Pride and Prejudice Paper: Societal Norms Make Wickham the Victim by Lauren

Societal Norms Make Wickham the Victim

It was evident that many in our class believed that George Wickham was the most villainous character of Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. He is one of the many barriers that lie in-between the novel’s most prominent characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, which played a role in earning him the widespread hatred of our class. Not to mention his brief affairs with multiple ladies in the novel —Georgina, Elizabeth, Miss. King, and Lydia — which led many in the class to despise him further. Wickham is consistently criticized by Austen’s readers resulting in him being labeled as a manipulative fortune hunter. However, I argue that he is not that bad of a person. He is no different than the typical female of that time period, therefore, it is completely hypocritical for one to dislike Wickham while at the same time be accepting of the principle actions of the female characters in this novel. 

The upbringing of females in this time period is solely geared towards preparing them to go to parties with the goal of gaining a husband with a good fortune who can provide them financial security. To achieve this, females must learn to constantly present themselves in a specific manner to draw the attention of males. A lady must have attributes such as “a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages… and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions” (Austen 29). Having these attributes is vital to all girls, especially to the ones who are a member of the lower class. Once more, females must look physically beautiful to spark the interest of males; think of how Darcy first dismisses Elizabeth due to something as superficial as her facial features. Matters such as physical appearance make it rather difficult for a poor individual to attract a partner. Luckily for Wickham, “his appearance was greatly in his favor”, which was also complemented by the sense of approachability that he emitted to those around him (Austen 52). 

Wickham is a financially poor man, making it difficult for him to gain a wife, just as it is difficult for a financially poor female to gain a husband. Due to the odds against him, Wickham relies on his charming personality and his delightfulness to present himself in a handsome manner with a well-rounded personality and politeness (Austen 55). This mirrors how girls must present themselves in public. Furthermore, just like the daughters of the Bennet family, in order to sustain his future Wickham must look to marry for money. This is not as easy for a poor man to do as it is for a wealthy man to do because the females are conditioned to aim for wealthy suitors. When Wickham tries to enter into an engagement, promoted by a financial gain, he is scorned and looked down upon by not only the other characters of the story, but also the readers of the story. This is hypocritical because the females of this society are essentially striving to achieve the same goal.

It has been said in class, more than once, that “Wickham” sounds like “wicked” when in reality it sounds more closely to “victim”. It was the lying and the manipulative actions that led the class to the “wicked” saying. However, Wickham is a victim of bad misfortune, “mismanagement in education”, and guidance which set him up for a life of trying to climb out of a hole of financial debt (Austen 155). Darcy and Wickham grew up very closely to one another and so it is interesting to consider that had they had the same access to money and the proper understanding of finances after the death of Darcy’s father, then perhaps Wickham would have led a life much more similar to Darcy’s: a life neglected from the need to lie and manipulate in order to protect the security of his future. 

In the widespread interest of financial security, Wickham's first attempt at marrying a wealthy female is with Georgina Darcy. Although he received consent from Georgina, this attempt at marriage ultimately results in Wickham’s loss of his only secure source of inheritance. This is because Darcy disapproves of Wickham’s actions and refuses to give Wickham his share of the late Mr. Darcy’s will money. The class argued that marrying an individual younger than him for the sole purpose of her promised fortune was manipulative and immoral, yet in this day and age, marrying for money was the norm. Wickham “really [hadn’t] done any thing to deserve to lose” the money he was supposed to have inherited once he was of age (Austen 58). Nevertheless, he lost the money because Darcy did not approve of a union between his own sister and Wickham. 

When referring to this union, Darcy states in his letter to Elizabeth, “I cannot help supposing that the hope of revenging himself on me was a strong inducement” (Austen 140). It is possible that revenge could have had nothing to do with Wickham’s want for a union with Georgina. He is simply in need of financial support and is seeking a marriage, like every female of the book is also doing. It is not a stretch to consider that this sentence of Darcy's letter was another scenario where his prideful personality takes over. It was rather narcissistic of Darcy to insert himself as a reason for something occurring; but because Darcy has gained the favor of the novel's readers, we choose not to question Darcy's account on what happened between Georgina and Wickham. 

If Wickham was truly wicked and solely a fortune hunter, then he would have gone for Lady Catherine De Bourgh’s daughter, Anne, early in the novel. The fact that he chooses not do this because of Anne’s rude character, proves that Wickham also has other qualities he wishes to have in a wife other than wealth. His restraint of engaging with Anne should aid his likeness amongst the readers, yet it goes unnoticed. First, we see Wickham fail at marrying the wealthy sister, then we see him willingly choose to avoid attempting to marry the rich snobby girl. Next, we see him decide to try his luck with Elizabeth Bennet. 

The connection blooming between Wickham and Elizabeth runs smoothly until her family intervenes. Elizabeth and he got along quite nicely and they enjoyed each other's company, much to the horror of her family members who felt that Wickham’s lack of money made him an unsuitable match. Not accepting Wickham solely because of his wealth status instead of because of him as a person, Mrs. Gardiner felt it necessary to pull Elizabeth aside and inserted her own opinion on the matter. Elizabeth’s aunt voiced how she believed it would be reckless of Elizabeth to “encourage such an attachment” to Wickham as it would cause shame and embarrassment for her father and family (Austen 101).

“I have nothing to say against him; he is a most interesting young man; 

and if he had the fortune he ought to have, I should think you could not 

do better.” (Austen 101)

As time goes by, we see that the connection between Wickham and Elizabeth begins to die as a result of family disapproval. As the reader, we should have been left with resolved feelings about this unfortunate matter because we can presume that “she would have been his only choice, had fortune permitted it” and they parted on understanding terms (Austen 105). However, this was not the case as our feelings of resolvement were overshadowed with our rash disgust over the fact that Wickham was trying to secure the financial future of his life by advancing towards Miss King.

            In a discussion between Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth about Wickham’s attentions towards Miss King, Mrs. Gardiner symbolized the perspectives of the readers and societal norms while Elizabeth symbolized the disregarded sense of reason. In reply to Mrs. Gardiner’s attempts of painting Wickham as a corrupt man for seeking out Miss King, Elizabeth says to her aunt, “Last Christmas you were afraid of his marrying me, because it would be imprudent; and now, because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds, you want to find out that he is mercenary.” To this her aunt responds, “But he paid her not the smallest attention, till her grandfather’s death made her mistress of this fortune.” In return Elizabeth says, “No—why should he? If it was not allowable for him to gain my affections, because I had no money, what occasion could there be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about, and who was equally poor?” Mrs. Gardiner still argued against Elizabeth because she was hung up on the fact that Wickham went to Miss King so soon after the death of her grandfather. Because of this Elizabeth begins too close this topic of conversation with a final logical rebuttal, “A man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe. If she does not object to it, why should we? (Austen 107-108) It is wonderfully illustrated in this scene how Wickham has the potential to be ridiculed no matter who he chooses to seek a future with. He goes after Elizabeth (the lower classed girl) and is turned away because of his lack of money. He seeks out Miss King (the upper classed girl) and is accused of fortune hunting. He is stuck in this limbo area, caught between the two classes of females, unable to reach either class due to the opinions of others. 

           How hypocritical it is for us to stigmatize Wickham’s actions and not have the same feelings of contempt towards Elizabeth’s actions. When examining the principle of the matter, it is clear to see how Wickham’s character serves as a scapegoat. Is Wickham’s jump from Elizabeth to Miss King (from low class to upper classed) not the same thing as Elizabeth’s—the female’s— jump from Wickham to Darcy (the poor classed man to the upper classed man)? Wickham is not suitable for Elizabeth for the same reasons that she is not suitable for Darcy. Nevertheless, Elizabeth being interested in pursuing Darcy’s favor is acceptable because of societal norms.

            One may bring up the point that when talking with Elizabeth, Wickham omitted details involving the origin of the dislike between him and Darcy. To this, I would remind you that he is in dire need of finding a wife so that he can marry and receive necessary financial security for his future; all of which he is otherwise unable to do as a result of his societal standings. It is reasonable to understand why Wickham eventually had to resort to less honorable methods, such as lying by omission of details, to crawl out of his limbo. Is he expected to continue unfairly failing at obtaining a wife just as he has been? Choosing to continue as he has been would be self-destructing. He must rely on lying by omission in order to reach the same playing field as the wealthy upper-class men. While this is not an honorable approach, Wickham is the product of bad misfortune as opposed to being inherently a bad human being. In his defense, Wickham’s lies do not add false details or accusations. He only omits details meaning that his lies could be much more severe than he chooses them to be. 

            The relation between Wickham and Miss King eventually fell through for reasons to which we are uncertain. Becoming discouraged due to the multiple unsuccessful attempts at gaining a wife who can offer him financial security, Wickham reaches a point of such severe desperation and any wife is better than no wife. Therefore, we see that his final attempt at marriage is with Lydia Bennet. I agree that this action at first glance appears to be unhonorable and manipulative and it seems as if he has wrong intentions. However, after running away with Lydia, Wickham would have had no choice but to marry her. Just as explained by Mr. Gardiner, Wickham’s own reputation and career would have been ruined had he run away from his position in the militia and wrecked another girl’s reputation in the process (Austen 191). His actions would have been so publicly damaging to his life. He would have lost his career, the one thing keeping him financially afloat, and all other hopes of marriage would be lost if he ran away with Lydia and didn’t marry her. 

As explained thoroughly in Mrs. Gardiner’s letter to Elizabeth, Lydia didn’t have much in the way of money, but Wickham was well aware that Mr. Bennet could still do something for him financially and desperate times called for desperate measures in Wickham's mind. He was pushed into a corner after failing with many prospective marriages and he settles for what he expects to be a little financial gain with Lydia. Bluffing and claiming that he won’t go through with the marriage, he demands the Bennet family give him money. This is where we witness how desperate and dire circumstances bring out the ugly side of humanity. In the end, Wickham receives more than he was expecting financially. Darcy chooses to intervene by paying off Wickham’s debts, re-establishing a place in the regiment for him, and by giving him money. Darcy did this because everyone believed Wickham’s bluff even though it was unreasonable to believe that Wickham would sabotage his one chance at gaining any type of fortune from marriage and also put his career on the line. 

Wickham’s transformation throughout the book ends with him being pushed to carry out drastic measures for the sake of his own security. He is not the only character to display ugly characteristic traits, yet he is the character in this novel that receives the most backlash for his actions. In order to climb out of the hole of financial insecurity and debt, which he put himself in due to foolish decisions at a young age, Wickham must work to find a wife. How he responds to his repeated failures at this task masks his true character as it casted a villainous light on him. As a consequence, he was left misunderstood by those around him and by the readers. He is a victim of societal structures which cornered him, forcing him to rely on lies and manipulations to get out. Because of self-preservation, Wickham does bad things but that does not mean that he is inherently a bad person.  

Work Cited:

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism.

         Edited by Donald J. Gray and Mary A. Favret, W . W . Norton & Company, 2016.