Julia Slaughter

Posts Tagged ‘Cassandra Clare’

I am in a book club, we’re a small group, there are just three of us but we all share a love for books. I like the way we talk about books, as a group we aren’t into dissecting the writing or the grammar but we like to talk about the characters and the stories focusing on what we liked rather than what we didn’t like.

Mr.Fitzwilliam Darcy

Last month I got to pick and selected Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, so I suppose it’s inevitable that the conversations turned to Jace. I was fascinated and intrigued to see that my friends were cheering for Jace and Clary, just the way I was. As the discussion went on and on somehow comparisons were made from Jace to Jane Austen’s Mr.Darcy and my friend Lisa wanted to know what it is about men like Jace and Mr.Darcy that makes women like them so much. I have contemplated Lisa’s question for days because frankly of our triumvirate, I am the one with the most dating experience and I have come to this conclusion – Mr.Darcy has gotten a bad rap.

I admit that Mr.Darcy is a bit of clod, but I don’t really think he’s quite the literary bad boy that he’s made out to be. His time was a time when there was a very definite class system in place, a class system that people lived and died by. I mean really think of all the drama that surrounded Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles and that was in 1990’s, Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the 1800’s.

Here we have a man who takes honor and responsibility very seriously, and when he meets our heroine he is practically engaged to someone suitable who was picked out by his family. (Well actually his future wife IS family, a cousin which was a pretty common place event for that time period as well.) He’s in the company of a friend he is dearly devoted to who is kind and very easily influenced by the people around him, and who Mr.Darcy clearly feels like he has to look out for. Can we really blame him for not immediately recognizing the finer points of our Miss Bennet?

Okay, so Mr.Darcy rises above all of his preconceived notions and falls for Miss Bennet and she, rightfully, crucifies him for being such a clod. Now any other man in the face of the telling off that he gets, would slink off with his tail in between his legs and never be seen my any Bennet or friend of Bennet again. However, our honorable and noble Mr.Darcy doesn’t fuss or fight, but he sets about making things right. (I could also point out that Miss Bennet wasn’t entirely right in all of her accusations but Mr.Darcy doesn’t quibble over these things he is a man of action.) So really, how does any of this translate to him being a bad boy? Clod, absolutely, but not a bad boy.

Jace, who I absolutely adore is a bad boy. He is sneering and rude to Clary when he meets her. He’s later seen canoodling with some pixie chick, and rumor has it he’s done alot more than canoodling. He is a fierce warrior with a ton of redeeming qualities but really can you trust him with your heart? I’m not so sure.

So Jace, beautiful and redeemable but bad boy; Mr.Darcy beautiful, akward, but merely a bit of a clod and really how can you not love someone like that?