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crosspost: Wickham and Georgiana [Sep 2015]
One of my favourite pieces of characterization in P&P is a single phrase in Darcy’s letter–about Wickham.
he so far recommended himself to Georgiana, whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child, that she was persuaded to believe herself in love
This is a completely incidental aspect of Wickham’s characterization. It doesn’t matter that he was kind to Georgiana once, because later on he stalked, manipulated, and exploited her.
In fandom, people often come up with reasons such a comprehensively horrible person would have been kind to a child. Maybe he was deliberately setting the stage for the later seduction, per the 1995 P&P (ew: he was out of the picture by the time Georgiana was ten or eleven). Maybe he was sucking up to his godfather. Given his character, that seems perfectly probable.
However. As written, there’s no suggestion that Wickham had any ulterior motives in his treatment of Georgiana as a child. And this is Darcy speaking; if anyone would be inclined to suspect some self-serving intent, it’s him. It’s just left there. Wickham has it in him to be kind to a child.
Yet literally nobody says, “he’s not that bad, he’s nice to children!” It never comes up again. It’s allowed to just … exist, as this good but irrelevant note in his character. Wickham is a horrible person, and he’s had moments of selfless benevolence, and he’s still horrible.
he so far recommended himself to Georgiana, whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child, that she was persuaded to believe herself in love
This is a completely incidental aspect of Wickham’s characterization. It doesn’t matter that he was kind to Georgiana once, because later on he stalked, manipulated, and exploited her.
In fandom, people often come up with reasons such a comprehensively horrible person would have been kind to a child. Maybe he was deliberately setting the stage for the later seduction, per the 1995 P&P (ew: he was out of the picture by the time Georgiana was ten or eleven). Maybe he was sucking up to his godfather. Given his character, that seems perfectly probable.
However. As written, there’s no suggestion that Wickham had any ulterior motives in his treatment of Georgiana as a child. And this is Darcy speaking; if anyone would be inclined to suspect some self-serving intent, it’s him. It’s just left there. Wickham has it in him to be kind to a child.
Yet literally nobody says, “he’s not that bad, he’s nice to children!” It never comes up again. It’s allowed to just … exist, as this good but irrelevant note in his character. Wickham is a horrible person, and he’s had moments of selfless benevolence, and he’s still horrible.