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Wickham Didn’t Target Lydia for Revenge
7 responses to “Wickham Didn’t Target Lydia for Revenge”
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Absolutely dead right. Have never understood the Wickham-wanting-revenge-on-Lizzy conspiracy theory at all. He was an opportunist all the way (and, as you mention, really dropped Lizzy rather than the other way about). Georgiana was partly for revenge – though I think her £30,000 sufficient to tempt him… Lizzy, no way.
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I think people exaggerate Austen’s very mundane villains. Most of her negative characters aren’t evil, just careless and selfish.
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I used to think that Wickham deliberately targetted Lydia, but the more I read (and reread) the more I’m convinced you’re right here. She was convenient and a means to an end. Wickham knew that Elizabeth’s impression of Darcy had improved, but there was no way for him to guess that Darcy would be the white knight here. If anything, a tertiary benefit to the elopement (after Lydia’s willing purse and the obvious) was getting back at Elizabeth for switching loyalties. But that would just have a been a snicker of “So there,” rather than anything planned.
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Yeah, I agree! The one thing I guess I forgot to mention, Wickham seems to really think Darcy will marry Anne de Bourgh when he talks to Elizabeth earlier. So just more evidence that he wouldn’t suspect D&E as a pairing.
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I think you are right too! I think Wickham just did it because he could, and Lydia was young and impressionable and may not have realized although she is rebellious!
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I personally never thought that Whickham was seeking to get revenge on Darcy with Lydia. However, I do think there’s an argument to be have for him wanting to slight Lizzy and that accepting Lydia’s advances were an easy thing to exploit to do so.
He did use to have Lizzy completely under his finger to the point that she was still fond of him while he ran off to court Miss King. Then once Miss King fell through, he clearly expected to be able to still be able to get Lizzy to still be in love with him. However, now she’s not and even rejects his attempts to rekindle their relationship. That would slight his vanity and so with that, he may very well have partially ran with Lydia to spite Lizzy in kind. With absolutely no idea that Darcy would come after him.
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I guess I’m too rational, that seems like a pretty big over-reaction to me, especially since he dropped her first. But I guess people do sometimes have crazy overreactions.
The novel pretty much says it was Lydia’s idea and Wickham just went along with it. So I always just think it wasn’t planned or vengence at all.
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