What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

Anonymous asked: Wickham is a smooth charmer. He was best friends with Darcy, yet he decided to "romance" Georginia and abandon her. Darcy was furious because not only was Wickham generally a jerk to women, but Georgina was very very young. Lizzie was taken in by Wickham and regretted not telling her parents about him, since otherwise Lydia might have been protected. I really don't understand using Wickham/Lydia as a example of a teen/adult relationship that's like..okay?

I’m not using it as an example of a relationship that’s okay; I’m using Pride and Prejudice as an example of a book which features a not-okay relationship where the story is nonetheless beloved, and where - given the real-world historical context - we know that Lydia doesn’t have a lot of great options once Wickham seduces her, given her personality, her level of education and her lack of money. So when people read or watch Pride and Prejudice, even knowing that Wickham is a skeevy, predatory douche, we don’t tend to think of the story’s ending as a tragedy, not because we’re objectively okay with what’s happened to Lydia, but because the character herself is happy and offered some tangible protection by her connection to Darcy and his family.  

  1. nowwavingnotdrowning reblogged this from fozmeadows
  2. itsathought2 said: I guess I’m saying we probably shouldn’t project a “good marriage” in the modern meaning on that book. Marriage was a different beast in that time. The idea of marrying for love or refusing to marry for any other reason was still quite new. And then the expectations she place on the marriage relationship did not exist. We expect an emotional and spiritual fulfillment out of marriage. That was not expected then.
  3. itsathought2 said: Lydia is written as a moral lesson on practical marriage. Don’t be a silly fool & throw away your future for sex. Because in their time all her cards were on that table, she was ruined & her life would certainly have been a Tragedy if Darcy hadn’t saved her. Wickham would have left her, & her family would likely have shunned her. She would be homeless without skills. Lydia saved from Tragedy became the plot pivot to Elizabeth marrying love & money. Moral of the story.
  4. star-anise said: Part of the point of Lydia is sometimes people make decisions that are frankly incomprehensible and upsetting, and you CAN’T just decide they don’t get to do that anymore. Sometimes YOU have to live with the shitty decisions OTHER people make. Life is full of messiness and moral ambiguity!
  5. fozmeadows posted this