Pride and Prejudice - in the view of 2026 society is Mr. Wickham simply a predator?

[mids2019]

So Lydia is 15 years old and to my (admittedly non literary mind) groomed by Mr. Wickham into eloping. Reading the book now it seems full of victim blaming with Lydia being blamed as much as Whickam for the inappropriate relationship. Is this too simplistic?

Wonderful post, thank you!

Mrs Bennet really believed that youth, beauty, and a lively charm were all a young woman needed to catch a husband!

She had married Mr. Bennet based on youth and good looks, so she assumed the same strategy would work for her daughters.

This is true, but ultimately she isn’t bright enough to see that. I think one can feel both sorry for Mrs B and exasperated by her behaviour.

Mr Bennet is to blame. Instead of saving money over the years to provide for his wife and daughters, He simply hoped and waited for a son who never arrived.

He got Georgiana because she was an innocent, oblivious to the machinations of scheeming men and Wickham could be absolutely charming when he cared, he even took Lizzie in, and she was sharper than most.

I recommend the book Longbourn by Jo Baker which tells the story of P&P from the servant's point of view. In this the Bingleys made their money through slavery (presumably investments rather than getting their hands dirty) which seems a reasonable assumption for the wealthy of the time.

I meant to quote @Turophiles there.

Ok so Darcy didn’t tell people about his sister nearly being Wickham’s victim in order to preserve his own Mr D legend and status and future options, rather than speaking out on it for the good of the other girls? So he shows morally sinful pride/self interest in that sense?

That would be a totally fair criticism morally. Same charge also on the slate against Fitzwilliam as the co- guardian of Georgiana then, too. He knew everything.

But Darcy or Fitzwilliam, back in the real Regency world with brutal public morals, could not have been free to do that realistically, surely? because it would have terribly compromised Georgiana’s chance of marriage if the story came out.. Despite her being a young and lovely gazillionaire. So they are stuck.

I’d be a bit disappointed if JA’s only comment on ‘Pride’ wrt Darcy was just he was a bit of a social snob, on guard of his wealth against adventureresses (? If that is a category). Surely JA’s making a deeper political point about sex equality or lack of, with the Pride and Prejudice characterisations, but I can’t quite work it out.

Very good point made above about Mr Bennett. He just sits back and waits for a boy child to inherit everything, putting all the labour on to Mrs Bennett to marry off their girls when no son comes.

Darcy stresses that this seduction almost worked because Georgiana ‘retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child’ (though tbh, that may also be a much older brother trying to rationalise it to himself without admitting that his meek baby sister was simply sexually attracted to a charming cad).

Of course, there’s also the fact that devious Mrs Younge and he knew one another, and she seems to have let him know she was at Ramsgate with Georgiana and would look the other way, unlike a proper chaperone/companion.

But yes, as sharp, satirical, clever Lizzy is hugely attracted to Wickham and taken in by him, not just naive Georgiana and silly Lydia, I think we need to acknowledge he was sexy and charming. Even sensible Mrs Gardiner is taken in. She tells Lizzy that if he’d had more money then she ‘could not do better’. He’s good!

But Darcy or Fitzwilliam, back in the real Regency world with brutal public morals, could not have been free to do that realistically, surely? because it would have terribly compromised Georgiana’s chance of marriage if the story came out.. Despite her being a young and lovely gazillionaire. So they are stuck.

Yes. Her willingness to run away with him (as that is how it would be viewed) would be very harshly judged.

Plus it doesn't show the Darcy recruitment policies and reference checking in a very good light. He and Fitzwilliam wouldn't want to advertise that they could be taken in by a servant.

I do love most period adaptations of Jane Austen but my only gripe is they never cast age appropriately. I'd like to see Mrs Bennett played by a beautiful woman in her late 30s as she likely was. I love Alison steadman and Brenda blethyn but they definitely embodied the matron. Then again Alison's daughters were in their mid 30s so 😁

@FuzzySlippers “Surely JA’s making a deeper political point about sex equality or lack of, with the Pride and Prejudice characterisations, but I can’t quite work it out.”

Austen highlights how English inheritance laws (entailment) left women financially dependent on marriage for survival, as seen with the Bennet sisters losing their home if unmarried.

With no access to professions or higher education, women had to view marriage purely as an economic necessity to avoid poverty and social displacement.

Charlotte Lucas represent this harsh truth, choosing a pragmatic, loveless marriage with Mr. Collins simply for a secure home.

Elizabeth defies the passive, submissive female stereotype of the era by using her sharp wit, voice, and critical judgment to challenge authority.

Elizabeth refuses financial security by turning down Mr. Collins's marriage proposal. Her eventual marriage to Mr. Darcy evolves past traditional patriarchal dominance into an egalitarian partnership built on mutual respect, intellectual matching, and shared affection.

so is his pride simply being him falsely convinced of moral superiority or at least of him being morally equal to Lizzie?

I've always imagined the Georgiana seduction as being quite calculated. Mrs Younge arranging with Wickham that he would 'bump into' Georgiana while they were out walking; Mrs Younge pretending not to know him, but encouraging Georgiana to think well of him. Georgiana perhaps confiding to Mrs Younge that her brother didn't like Wickham and Mrs Younge saying "Oooh, well, you've got to follow your heart, dearie" and advice along those lines.

I wonder whether Wickham's 'kindness to her as a child' means that once upon a time, he was a decent person, or whether he was playing the very long game and had already considered the possibility of marrying her in the future, or whether he genuinely had a soft spot for her and her fortune was a bonus rather than the driver of his seduction.

It would be an interesting 'fanfic' exercise to write an alternative version of that part of the story from Wickham's point of view where his love for Georgiana was completely genuine, and the fact she threw him over embittered him into becoming a cynical fortune hunter.

I think it's very much a social pride rather than moral - the Bennets are beneath Darcy socially in terms of wealth and status, but more importantly aside from Jane and Lizzie, they all publicly behave in vulgar, inappropriate ways - they're a family it would be an embarrassment to marry into.

I always thought the suggestion with Darcy’s sister was that he was tricking her into marrying him so he could get his hands on her fortune!

I think he felt he had failed as a brother and guardian. That he was deceived by the governess and misled as to her character. And also had it been know socially it would have been a huge scandal.

That's certainly what Darcy thinks, he writes to Lizzie along the lines of 'his object was undoubtedly my sister's fortune, which is £30,000'

But Darcy absolutely loathes the man - not without reason - he wouldn't entertain the idea that there could be any good in him whatsoever.

Of course, possible motives for Wickham are purely reader speculation and what-ifs - I think Jane Austen intended her readers to interpret Wickham as a fortune hunter and a cad, pure and simple. But it's fun to speculate.

It has just occurred to me that there's another reading of his behaviour when he comes to Meryton. He has prevented his sister's elopement with a fortune hunter, and that nearly came about because of his misjudgement about the woman appointed to chaperone and protect her. Darcy was, as we find out from his housekeeper, a kind master to his servants. He probably prided himself on that and it must have cut very deep to realise that his poor choice of a governess could have ruined his sister's life. Did he realise that he's not the great judge of character he thought he was and that's why he holds himself a bit aloof until he knows people better?

Wickham is written as a predatory older man who takes advantage of Darcy's sister and Lydia. They are both portrayed as his victims. It is also seen as the parent's fault as they allow Lydia too much freedom when she is too young to cope with it.

However, Lydia is also an incredibly annoying and frivolous character who will probably irritate Wickham for the rest of his life and be unfaithful to him. He gets his comeuppance in that way. It is also implied that Lydia will have to pay heavily for her youthful mistakes by being married to such an awful man. I suppose that could be seen as blaming her in a way, but actually I think it is more about the reality of life. People do have to live with the mistakes they make in their youth regardless of who is to blame.

Perhaps, but I have the impression that he believed he was surrounded by plebs out to get his fortune or his sister´s. Probably the Whickam affair compounded that feeling. He can´t bring himself to speak to anyone outside his party. The only one who doesn´t seem to play this role is Lizzie, he is quite aware that she is mocking him, and it disconcerts him no end.

That as well. He's received a massive shock and is probably still in 'I can't trust anyone, everyone's out to get us' thinking. And then he encounters Mrs B, who's making no secret of what her aim in life is....which is basically a better intentioned form of Wickham's fortune hunting.

I always think that this is what must have happened with Mr and Mrs B. We know she married straight from the schoolroom, so if her youngest is 15, she must have had quite a few more years after Lydia to conceive a son. Let’s say she’s 17 at marriage, so is now 40ish. There’s no reference to younger babies dying in infancy.

Mr B must have given up entirely when Mrs B was only in her mid 20s.

I've always assumed there was some gynaecological problem after Lydia's birth. It seems really unlikely, given the huge importance of having a son, that Mr B. would just have stopped bothering with sex, no matter how irritating he found Mrs B. Five births in not much more than five years would have taken a toll.

Is that in the text? I know she was probably younger than she's tended to be played, but didn't think there was anything to say she was still in her teens at marriage as opposed to say 23.

@Gremlinsateit “Mr B must have given up entirely when Mrs B was only in her mid 20s.”

Mrs Bennet was still hoping. She spent "many years after Lydia's birth" certain a boy would come before finally despairing of the event.

Jane Austen never explicitly states Mrs Bennet’s exact age.