#13

  "The fact is that you were sick of civility, of deference,of officious attention.  You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking and thinking for your approbation alone.  I aroused and interested you, because I was so unlike them.  Had you not been really amiable you would have hated me for it; but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your heart, you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you" (Austen 319)
        Elizabeth and Darcy's courtship is an unconventional, there love and engagement are unconventional.  Unlike other relationships in the novel their relationship subsists against the gender roles of the day.  During their courtship it was Darcy who worked for the attentions and approbation of Elizabeth.  Elizabeth did the exact opposite of what women of her day usually did, she acted impertinently towards her potential suitor.  Their love did not come with celerity.  Rather it was a gradual process.  But this impertinence and hard work was good.  It was Elizabeth's lack of regard for Darcy and her true intellectualism that attracted Darcy in the first place.  Her failure to fawn over Darcy and chase him, as other women did, resulted in equality between the two.  This egalitarian match looks to be the best and begets the most felicity of all the other marriages in the novel.  Austen chooses a modern view in her characterization of Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship.  Through the character of Darcy and Elizabeth's marriage, Austen argues for a marriage to truly create happiness there must be both love and equality between partners.  Both parties must overcome obstacles and come together on an equal plain, in the end love and happiness are the only consequence.