The Curious Incident of the Rich Man at the Assembly
Alert Janeite sassymonkey sent us a link to the Guardian’s book blog (which she found via bookninja) describing a new book that claims eight (8) of the characters in Pride and Prejudice display symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome, including, apparently, Mr. Darcy.
A new critical study of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice published in May will offer an “alternative explanation” for Mr Darcy’s notorious disdain and distaste. If you need an explanation as to why Darcy is “continually giving offence” in the novel (other than any clue that you might glean from the title), (Hee! –Ed.) Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer’s So Odd a Mixture: Along the Autistic Spectrum in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ may provide an answer. Darcy’s “unaccountable rudeness”, she claims, can be laid at the feet of “high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome”. In fact, several characters’ “social awkwardness… frequent silences or… seemingly selfish, unthinking behaviour” can be interpreted through reference to the autistic spectrum.
Jane Austen, we think, would have been impatient with such sensitive new-age nonsense applied to her books or her characters. Sometimes people are just not nice. Sometimes they are selfish and care nothing for their fellow man. That is not something that can be psychoanalyzed away. Indeed, Mr. Darcy tells us himself why he was all Cranky McJerkpants at the Meryton assembly:
I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth!
Elizabeth Bennet: the doctor is in. 
And therein lies a clue as to why tales of alienation are now being interpreted as descriptions of autism. Alienation, while examining inner angst and existentialist crises, looks outward towards the individual’s relationship with the world and society, however confining or crushing that society may be – Jude does not want to be obscure and Pip does have great expectations. Autism as a literary trope, in contrast, is about looking inwards and reducing our relationship with the world to our own unfathomable neurology. Such thinking ends in a muddle.
Hear, hear!
Of course, if we manage to convince Oprah Winfrey that Pride and Prejudice, rather than being a classic comedy of manners, is a treatise upon Asperger’s, perhaps she’ll consider featuring it in her book club. Not that we’re holding our breath or anything. Meanwhile, we are holding our breath, snark at the ready, in anticipation of the many articles by “independent scholars” that might result from this. 
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Good heavens! That sounds very much like 98% of the people here.
Autism isn’t new-age, or nonsense, it’s a medical condition. We have an autistic child and I take offense to that.
I meant attributing autism to fictional characters as an explanation of the personality flaws intended by the author is new-age nonsense. Of course I recognize that autism is a medical condition. Do you think Darcy was autistic?
Sorry I flew off the handle, autism is something I live with daily, and it’s easy to think that people whom are not in our “world”, so to speak, are against those of us fighting this disease.
No, I don’t think that Darcy was autistic, because he had no trouble entering into social situations. There are parts in the book where he even seeks out social interaction, that is the action of a neuro-typical person. An example of this is when he asks Lizzy to dance. Another is that an actual autistic person would not have waltzed into the assembly in Meriton at all, at least not without a great deal of reassurance from a caretaker and a steady hand at his back. Even then I could see him balk at the doorway. Autistic children and adults become masters of avoidance, they utilize their mind to find ways to never even enter into a social situation where they may not be able to control the outcome. Also, those with Asperger’s Syndrome often have speech problems and avoid eye contact, that’s not mentioned in the book.
Autism is also a relatively new condition, not just because of diagnostic changes in the last century but because it’s “new” in many people’s views. Autism is now thought to be caused by toxins in the environment, vaccines and other unknown antigens. It is also not purely neurological but having to do with the gut. So if this is all the case there would be maybe 1 in a 1,000,000 autistic persons in the 1800′s as opposed to the 1 in 166 that we have today. The odds are totally against there being even one person in Lizzy’s acquaintance much less “several”. The author is probably trying to mainstream autism for some reason, an interesting idea, but not plausible.
it’s not uncommon for people on the autism spectrum to seek out social interaction. I have asperger’s syndrome and I very much desire and seek out social interaction. Quite often, actually. I’m just hopelessly clueless at it, is all. I neither have a speech problem nor avoid eye contact. neither do many of the other people I know with AS(although many of them do). Which isn’t to say that I believe Darcy was AS (Nor Jane Austen herself, as many have claimed), but, you know, i’ve always thought Mary Bennet seemed awfully aspie.
AS seems to have been getting a lot of press lately. I just saw a special on it on ABC, yesterday, I think. It’s good to get more public awareness and understanding of it, is it not?
I think it would have been easier to take this book more seriously, had it diagnosed a different disorder for Austen’s characters. Like Kerri said, autism is fairly “new,” and if I remember correctly, could hardly be considered prevalent during Austen’s time. Now, had she said Mr. Wickham had antisocial personality disorder, or that Jane was depressed during Bingley’s absence, I might have been tempted to take a second look.
Louisa made me think of another point. No two ASD persons have the same the symptoms. My daughter, Emma, has ASD and, though her symptoms have changed and improved, she has friends with ASD that have radically different symptoms. I don’t know a single one of them that has all of the symptoms. So many of the characters having similar symptoms is not probable.
I’ve forwarded this on to our O.T. to see if she might chime in with a professional opinion, BTW.
Mary Bennet with AS… What an interesting notion.
Thanks for all the perspectives. You’ve given me a lot of food for thought. I still think it was silly to attribute Mr. Darcy’s problems with social interaction (which, as I said, are fully explained in the book as a personality flaw) to autism or Asperger’s, but now I’m thinking it’s downright insulting to those dealing with these conditions on a daily basis, either their own or a loved one’s. It’s easy to say, “Oh, he was rude to people at the Meryton ball and Sir William Lucas’s house, he probably had Asperger’s,” but to carry through the analogy to the end of the novel, when Darcy learns to control his pride with his “lessers,” suggests that all anyone needs to overcome Asperger’s is some self-discipline and the love of a good woman.
There’s another article in the Telegraph today–I’ll post it later–that says the book claims that Mr. Collins also was autistic (awkward, doesn’t take no for an answer) and that Lydia Bennet had ADHD.
I’m a therapist who works with many children with autism spectrum disorders. I think it quite silly to suggest that Mr. Darcy suffered from this disorder. I think that people today are too quick to want to slap a label on each other, thinking that somehow it will be a short-cut to understanding them and there-by being able to more quickly dismiss them. I also think that character flaws, sinfulness (as in the “7 deadly”), personality defects, or whatever else you want to call them, are not disorders, diseases, or illnesses. To equate Mr. Darcy’s rudeness or pride with autism is ignorance.
This sort of psychological analysis has been done much more thoroughly, on another much-loved book: http://www.lavasurfer.com/100akerpathology.pdf
Slapping labels is right! I avoid so-called experts on psychological conditions, as they are always analysing one and labelling one’s perfectly human flaws with new, made-up jargon. They sometimes use it as a means to manipulate people or minimise them. Down with psycho-babble!
I have never considered Mr Darcy as these conditions, but a couple others pop into mind. Myopia could lead to him saying Lizzy is not handsome enough to tempt him but after she walks close by he reconsiders. His vanity prevents him from wearing spectacles? His penchant for standing near windows for fresh air could be explained by IBS and ‘silent but deadly’ emissions. Ungentlemanly behavior, indeed!
“Cranky McJerkpants” reminds me of watching the 1995 P&P with my mom for the first time — she labeled Darcy “Crabbypants” and stuck to it through the whole thing! LOL
I worked with many Asperger’s and Autistic children in the pediatric neuropsych clinic of a teaching hospital while I was getting my MS degree in Clinical Psych. The *cough cough* conclusions drawn in this article are ludicrous. Asperger’s, like all psychological disorders, exists along a continuum — it is the mildest form of Autism. Even though every case is unique, certain criteria must be met in order for a person to receive a diagnosis of a disorder. Textbook Asperger’s patients exhibit several telltale traits from a very young age, e.g. a fixation on collecting things (often keys) and insisting on carrying the entire collection with them wherever they go. The hallmark feature of Asperger’s, though, is an inability (in more severe cases) or (in milder cases) a difficulty in interpreting the social cues and body language of others.
Mrs. Reynolds’ account of Darcy as a child clearly (in my opinion) refutes this kind of personality. Further, Darcy’s humiliating realization of the justness of Lizzy’s condemnation of him and his almost immediate efforts to demonstrate that her remonstrances had been attended to (his warmth to the Gardiners, for example, and his efforts to salvage Lydia’s reputation — understanding how her shame would affect her entire family, would have been difficult for someone with Asperger’s to accomplish without help and guidance from someone else. Other excellent examples have already been posted here.
Not every arrogant jerk, moralizing fool, obsequious sycophant, opportunistic rounder or insipid floozy has a psychological disorder. And nor does everyone with psychological training hasten to diagnose everyone they meet, in novels or in real life, with psychological disorders.
Mags, I nominate Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer for the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness HALL OF FAME!
While autism has only been a specific, definible condition with a name and DSM criteria since the 20th century, it can be posited that autism has always been with us. On the changing DSM criteria, with a link to a book that shows how the notion of “autism” and the diagnostic criteria for it have evolved, see:
http://www.unstrange.com/dsm1.html
My son has autism—what gets called “classic autism” in some circles, as he is “smack in the middle” of the autism spectrum—and I put up a blog entry, “Diagnosing Mr. Darcy,” in which I also made mention of an article on Bartleby as autistic.
http://www.autismvox.com/diagnosing-mr-darcy/
best wishes from Kristina Chew
http://autismvox.com
Snappo, thanks for the “100 aker pathology” link. I’m reading it now and it’s hilarious!
Can’t a person, or character, just behave like a complete ass? Isn’t recognizing what we can control and better in our characters the point JA is making? Because I have two good friends who struggle daily to help their autistic children, I find this book’s premise insulting and disturbing.
With three kids on the ASD spectrum, I don’t find it insulting so much as ridiculous. I can agree that Autism has always been around, but most likely only those with the most severe cases were recognized and they would not have been out in society in Austen’s time.
For labeling people to try to understand them better, I find temperament theory to be much better than “pin the psychiatric diagnosis on the person.”
Kerri, I know how you feel. My youngest sister doesn’t get it at all and thinks criticizing my parenting is a sport. And she’s actually an intelligent person (think Lydia with a high IQ).
“Can’t a person, or character, just behave like a complete ass? Isn’t recognizing what we can control and better in our characters the point JA is making?”
Yes, exactly! I have argued this point on discussion boards for years. I get so irritated with those who HAVE to dissect and over-analyze everything.
But, Laura has certainly given me something to think about: Myopia and IBS, indeed!!! Now how will I ever be able to watch P&P without giggling every time the camera catches Darcy standing at a window. (But at least he was moving away from close proximity to others, and THAT is what I call good manners.)
“Darcy was clever. He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting.”
This does not sound like a brain disorder to me. Darcy was accounted perfectly amiable when amongst friends.
I’ve been thinking and I’m surprised she didn’t come up with Georgianna being an autistic savant based on her shyness and musical ability.
Did get a laugh over myopia and IBS.