Pride & Prejudice, ch. 35: The Opposite Of A Subtweet (2/2)

Credit to Chris Duke

Then we get into the Wickham of it all, and the entire tone of the letter takes a huge U-turn. Because here is where Darcy bares, if not his soul, then at least matters relating to the heart, and his sister is surely as good a metaphor for his heart (soft-spoken, rarely seen in public, a tower of vulnerability due to past grief) as any.

Darcy takes the view that since he doesn’t know what Wickham has been saying about him, he must lay out the history of Wickham as he’s seen it. We learn that little George really was close to Mr. Darcy the Elder (who paid for his education), and Mr. Darcy really did have it written in his will that Wickham should have a living if he wanted to be a clergyman. Only our Regency snake-in-the-grass left out the tell-tale “if” in that clause: “if he took orders,” Mr. Darcy “desired that a valuable family living might be his as soon as it became vacant.” Things Wickham didn’t share with Lizzy or anyone else: that Mr. Darcy also left him £1,000, that Wickham switched his major to pre-law after both Mr. Darcy and his own father died, and that Darcy converted that £1,000 into £3,000 despite his better judgment. 

Oh, and then Darcy adds that Wickham tried to elope with Miss Darcy by taking advantage of her relative isolation during a seaside vacation and with the help of her then-guardian.* And just to be clear, this is decidedly not a case of childhood sweethearts reuniting in a romantic setting. Wickham made the decision to go after Georgiana after Darcy rightly refused to give him the living (as Wickham took 3 times the amount promised to him and spent it within 3 years). He also mentioned that his going into the clergy was contingent on getting the living first, which is not how this works, it’s not how any of this works. So he preys on Georgiana, who has fond memories of him—and by the way, Darcy going out of his way to mention her age (“which must be her excuse” for initially consenting to marry) heavily implies that he feels Wickham took advantage of her inexperience** as much as her position as an heiress (to, ahem, £30,000). Of course, the fact that Georgiana ends up confessing her plans to her big brother, apart from being bittersweet, speaks to her own sense of what’s right and to her respect for him. “You may imagine what I felt and how I acted,” he writes, proving that he still keeps some details close to his chest. Anxiety to maintain his sister’s (and family’s) reputation is the reason why he’s kept mum about it for the past year.

It’s only been a year? Yikes!

Darcy also says that he believes Wickham wanted to “reveng[e] himself” on Darcy, a notion that may seem dramatic … but take a look at how Darcy introduces Wickham in his letter. As it turns out, Darcy “had opportunities of seeing [Wickham] in unguarded moments” where he showed his “want of principle, which he was careful to guard from the knowledge of [Mr. Darcy the Elder].” This points to a talent for deception that goes against the criticism leveled by many (including David M. Shapard) that Wickham is more lazy than malicious. Darcy also throws in a little detail about Wickham’s mother’s spending habits (Wickham the Steward was too weak to stand up to her, but otherwise appears to have been respectable), which might have inspired her son’s taste for extravagance if not his selfishness. One could also posit that coming from a poorer class and growing up on a high-ranking family’s estate might screw with one’s perception/expectation of class and wealth, though that might not have been the intended interpretation here. (Agree? Disagree?)

Darcy ends this with a suggestion that Lizzy, if she doubts his word, check with Col. Fitzwilliam to have it all confirmed. And … scene.

Final thought: What’s striking about the idea of this letter existing is that Lizzy may perhaps be the only unrelated female character who knows the full story of Wickham and Georgiana. It is heavily implied later that not even Lady Catherine is aware of what happened to her own niece (though, to be fair, hers is not a warming, understanding presence). Darcy’s housekeeper might not be aware, either (if you don’t want to be gossiped about, you don’t tell the dang servants). But Lizzy … she gets to know. A lot of this is because Darcy wanted to tell his truth and because he believes in her integrity—of course he does, otherwise he wouldn’t have fallen for her. But on a subtextual level, the existence of this letter speaks to an important development for their relationship: Darcy has given Lizzy a piece of his heart—not the romantic part of it—and she engages with it in a way that makes her look at herself as she never has before. They are one another’s building blocks to self-actualization. 

Sounds like a perfect love story to me.

Next chapter: Lizzy engages with the contents of the letter.

*This is giving me flashbacks to the Portsmouth scenes in Mansfield Park. Except for the “vacation” aspect.

**I know someone will put up an argument, but I maintain that Wickham and Henry Crawford are more alike than dissimilar. They’re not the same character. But there’s not a lot of daylight between them, either.