Pondering Lydia

[ksmith]

Posting 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.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's never discussed adequately in the book. We have only this one meeting between Elizabeth and Wickham:

[Elizabeth] "Yes, very different. But I think Mr. Darcy improves upon
acquaintance."

"Indeed!" cried Mr. Wickham with a look which did not escape
her. "And pray, may I ask?--" But checking himself, he added,
in a gayer tone, "Is it in address that he improves? Has he
deigned to add aught of civility to his ordinary style?--for I
dare not hope," he continued in a lower and more serious tone,
"that he is improved in essentials."

"Oh, no!" said Elizabeth. "In essentials, I believe, he is very
much what he ever was."

While she spoke, Wickham looked as if scarcely knowing
whether to rejoice over her words, or to distrust their meaning.
There was a something in her countenance which made him listen
with an apprehensive and anxious attention, while she added:

"When I said that he improved on acquaintance, I did not mean
that his mind or his manners were in a state of improvement, but
that, from knowing him better, his disposition was better
understood."

Wickham's alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and
agitated look; for a few minutes he was silent, till, shaking
off his embarrassment, he turned to her again, and said in the
gentlest of accents:

"You, who so well know my feeling towards Mr. Darcy, will
readily comprehend how sincerely I must rejoice that he is
wise enough to assume even the _appearance_ of what is right.
His pride, in that direction, may be of service, if not to himself,
to many others, for it must only deter him from such foul
misconduct as I have suffered by. I only fear that the sort of
cautiousness to which you, I imagine, have been alluding, is
merely adopted on his visits to his aunt, of whose good opinion
and judgement he stands much in awe. His fear of her has
always operated, I know, when they were together; and a good
deal is to be imputed to his wish of forwarding the match with
Miss de Bourgh, which I am certain he has very much at heart."

Elizabeth could not repress a smile at this, but she answered only
by a slight inclination of the head. She saw that he wanted to
engage her on the old subject of his grievances, and she was in
no humour to indulge him. The rest of the evening passed with
the _appearance_, on his side, of usual cheerfulness, but with
no further attempt to distinguish Elizabeth; and they parted at
last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never
meeting again.
--- (copied from www.gutenberg.org. Its not under copyright anymore, so clear text versions are available there.)

At the end of the meeting, Lydia goes to Meryton with the Captain's wife. How much she knows about Elizabeth's relationship to Darcy is never said. Elizabeth divulges her secrets only to Jane. But surely Lydia would have noticed that Elizabeth has had some interaction with Darcy. I would guess that Austen would have had Wickham pump Lydia for info, and then gamble that Darcy would be interested enough to rescue Lydia to save Elizabeth's reputation.

Adrianne

[pxcampbell.livejournal.com]

I always read it as if Wickham were the kind of man who likes to despoil innocence. Either that, or he got a rush from the excitement of the hunt, the chase, and the conquest. I think he liked the excitement of being on the outs of proper society.

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.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I always thought that Wickam wasn't thinking beyond the moment - rather like Lydia in that regard. Not that he was serious about her, but that he's the kind of guy who would despoil a virgin if she was reckless enough to go along and not think of the consequences for her since those for him are beneficial.

There could be more to it--more cunning on his part, because certainly he hoped to marry Darcy's sister for her money or at least to get money out of Darcy--but it never struck me as a strange action on his part.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

At the end of the meeting, Lydia goes to Meryton with the Captain's wife. How much she knows about Elizabeth's relationship to Darcy is never said. Elizabeth divulges her secrets only to Jane. But surely Lydia would have noticed that Elizabeth has had some interaction with Darcy. I would guess that Austen would have had Wickham pump Lydia for info, and then gamble that Darcy would be interested enough to rescue Lydia to save Elizabeth's reputation.

I would think that if he meant to do that, though, he'd have sent a message to Darcy arranging for a meeting rather than waiting to be tracked down.

I keep leaning toward the simplest explanation--that he saw the chance for some nookie and took it without really thinking things through. Maybe he wanted to hurt Eliza in the bargain. But it boiled down to him simply not thinking, which I wouldn't have expected from someone who gave the impression of being shrewed, if not necessarily intelligent.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Doesn't he turn nasty to Lydia after he gets what he wants (her virginity)?

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...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

That's the simplest explanation and likely the right one. I just thought that if that were the case, he'd have simply kicked Lydia to the curb and fled to the West Indies or something. But maybe he'd have done that later, if they hadn't been tracked down so quickly.

I've been thinking waaay too much about this.

[(Anonymous)]

Quickly is the issue. If Wickham just wants to despoil Lydia, why does he hang around in London with her? Why doesn't he leave her and move on to his next adventure? He needs money, and he knows Mr. Bennett doesn't have anywhere near enough.

Austen does tell us that some months after the wedding Wickham and Lydia's affection for each other turns to indifference.

Adrianne

[sazettel.livejournal.com]

IMHO, it is very likely that Wickham is about to run out of rope. He'd been doing what friends of mine call a D&D (Dine & Dash) for years and he'd probably run up even more debt than usual by borrowing against his expectations of Mary King's fortune (remember her? He was engaged to her for about thirty seconds). So, all those higher debts are due, he can't run from the neighborhood on his own this time, possibly because it would be desertion, which can get you shot, and no other woman in Brighton was dumb enough, or pre-charmed enough to elope with him.

So, Lydia was the only available piggy bank. A poor one, but any port in a storm and all that.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

he can't run from the neighborhood on his own this time, possibly because it would be desertion, which can get you shot, and no other woman in Brighton was dumb enough, or pre-charmed enough to elope with him.

Now that's a reason that makes more sense to me. If he takes off on his own, it's desertion. If he takes off with a woman, it's not quite as bad. He loses his post, but he doesn't get shot.

I remember Mary King. Funny. It's a bit part, but the actress who played her in the Firth/Ehle version was, I thought, very pretty, and the comments from the Bennett sisters that she wasn't didn't make any sense.

[sazettel.livejournal.com]

Well, consider the source, for starters. Anyone who had anything they didn't was likely to have jealous scorn heaped on their head.

Also, at the time, freckles were considered a blow against beauty. They were believed to be caused by spending too much time in the sun at a time when women were supposed to be pale (you will recall when Miss Bingley wants to insult Lizzie at the end there she remarks on how awfully brown she's gotten). The beauty books of the times frequently had "reciepts" for getting rid of freckles (I own a few, they're...astounding). Red hair was also not in fashion in the day, possibly because a lot of Irish were redheads.

[(Anonymous)]

AAAhhhh!!! I hadn't made the desertion connection. But it makes perfect sense. And you're right about Lydia being both pre-charmed and dumb enough to take him.

Adrianne