Wei, P: Who Makes the Ideal Man ?

Who Makes the Ideal Man? puropses to examine Mr.Darcy's masculinity in the novel and movie adaptations. Mr. Darcy is one of the most well known and popular characters in Jane Austen's novels and the history of English literature, and his masculinity is further admired by readers and audiences. This book aims to present a study on the transformation of Darcy's masculinity from the novel to movies. I begin this book with a study on Pride and Prejudice and the background of Eighteenth Century. In the Eighteenth Century, Mr. Darcy represents the female writer's view point on the ideal masculinity. I later examine the 1940 Pride and Prejudice movie adaptation, in which Mr. Darcy becomes an American romantic comedy hero. Later in the 1995 and 2005 adaptations, the representation of Mr. Darcy is further influenced by feminism, and in the two movies the hero's masculinity is constructed by his demonstration of his body and female gaze. Also he becomes a family man in these movies. As a whole, masculinity is not a simple idea, for its construction is deeply connected to its social context and femininity.