Yes, I must admit that I'm rather confused. Doesn't Lydia refer to her husband as simply "Wickham" rather than using his first name (and damned if I can even remember what that is right now.) and without always putting a "Mr." in front?
Also, I have to wonder if these instances of Elizabeth calling her husband "Darcy" were early on in the show? If so, could it be that the writers decided to go with that mostly as exposition? Of course many of the viewers will be incredibly familiar with P&P, whether by the book or by film or both, but many won't be. They'll maybe have only read the book once long ago, or saw the movie once, or maybe they're unfamiliar with the story entirely.
Most people that have grown-up in a developed, primarily-Anglophone nation will probably be familiar with Jane Austen, the name of the book Pride & Prejudice , and with the couple Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. So in the beginning of the show, they'll have to write it so that those with this very basic knowledge of P&P understand what's going on and who is who. Seeing as very few people know Mr. Darcy's first name off the tops of their heads, they had to establish that this is The Mr. Darcy.
Also, despite the setting being the 19th century, they're having to write it for 21st century ears. Fitzwilliam is rather a mouthful and a bit clunky. It's really not reasonable to use that name all the time in a show. Well, not for one of the main characters. It's the kind of name that takes you out of the story a bit when you hear it. Darcy is much more first-name-like to modern ears (and I don't know about the UK, but in the states it's become a moderately popular given name for girls. Especially in the 60s, 70s, & 80s) so it makes sense to me that the writers might prefer having the characters use it rather than his given name.
I'm no expert in literature or in the proper forms of addresses in the 19th century (far from it), but I know I've read plenty of books where male characters are referred to by their surnames. I always figured it was similar to how even now some people- usually men- prefer to go by their surnames or a nickname of it. I think this usually happens when they have a very common first name or several family members with the same first name, and so he starts being called by his surname to differentiate him. Sometimes it's due to a clunky, hard-to-pronounce or disliked first name. My brother has one of those first names that suits as adult fine but is unweildy on a child. Our surname happens to be a common-ish male given name, so through our school years he was frequently called by his last name.
I figured that when Austen's characters call someone simply "Wickham" or "Willoughby" or "Darcy" it was akin to modern men and boys using their surnames as first names. Only that for Austen's characters, the usage is probably borne mostly out of being unable to use their first names to the gentlemen's faces, but they were familiar enough to drop titles.
Now you're going to have me going through my Austen books looking for any cases of someone calling a gentleman by his surname with no title preceding it to his face. ...or maybe I just want an excuse to go through a couple of my Austen books again. ;)
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teatat
10 years ago
I don’t want to deny you the pleasure of going through the books again but here a couple examples:
Chapter 3, Bingley: "Come, Darcy," said he, "I must have you dance….”
Chapter 31, Lady Catherine, “…How does Georgiana get on, Darcy?"
Surely if his friend and aunt can do it, it is not to intimate for his wife. The only time I found it odd for her to drop the “Mr.” was when she was speaking of him to a servant.
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