Where's Mr. Darcy?

     I’m an avid reader. Between reading for pleasure and as a means to study the writing craft, my eyes have swept the pages of a variety of genre. Now, combined with that and the common knowledge that there are more women who read for entertainment than men, I have noticed that most stories have a strong male protagonist. Why? Because women love reading about a strong good or bad male role – including me.

    

     So why do we women crave the description and depth of our page heroes? Why do we fantasize and feel our hearts flutter when we read about Mr. Darcy, Prince Charming, Heathcliff, and Atticus Finch – yes, apparently he made the top dreamy literary character lists that I looked up.

        

    I thought long and hard about this and came to a conclusion. Frankly, to my belief it’s because we live in a modern world where Mr. Darcys rarely exist. Don’t get me wrong, they ARE out there – just not as prominent as before or in the pages of your book.

         

   Now of course, one of the major intriguing factors of our hunky literary characters is the mystery swallowing them. We keep turning the page hoping to get a glimpse behind the emotional mask of our hero. Something that is much easier accomplished today. Thanks to our wonderful tech savvy, self-indulged society our men of yesterday are – well yesterday. Men of our present generation(s) spill their emotions and events on every media surface manageable. We don’t even have to talk to a man to find out what his favorite music, hobbies, political and religious views are, what he did last Saturday and whether or not he liked The Dark Knight Rises.

  

   We say women don’t leave much for the imagination anymore and I believe that is whole heartedly true. But it is also to be said for men. Why else are we drawn to Mr. Darcy? He kept his clothes on. Simply as that. Just like men, we women want to anticipate finding out what’s underneath on the wedding night. Sure we want to know that they are good looking (although I tend to think we are drawn to these characters for their inner beauty not just the outward). But we have no details if Prince Charming had a smooth or hair dusted chest, or if Mr. Darcy had a six pack or not, or if Heathcliff had a cut waist.

            

    Again, with the wonderful media, celebrities and our everyday male friends (not all of them thank goodness), find the need to flex in a picture, shirtless and with pants pulled too low for anyone’s eyes.

    

    We crave men that are selfless. Who are strong and will fight to undo a wrong and win their maidens affection. And there are those men out there today. I was lucky to find one of them and snatch him up before anyone else noticed. But, these are the reasons why we women love to turn to the pages of our books, reading about the men of fiction.
   
    So, to end on a positive note…Where can we find our Mr. Darcy? I believe we can find strong, courageous, and wonderful men all around us, who match this description: “Bless is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers,”(Psalm 1:1-3).

     And a man who flees tempations and pursues righteousness: “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness,” (1Timothy 6:11). Furthermore, “Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments!” (Psalm 112:1) It’s the men who are described here that are men worth waiting for – our knights in shining armor.  

 

    I always have loved the phrase, “A woman’s hear should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her,” Maya Angelou. And that’s truly how it should be. To find your Mr. Darcy all you need to do is seek God and when you least expect it, like out of a story book, Mr. Darcy will arrive – because he sought God and God revealed you.