Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley?


or

I am going to say a very unLizzie-ish thing. Actually it will almost put me as a traitor! But never fear, not a traitor to Jane Austin.

I have been sick the past few days, and as one usually does when they are sick, I did nothing. Nothing except to watch movies and ponder life. Now in pondering movies, books, and life over the past few days, I must confess my traitorous feelings. If given the choice between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley (from Emma, in case you are not an avid Austin reader), I would pick *gasp* Mr. Knightley! I'm sorry Mr. Darcy, but Mr. Knightley has a lot of things going for him that you do not. For instance: Mr Darcy couldn't stand Lizzie's family, and wanted to live as far away from them as possible, and they hardly ever came to visit, (except for Jane and Mr. Bingley). Mr Knightley told Emma that he would live in her father's house if he could not bear to be parted from his daughter. Quite the sacrifice of independence. Mr Darcy had, shall we say, difficulties in admitting his faults (which were pride, arrogance, and as he did admit; his good opinion once lost was lost forever). Mr Knightley laid all his faults out right before Emma, he had humbled her, lectured her, etc, etc. Not to mention, Mr. Knightley never told Emma that he liked her against his better judgment. Now, Mr. Darcy did call that one back, but once said, it is hard to forget. To their credit, they were both good dancers. (Mr. Darcy is the one shown dancing with Lizzie, whist Mr. Knightley is the one pictured with Emma at the archery range in his "backyard", or shall we say "extensive grounds"). Mr Darcy DID own half of Darbyshire (not the miserable half), and did make up for all his shortcomings quite eloquently by redeeming Elizabeth's fallen sister Lydia and by forcing the rake Mr. Wickham to marry said fallen sister, and also by reuniting Jane with Mr. Bingley, but I think he must have been feeling an awful lot of guilt after finding out what a mistake he had made by trying to woo Lizzie by telling her that he liked her against his better judgment. Mr Knightley was Emma's friend for years and years, and it seemed only natural that their state of friendship move into the next phase, which of course was marriage. And Mr. Knightley was holding back because he thought she cared for Frank Churchill, who was secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax all along! The cad! How could he have led Emma on like that while engaged to another? But I digress.

Those are just the ponderings of a sick Lizzie, thought up between hacking coughs. Good thing my fish at work is named Mr. Knightley. Oh no! I hope he's still well after I've abandoned him to starvation! I'm sure he's being taken care of though, either that or he's on a hunger strike.

Lizzie's Favorites:
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Still trying to get through "Severe Mercy". There's a lot of poetry and wandering thoughts in that book.
Lizzie's Favorite Music: Still the Shuffle button on my iPod.
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Well, let's see, what have I watched in the past few days... "Gone With the Wind" (now there was a foolish couple!), "Emma" of course, portions of Harry Potter #2 and #4, some "Little House on the Prairie" episodes, and "End of the Spear". That about sums it up I'd say.

Lizzie's quote of the post:
Sorry, I can't think of one, except for: "You can be thunder, because Thunder comes after Lightning! Ka-Chow!"
-Lightning McQueen from "Cars"

18 comments:

Lady Fair said...

LOL!!! Well said. This is the best post ever. I would marry Mr. Knightley too, if I had to choose. But I have to admit, Mr. Darcy is more tall, dark, and handsome. :oP

Guess what I did tonight. I was famished after a long day at work as I forgot to get a sandwich from the country store while it was open. So of course, without thought, I headed over to Potbelly's before it closed and got a Wreck. They guy tried to pull one over on me and told me they ran out of sandwiches. He kept such a straight face that I wasn't sure if he was lying or telling the truth. I was looking at the bread and was positive that he was joking, but he kept such a straight face for such a long time I really wasn't sure. It turned out he was joking and I told him this really was not a good day to do that to me...

Anyway. I was waiting while he made my sandwich and was thinking how cool the shirts were. So I asked him if they sell their shirts. He said they did. So guess what! I bought two! They're so cool! No one else has a potbelly's shirt(except for their employees). And they gave me free cookies because it was the end of the night. Super sweet.
I know that both you and Rob especially will laugh at me for all of eternity. But who cares. I have a potbelly's shirt. :o)

It made up for the fact that my loverly place of employment decided to throw us a fire drill right as Josie and I were ready to go home. Not a nice thing to do to us when we've been working for 14 hrs straight.

I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

p.s. you should get a potbelly's shirt too, and then we can start a trend!! :oP

Halfmom said...

1. You two are a trend already
2. I think you should both go and flirt with the cute ones at Potbellies because clearly they are inclined to flirting with you
3. I'm afraid I would choose the petulant and poorly mannered, melancholy one - although I must admit that even with all those personality qualities, I would prefer that he was blond and blue.

Anonymous said...

I hate to be a man...but I am. I have tried to tell Lizzie this but she insists I am wrong. But here goes: Both characters (Knightly and Darcy) are ficticious characters created by women. As something of a writer, I can tell you that when I write up a woman for one of my male protagonists I make her amazing. Now, a part of me says that a woman like that is out there, waiting in some form or another. But the other part of me (the part that has lived life) says that the ideal woman does not exist. Why? Because while Mister Darcy was wrong about pretty much everything in the beginning, he eventually realized that Lizzie was right about everything (cue happy end). And while Mister Knightly rebuked Emma on her shortcomings, he never rebuked her on things where she was right, or on silly things...you know...like real people do.

342

Anonymous said...

The ideal is only realized in God

Lizzie Bennett said...

I never said I was looking for either Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley. I was merely saying that if I was a Jane Austin character, I'd prefer to be Emma and marry Mr. Knightley instead of being Lizzie and marrying Mr. Darcy. I was talking about those two particular characters, not people who are like them (they don't exist except in fiction-land)

Anonymous said...

I wanna go to fiction land. They got dagrons there.

Anonymous said...

I wanna go to fiction land. They got dagrons there.

Lady Fair said...

What are dagrons?

Lady Fair said...

Cars is such a great movie, by the way.

Amber said...

You can rest assured. I'll be at work tomorrow. *sigh*

Lady Fair said...

My dear Lizzy, I have been waiting for an update(complete with a picture of your dress) with bated breath and I'm starting to suffocate...

Halfmom said...

Ahk, Ugh, cough, sputter, gag - suffocating with the fair lady

Anonymous said...

I am just website bouncing and I came across this. I just watched the other version of Emma the other night, the one with Kate Beckinsale. Anyway, I am writing because you posted a pic of that horrid looking fellow from the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice. Frankly, he is an appauling image of Mr. Darcy. Colin Firth plays a much better Mr. Darcy in the Jennifer Ehle version. It's most confusing with all of these versions but then Ms. Austen deserves to be interpreted in different ways. Don't you think? Did Eliza Bennett not go over facts and situations in her head repeatedly.
All that being said, I wish you well.
- Mary Z. (New Jersey, USA)

debibo said...

i randomly chanced on this but i have to say... i loooove this post. love love love love.

and as much as i am attracted and piqued by curiousity about the mystery that shrouds mr darcy, my vote goes to mr. knightley :)

he shows considerably more angst required and expected of someone who might have possibly let his lady love slip through his fingers.

Anonymous said...

Mr Knightley is hot stuff!!
But then there's Colin the Firth as Mr Darcy, and I'm right back to where I began.

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Jasmine:) said...

I LOOVE them both<3
but I shall hopefully decide once and for all after I actually read Emma, as I have only seen the 2009 BBC series, yesterday.
I read Pride & Prejudice and watched the 1995 BBC series (those BBC series are the absolute best so far), and fell in love with Mr. Darcy. ..especially as Colin Firth. Personally, I strongly disliked the 2005 version; even if it was more modern and artistic, it seemed to lack the true soul of the story and for the most part, messed it up for me... unfortunately. :/
Anyways, watching the BBC Emma made me think about Mr. Knightley, so I surfed the web....hehe. Now I am off to read the novel; yay for Jane Austen movies and books :)!!

Ivy Clad said...

I just happened upon this post by googling "Mr. Darcy vs. Mr. Knightley", & I love it! So very entertaining! In the last two weeks I have watched Pride & Prejudice thrice, read it through once & watched Emma twice. I have tossed the Knightley vs. Darcy question over a number of times, & I think I'm with you on Knightley (despite all of Darcy's (sometime) charm). However, that's in my fantasy world. Real life is a completely different story-- a good one, just different. :-). Great post!!!

-Keri