Is Mr. Darcy Autistic?

I love Mr. Darcy, but the more I’ve learned about my own autism, the more I think I love Mr. Darcy because he has the same traits. Mr. Darcy has very rigid ideas of moral codes and about obligations socially. Does rigid seem a good way to describe that? What about Mr. Darcy’s tendency to stick with the familiar and his resistance to falling in love with Elizabeth, yet his inability to deal with her rejection, once he has become attached? All of these seem to me to be indications that Mr. Darcy, whoever Jane Austen based him on, was likely an undiagnosed autistic. Consider the following traits of autism and the way you can see them in Mr. Darcy.

1. Impaired non-verbal communication

Darcy seems completely unable to tell that Elizabeth hates him. She gives him tons of nonverbal clues about her feelings, but he is so oblivious that when she rebuffs his proposal, he has to ask for an explanation of what she dislikes about him. She ends up shouting at him that he is the last man he would ever marry in order to convince him that she is actually not saying yes to him, when he thinks it is obvious that she should. Also, think of how difficult it is for him to figure out that Jane has real feelings for Bingley, though Elizabeth struggles to believe this is “objective.”

2. Difficulty Parsing Social Maneuvering/Gullibility