: Re: How to prevent "they're falling in love" trope I have two characters, the male being sort of a jerk, but lightening up later in the story, and the female is...very hateful. But a person who

@Jessie137

Pride and Prejudice – After a very brief encounter that goes badly, the MC Elizabeth spends the entire novel explaining why she won't get married, thinks all her sisters and friends are simps or sellouts for chasing men, and how she can't stand Mr Darcy specifically for being such a prejudiced snob. The first 3/4ths of the novel only compound and affirm Elizabeth's reasons.

The novel is sympathetic to the MC's intelligence and independence, but also towards the nice sister who is sweet but passive and without agency. The novel also clearly shows the man-chasing women as ridiculous or mean. Meanwhile, "real love" is something that gets discarded for security (her best friend), or is exploited for financial gain (almost every other relationship). While the male characters are not very substantial, the many female characters present a range of approaches to love and marriage, all of which seem flawed. The novel is firmly on Elizabeth's side criticizing romance – it's viewed as satire, but it's really something more: almost a compendium of how marriage is about everything except honest love.

The twist is not that Darcy and Elizabeth get together, instead the twist is that Elizabeth is confronted by evidence that she is the one whose pride and prejudice has caused her to misread the situation. By doubling-down on her dislike for Darcy, she elevated the real villain Wickham, who is Darcy's enemy. But knowing the truth doesn't lead to them instantly getting together, rather this self-realization feels like the climax of the novel. Had she acted differently, it's unlikely she would have prevented the events in the novel or the other women's scheming. She probably still would have thought Darcy is a snob, but her sympathies would have been completely turned around.

It's not a "Hero's Journey" of leveling up through experience, it's an "Inanna's Journey" of being stripped of her "pride and prejudice" – her whole value system. She's happy that one relationship is working out for her "good" sister, but Elizabeth knows that was just luck and "feminine attributes" like beauty and passivity. Lizzie's best option would be to settle (like her friend) but seeing as how she's already turned that down her prospects are at zero.

Elizabeth doesn't "win the millionaire" until she is confronted by the powerful aunt who controls Darcy's fortune. Her habitual (opinionated) nature kicks in, and she refuses to be a simp or a schemer, but she doesn't allow her pride (and prejudice) to shut down possibilities either. Smarter and wiser through her shared experience with the other young women, Elizabeth realizes she can't control what will happen or how other people will behave, she can only be honest with herself. It's this wiser, less-reactionary identity that makes her truly independent, and sets her apart from all the other women in the story.

Conveniently, this is the exact character trait that attracts Darcy so it all works out in the end, but that's the structure of an Inanna's Journey: Elizabeth is left with only the things that matter, after everything else has been stripped away. The climactic confrontation with the aunt isn't treated as a triumphant turn, instead Lizzie feels like "her nose is being rubbed in it", it's her lowest point. After declaring for so long how she can't stand Darcy, everyone in the novel, her family included, conspire to keep them apart. Even after their engagement, no one congratulates her. In comic reversal, her family believes the worst possible thing has happened to her.

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