exuberance, her friends do. They see her, and know her, and she can protect herself with that knowledge. They give her the strength she needs to rescue herself.

Yet another diamond-brilliant facet of this show, this story, repeatedly demonstrating that true friendship is vital and lifesaving.

[divaatrait]

Why does it look she realized she's in a simulation? 😭😭

Side note: her face card is unbeatable!

[ackergarden]

these assassins are absolutely legendary

and so are these spies!

[curiousb]

The Darcy Family Album: Volume XIV

It's a golden autumn, so there's still plenty of chance to play outside, on a trip to the park.

Although the girls spend most of their time gossiping together.

And look who else is here this afternoon - it's Dolly!

It should probably come as no surprise that Lewis forms an immediate bond with her.

And that he persuades his grandma to welcome her into the family. Her days of roaming the neighbourhood are over!

It's probably good that Lewis has acquired a new feline friend, as his sisters increasingly gang up against him; with her meagre 2 Grouchy/Nice points and dominant personality, it's invariably Agnes who takes the lead. 😟

As the weather becomes cooler, the days of childhood are finally behind the twins.

Agnes's teen stats:

~ Scorpio 8 / 5 / 10 / 1 / 2

~ Adventurous / Grumpy / No Sense of Humour / Computer Whiz

~ OTH: Games

~ Favourite Colour(s): Lilac

~ Aspiration: Fortune / Knowledge

~ Turn-ons / -off: +Adventurous / +Serious / -Daydreamer

Lewis's teen stats:

~ Scorpio 10 / 5 / 4 / 2 / 7

~ Bookworm / Perfectionist / No Sense of Humour / Genius

~ OTH: Science

~ Favourite Colour(s): Olive Green

~ Aspiration: Knowledge / Fortune

~ Turn-ons / -off: +Alien / +Intellectual / -Laid Back

Agnes's speciality is chess, but even she struggles to beat her Genius brother...

...unless she cheats.

Lewis himself is discovering whole new worlds beyond this one, with his birthday gift - a top-of-the-range telescope.

And finding a willing confidant in his grandfather Fitzwilliam, who knows all too well what it's like to feel awkward in company, and reassures him that it's just a case of finding 'his' people.

[julissart]

Finally finishing with my #ninefanartchallenge featuring iconic couples from media 🤗💖

Después de varios días finalmente pude concretar estos dibujos, espero les guste mucho

For you, which would be your favorite iconic couple? 🤩

Ko-Fi

[firawren]

Caroline Bingley, Louisa Hurst, and Mr. Darcy watching Mary Bennet sing at the Netherfield ball:

[anghraine]

It's a very little bit funny that I used to be mildly notorious in my corner of Austen fandom for disliking Colonel Fitzwilliam, who at the time was extremely idealized in those fandom spaces, particularly by contrast with Darcy having things like "flaws" and "character growth."

I still don't like Colonel Fitzwilliam as this perfect ideal apart from maybe some extremely minor, defensible faults because he's human after all, someone who would have been exactly suited to Elizabeth really and did love her but truly is too poor to choose her (alas!) and totally is handsome, to boot.

But I do like Colonel Fitzwilliam as a man who is fundamentally decent, good-natured, intelligent, and strong-willed, but with a fundamentally aristocratic perception of himself and the world. I like that he's willing to tease and criticize Darcy as part of flirting with a pretty girl, but leaps to Darcy's and Georgiana's defense when he thinks it's important. I think it's interesting that it would be so easy for him to resent Darcy, and instead they seem to be genuine bffs with healthy respect for each other (likely for a very long time given their blood relationship and close ages) as well as co-guardians and amicable relatives.

Darcy is not a man prone to overstatement, so his description of his relationship with Colonel Fitzwilliam as one of "constant intimacy" is really intriguing to me—far more than Fitzwilliam's casual and rather shallow and self-interested flirtation with Elizabeth, tbh. It's doubly interesting because Fitzwilliam seems to only sort of know the Bingleys, and while he approves of Bingley, my impression is that he knows the whole family through Darcy rather than as general social acquaintances. We never see the Bingleys and Fitzwilliam in the same social settings, even ones where they might credibly interact like Pemberley, and Fitzwilliam makes a point of clarifying to Elizabeth that he only slightly knows Bingley's sisters. There are all these gradations to how Darcy interacts with both social sets, his mentorship-type friendship with Bingley and his intimacy with his cousin, that I don't think a simple consultation of the table of precedence fully explains.

I do find Colonel Fitzwilliam deeply boring when he's reduced to Darcy's rival for Elizabeth's affection despite never having any serious interest in Elizabeth—the kind of "so there, Darcy" vibe that underpins Fitzwilliam-as-rival is meh given their own relationship. But for such a minor character, there is genuinely quite a bit going on, I think.

[sailforvalinor]

People calling Fanny Price weak and passive as if every other Austen protagonist (yep, even Lizzie, maybe even especially Lizzie) wouldn’t have crumpled under the pressure in her circumstances is absolutely hilarious