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Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a fictional character and one of two protagonists in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. He is an archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's other protagonist.

In the novel, Darcy is a wealthy gentleman with an income of at least £10,000 a year, and the owner of Pemberley, a large estate in Derbyshire, England. When his friend, Mr. Bingley, begins courting Elizabeth Bennet's older sister, Jane, Darcy disapproves of the relationship and convinces Mr. Bingley that Jane does not care about him. However, Mr. Darcy - having previously slighted Elizabeth at their first meeting which, as well as his interference in Mr. Bingley and Jane's relationship, has caused her to dislike him intensely - eventually becomes attracted to her, and begins to court her while struggling against his continued feelings of superiority. When she turns down his first proposal of marriage, however, he goes out of his way to demonstrate his devotion to her by tempering his pride, reevaluating his feelings on the relationship between Bingley and Jane, and saving Elizabeth's youngest sister Lydia from disgrace at the hands of his bitter enemy, George Wickham: after they have run away together, Darcy convinces him to marry her. Darcy's second proposal to Elizabeth, against the express wishes of his Aunt Lady Catherine, completes the novel's climax; she accepts him, much to the delight of her mother, and the novel concludes with her becoming Mrs. Darcy.

Darcy is depicted within the novel as a seemingly cold and aloof man with a large sense of personal pride that frequently expresses itself as arrogance. His apparently distant manner and contempt for those around him leads to his becoming the focus of the disdain of both Elizabeth and many of the other characters over the course of the narrative, particularly in light of the claims of George Wickham, who claims that Darcy has wronged him in the past and who, because of his approachable and charming nature, is automatically given the benefit of the doubt over Darcy. It is eventually revealed, however, that these first impressions are erroneous, as Darcy's seemingly arrogant character masks a sincerely generous, compassionate and loving nature, and that it was in fact he who was wronged by Wickham, whose own character is revealed to be untrustworthy and duplicitous. Even such matters as his interference in the relationship between Jane and Bingley are presented and re-interpreted as being motivated by genuine concern for the feelings of his friend rather than out of malicious intent.

• Laurence Olivier portrayed Darcy in the classic 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice.
• Colin Firth portrayed Darcy in the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Firth's portrayal of Darcy inspired Helen Fielding to create the character Mark Darcy in her novels Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Firth then played Mark Darcy in the films based on Fielding's novels.
• Martin Henderson portrayed Will Darcy in the 2005 film Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
• Matthew Macfadyen portrayed Darcy in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice.

Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet in the Pride and Prejudice (1940 film) adaptation. This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after Tuesday, 13 November 2007.

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• Mr. Darcy recently topped a survey in the United Kingdom of fictional characters with whom most women would like to go on a date, beating such creations as James Bond and Superman (BBC News).
• Both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet feature as part of science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer's 'Wold Newton family' concept, which links numerous fictional characters (such as Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes) together via an interconnected family tree of people and events. According to Farmer's works, both were recipients of radiation resulting from a meteorite that struck Wold Newton in Yorkshire in the 1790s (this event actually occurred). This allowed them to be the ancestors of many other famous literary characters, some of whom possessed unusual or even superhuman gifts and abilities.
• Austen devotees have created several volumes of fan fiction featuring Darcy as the hero, often depicting the events of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's viewpoint. A typical example is An Assembly Such as This and related novels by Pamela Aidan, in which Darcy's pursuit of Elizabeth Bennet is only one aspect of his busy and adventurous life.

v • d • e Jane Austen
General:	Timeline of Jane Austen · Reception history of Jane Austen · Janeite · Jane Austen Centre
People:	Catherine Hubback · Francis Austen · Cassandra Austen · Thomas Langlois Lefroy
Published novels:	Sense and Sensibility (1811)  · Pride and Prejudice (1813)  · Mansfield Park (1814)  · Emma (1815)  · Northanger Abbey (1817)  · Persuasion (1817)
Incomplete novels:	Lady Susan · Sanditon · The Watsons
Juvenilia:	Love and Freindship · The Beautifull Cassandra
Characters:	Fitzwilliam Darcy · Elizabeth Bennet · Elinor Dashwood