Romeo from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice are characters from two love stories that were written in two different eras. Both started off in the story with a lot of similarities but had significantly different endings. Romeo and Mr. Darcy were unable to get their love as they would have liked right away, but the two reacted very differently to their situations; Romeo takes things very drastically, while Mr. Darcy takes things slowly until the situation recovers.

   In Romeo’s story, the readers are introduced to two houses who have held a bitter resentment against one another for a long time -the Capulets and the Montagues. Romeo, the only son of the Montague family sneaks into a party at the Capulets’ house. There, Romeo meets Juliet, the daughter of Lord Capulet, and the two fall in love with each other without much thought. After the party is over, Romeo meets Juliet in her balcony and swears his love to her. Soon afterwards, the two plan to secretly marry.

   The situation for Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice is a little different though. Mr. Darcy, a man of great riches and high status, first comes to the acquaintance of Elizabeth at a ball, similarly to how Romeo and Juliet first meet. However, Mr. Darcy does not care to introduce himself to the other ladies and generally keeps to himself. At this point in the story, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth hardly know each other, and they both do not think of each other very well. Elizabeth sees Mr. Darcy as a very proud man who rarely danced through the entire ball. Mr. Darcy looks at Elizabeth as a girl who has nothing to be complimented of. However, as the story progresses, Mr. Darcy grows to feel attached to Elizabeth with her easy playfulness and manners. He later plans to confess his love to her.

   Tragically, when the love of Romeo and Mr. Darcy are in full blossom, everything goes wrong. Romeo, who was married to Juliet only three hours ago, finds Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, waiting for him to have a duel. Romeo refuses the duel, saying that he now loves the Capulets:

I do protest I never injured thee

But love thee better than thou canst devise

Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.

And so, good Capulet, which name I tender

As dearly as mine own, be satisfied. (III.i.59-73)

   However, Tybalt only wishes to fight. While Romeo keeps refusing to try to keep the peace between the family of his wife, his friend Mercutio takes up his sword to fight Tybalt himself. In this fight, Mercutio dies, and Romeo, wishing to revenge Tybalt, restarts the fight and gladiatorially kills Tybalt. After the Prince hears about this fight, he banishes Romeo from Verona.

   Looking back at the situation of Mr. Darcy, he now confesses his love to Elizabeth saying, “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed, you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you” (132). Elizabeth, however, is shocked and slightly offended by this confession. A while before Mr. Darcy’s confession, Elizabeth had heard a calumny about the heartlessness and cruelty of Mr. Darcy. Knowing this, Elizabeth refuses immediately and talks about the things she has against him in an angry way. So, in just a few minutes of confessing is love, Mr. Darcy’s love and plans were shattered into pieces.

   Both men and their feelings of love now take an unexpected turn. The moment Romeo hears of his banishment, he wishes himself dead. He also mourns over the fact that he won’t be able to see Juliet again. “Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death,” For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”” (III.iii.13-15)

   On the other hand, Mr. Darcy takes things slowly and in a more mature way than Romeo. He writes a letter to Elizabeth, defending himself from everything Elizabeth had poured upon him the other day, and gives the letter to her before leaving to his place. Elizabeth reads the letter and comes to realize that she was wrong in many areas and that the account she had heard of was false. Afterwards, the two go on to live their own lives withholding awkward feelings towards each other. At one point in the story, Elizabeth is traveling with her aunt and uncle when they decide to visit the Pemberley estate—Mr. Darcy’s estate. Elizabeth is assured that Mr. Darcy is not home, so she decides to go visit the estate with her aunt and uncle. As she enjoys herself in the estate, Elizabeth seems to slightly regret her decision in refusing Mr. Darcy:

“'And of this place,' thought she, 'I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt. But no' -- recollecting herself -- 'that could never be: my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them.' This was a lucky recollection -- it saved her from something like regret.” (169-170)

   However, unlike the assurance of the servants that their master was not home, Mr. Darcy unexpectedly arrives at the estate and meets Elizabeth. The two have a very awkward but pleasing time together, and Mr. Darcy begins to slowly recollect the shattered pieces of love.

   Romeo and Juliet, both unwary, go on to make very drastic decisions, which in the end, lead to tragedy. After consulting the Friar, Juliet decides to fake her death in order to escape and run away to where Romeo is. While Juliet’s funeral is going on, Romeo’s servant witnesses this action and runs to his master to tell him the tragic news. Romeo, hearing the supposed death of his lover, decides to die with her. At Juliet’s grave Romeo drinks a bottle of poison, dying just before Juliet awakes from her faked death. When Juliet wakes up, she says:

What’s here? A cup closed in my true love’s hand?

Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.—

O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop

To help me after! I will kiss thy lips.

Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,

To make me die with a restorative. (V.iii.166-171)

   Juliet, finding her lover dead, stabs herself and the two dead lovers are soon discovered by the watchman, and their story is made known to the whole city. With this, Romeo’s love story ends in a tragic way.

   Meanwhile, Mr. Darcy visits Elizabeth’s house and family, and the two are able to meet again. They have a long conversation during a walk and Mr. Darcy confesses a lot of things and humbled himself through the entire conversation. Once pride and prejudice are out of the way, the two realize that they are in love with each other, and they get engaged immediately. Thus, Mr. Darcy’s love meets a happy ending.

   In the stories of Romeo and Mr. Darcy, readers can see how the different choices of the characters lead to developments with great disparity. Observing these two books side by side it is made evident that drastic choices bring drastic ends and that when love matters are taken slowly and tried again, it may work out.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. AmazonClassics, 2017.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Simon & Schuster, 2011.