The story's narration is almost exclusively from Elizabeth's perspective; the reader is given a one-sided view of Darcy for much of the novel, but hints are given throughout that there is much more to his character than meets the eye.

Elizabeth is offended and vehemently refuses him, expressing her reasons for disliking him, including her knowledge of his interference with Jane and Bingley and the account she received from Mr. Wickham of Darcy's alleged unfair treatment toward him.

The adaptation and Colin Firth's portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy inspired Helen Fielding to write Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason.

After receiving Mr. Darcy's letter of explanation, Elizabeth notes: that she has never "seen anything that betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjust—anything that spoke him of irreligious or immoral habits; that among his own connections he was esteemed and valued".

[7] Vivien Jones notes that Darcy's handsome appearance, wealth and original arrogance signify to the reader that he is the hero of a romance novel.

[10] Though Darcy treats Elizabeth with contempt, he always finds her to be "uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes" and is "caught by the easy playfulness of her manner".

[12] The term "grave propriety" is meant ironically, noting that Darcy is polite, but only in the sense that he possesses the mere civility of "the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world".

[13] Even after Mr. Darcy apologises to Miss Bennet for his brusque rudeness, his honesty means that the change of heart is sincere, and not the polished words of a follower of the cult of sensibility.

More broadly, the character of Mr. Darcy showed the emergence of a new type of rawer masculinity that could not tolerate the foppish, superficial values of the previous century.

[15] Nicolson further argued that a character like Mr. Darcy reflects changes in British life as the Romantic age was a time when "What mattered was authentic, self-generated worth".

[16] Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth early on, but he sees her as unfit socially as a wife; however his feelings for her are such that he decides to forgo convention to marry the woman he loves, fitting him into the mould of a Romantic hero.

[18] The scholar Alison Sulloway noted that Darcy has little patience for polite society with its false courtesies and superficial talk, and much prefers to be running Pemberley or to be outdoors.

[19] Darcy's heroic stance is shown by the way he pursues Elizabeth despite her rejection of his first offer of marriage, showing the depth of his feelings that he often has trouble expressing properly.

[20] Even though Darcy is sometimes clumsy at expressing his love for Elizabeth, his tendency to speak only what he really feels stands in marked contrast to the polished words of Wickham who never means what he says.

[28] In this way, Austen suggests that there is more to Mr. Darcy than the proud and sneering man at the Meryton assembly, that there is a deepness to him as people like him are custodians of the national culture.

[28] The scholar C. C. Barfoot described Pemberley as the "marvelous accretion of all the choices made by his predecessors", providing as the novel calls it "a kind of model" for how to live properly.

[29] Barfoot argued that for Austen "civilization is not a gift, but is a possession that needs to be earned and sustained by practice"; in this regard, the fact that Darcy takes good care of his estate shows his basically civilised nature which he hides under his veneer of snobbery and coldness.

[32] Irvine argued that Elizabeth appears to be unworthy of Darcy not because of their differences in income level, but because of the class divide as she contemplates the glories of Pemberley.

[34] Morgan argued that Austen's message in Pride and Prejudice is that one should marry for love rather than money as Wickham disqualifies himself as a potential groom owing to his bad character, not his income.

[34] In this sense, Darcy, by seeking to improve himself, by ignoring repeated slights and insults, and by paying off Wickham's debts to rescue Lydia from her ill-conceived marriage just to impress her, proves himself worthy of Elizabeth's love.

In Bridget Jones's Diary and its sequel The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones is constantly mentioning the 1995 BBC adaptation and repeatedly watches the scene in the fourth episode where Darcy (Colin Firth) emerges from a pond wearing a wet white shirt,[37] and refers to the Darcy and Elizabeth of the TV series as "my chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or, rather, courtship".

In 2010 a protein sex pheromone in male mouse urine, that is sexually attractive to female mice, was named Darcin in honour of the character.

[42][43][44] On 9 July 2013, a 12-foot (3.7 m) fibreglass statue of the figure of Mr. Darcy emerging from the water was installed in the Serpentine Lake of London's Hyde Park for a promotion of British television's UKTV channel.

[45] Modelled on actor Colin Firth, the statue made the rounds of several English lakes before its final installation in Lyme Park, a location where the programme was partly filmed and already a pilgrimage site for Pride and Prejudice fans.