Pondering Lydia
Mar. 1st, 2008 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithPosting like a mad poster before I dive into the wip.
Why exactly did Wickham elope with Lydia? This question may have been answered somewhere in Pride & Prejudice, but I don't recall anything offhand. In the televised versions I've seen, I haven't seen it discussed to any great extent. Was it simply because she was a wide-eyed innocent that he could bed for a few days/weeks, then dump? Was it that simple? Was he avenging himself on Lizzie for beginning to favor Darcy--I don't recall the timeline offhand, but I think she mentioned him favorably to Wickham at some point prior, which took him aback.
It's just that he seemed so calculating, so determined to find a rich wife to bail him out. Granted, he had gotten himself in trouble previously as impulsiveness overcame reason--I think he's a decent enough study in run-of-the-mill sociopathy, and extended periods of failure to think past the end of one's nose is a trait of the type. I just don't see any reason for Lydia other than that she was convenient, and maybe that's reason enough. But he shot his wad with the regiment, which had seemed like a decent posting, and there was certainly no inkling that someone with Darcy's wealth would turn up to make things right. Did he need to flee creditors, and take Lydia along because she was there? But she slows him down and attracts all manner of attention.
I just don't get it.
Why exactly did Wickham elope with Lydia? This question may have been answered somewhere in Pride & Prejudice, but I don't recall anything offhand. In the televised versions I've seen, I haven't seen it discussed to any great extent. Was it simply because she was a wide-eyed innocent that he could bed for a few days/weeks, then dump? Was it that simple? Was he avenging himself on Lizzie for beginning to favor Darcy--I don't recall the timeline offhand, but I think she mentioned him favorably to Wickham at some point prior, which took him aback.
It's just that he seemed so calculating, so determined to find a rich wife to bail him out. Granted, he had gotten himself in trouble previously as impulsiveness overcame reason--I think he's a decent enough study in run-of-the-mill sociopathy, and extended periods of failure to think past the end of one's nose is a trait of the type. I just don't see any reason for Lydia other than that she was convenient, and maybe that's reason enough. But he shot his wad with the regiment, which had seemed like a decent posting, and there was certainly no inkling that someone with Darcy's wealth would turn up to make things right. Did he need to flee creditors, and take Lydia along because she was there? But she slows him down and attracts all manner of attention.
I just don't get it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 03:55 am (UTC)Doesn't he turn nasty to Lydia after he gets what he wants (her virginity)?
I always took it that his perversion was too risque to be treated directly in the story.
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Date: 2008-03-02 02:41 pm (UTC)Is that in the book? I must've missed it. I do miss things. The cruelest I see him is in the Firth/Ehle version, in which he gives the impression that he could turn physically abusive. But I wouldn't trust that interpretation of the story as far as I could throw my car given how hard it leaned on the moralization pedal.
I always took it that his perversion was too risque to be treated directly in the story.
That's interesting.
And thanks to it, the most bizarre idea just dropped into my head...