The Scandalous Conduct Of Lydia Bennet And George Wickham

The marriage of Lydia Bennet to George Wickham is probably one of the least advantageous marriages in the novel, for both parties. Though their economic and social positions may at first appear well matched, their individual spending habits and the circumstance of their union disregards this appearance. Lydia’s reputation is salvaged by her family’s concern on legalizing their union and, though the social implications of her elopement appear to be lost on her, Lydia is saved from ruining herself and her family by the generosity of Mr. Darcy. With this example of marriage, Austen critiques the imbalance of societal expectations placed on men and women, the social pressure to legalize the union between a man and woman through marriage, and the economics that often drove a man’s intentions.

Wickham’s character, and what the reader knows of him from Darcy’s revelations of his conduct towards Georgiana, imply from the beginning that he has no intention of marrying Lydia. When Lydia runs off with him she is unaware of his negative reputation. Even if she had known, her youth and inexperience both support that she would not have fully understood what she was doing by eloping with him. Though Austen does not reveal Lydia’s feelings during this time, she does allow the reader insight through Elizabeth’s thoughts, specifically that Elizabeth “did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement, without the intention of marriage” (Austen, 429). It was socially unacceptable for a woman to enter into an elopement with a man, especially if it ended without a contract of marriage. If they had not been married, Wickham would have been able to continue his life with no repercussions, but Lydia would have been a woman with tainted reputation and would have drastically decreased the prospects of marriage for herself and all of her sisters, since reputation was a key social factor in presenting a woman as eligible for marriage. This is why it is such a relief to the family when they hear that Lydia is returning as Wickham’s wife.

Though this situation is used as a way for Austen to demonstrate Darcy’s good character to the readers, it also shows us that the legality of marriage was very important at the time. It appears that, once they are properly married, “the sentiment of shame” which had surrounded the elopement disappears, at least for Mrs. Bennet as she rejoices over having a daughter finally married (Austen, 472). We also witness the transfer of legal responsibility for Lydia from Mr. Bennet to Mr. Wickham in Mr. Bennet’s reflections on how he “would scarcely be ten pounds a-year the loser” as the dowry allowance that he was giving Lydia upon her marriage was not much more than what she had already received for an allowance (Austen, 471). However, the fact that Wickham was willing to enter into the marriage was largely due to Mr. Darcy’s generosity in paying him off, as most people would not enter into a marriage with so little financial benefit to themselves without some other incentive. Their economic situation, though well-matched, as Lydia is the daughter of a landed-gentry family and Wickham earns a living in the militia, does not line up well with their spending habits. As the reader is aware, Lydia is an indulgent spender and Wickham has had debts in the past. Elizabeth doubts that they will be “supported in tolerable independence” because of their terrible financial forethought, and she is proved correct later in the novel when Lydia writes that “it is a great comfort to have you so rich,” implying that the couple would financially need all the help they could receive from their various family members (Austen, 475, 585).

It is clear from these examples that Lydia and Wickham’s marriage is one that not only borders on socially unacceptable, but also is not economically beneficial to either party. As such, it can be seen to be an example of the more scandalous side of marriage at the time, of a woman’s reliance on her reputation, and of the importance of the legality of marriage to preserve said reputation and ensure that the woman was properly provided for by both her family and her husband. Lydia and Wickham’s relationship defies social expectations of the time and centres around passion and lust, qualities that were not in the least encouraged as a means to “get husbands,” as Lydia so unabashedly says to her sisters of her misadventures at Brighton that led to her obtaining Wickham’s hand (Austen, 483). Austen can be seen to be critiquing the social expectations of marriage, as well as the financial and legal motivations that drove women and men to enter into marriage agreements.

By Emily Elsasser

Works Cited:

Austen, Jane. The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, (Interactive Edition). Ed. David M. Shapard. New York: Random House, 2012. E-book.

Jones, Hazel. Jane Austen and Marriage. London: Hazel Jones. 2009. Print.

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