![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Tumblr crosspost (11 June 2020)
Sometimes I think about Wickham’s stalkery pursuit of Georgiana, and Darcy’s perspective on it:
She was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse; and after stating her imprudence, I am happy to add that I owed the knowledge of it to herself. I joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the intended elopement, and then Georgiana, unable to support the idea of grieving and offending a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father, acknowledged the whole to me. You may imagine what I felt and how I acted. Regard for my sister’s credit and feelings prevented any public exposure; but I wrote to Mr Wickham
And Darcy’s response to Lydia’s “elopement”:
He saw Wickham, and afterwards insisted on seeing Lydia. His first object with her, he acknowledged, had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her, offering his assistance as far as it would go. But he found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. She cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving Wickham; she was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, he thought, to secure and expedite a marriage.
Even though the situations are not exactly the same, and (as we see here) Lydia and Georgiana are very different, I think it’s interesting that Darcy’s first impulse is basically the same: to get them out of the situation without marriage and with minimized consequences. He still thinks the situations are bad—just that neither should be shackled to Wickham for life because of a poor choice at 15/16.
(I also think it’s interesting that he says that he was able to help Georgiana because of Georgiana’s decision—a level of initiative he emphasizes but which most takes on her ignore.)
#i lowgrade resent all adaptations' takes on georgiana and l'affaire ramsgate #darcy finds out because /georgiana/ chose to tell him—and she makes that choice because of her love and respect for him #lydia does not give a single fuck about anyone's feelings beyond her own because of how she's been raised #if austen is consistently preoccupied with any one thing it's the education of girls tbh #and boys actually (to a lesser extent) #and pride and prejudice is very much about the ways in which parents and parental figures warp or help the younger generation #and that's super present in the georgiana/lydia parallels-opposition
She was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse; and after stating her imprudence, I am happy to add that I owed the knowledge of it to herself. I joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the intended elopement, and then Georgiana, unable to support the idea of grieving and offending a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father, acknowledged the whole to me. You may imagine what I felt and how I acted. Regard for my sister’s credit and feelings prevented any public exposure; but I wrote to Mr Wickham
And Darcy’s response to Lydia’s “elopement”:
He saw Wickham, and afterwards insisted on seeing Lydia. His first object with her, he acknowledged, had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her, offering his assistance as far as it would go. But he found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. She cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving Wickham; she was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, he thought, to secure and expedite a marriage.
Even though the situations are not exactly the same, and (as we see here) Lydia and Georgiana are very different, I think it’s interesting that Darcy’s first impulse is basically the same: to get them out of the situation without marriage and with minimized consequences. He still thinks the situations are bad—just that neither should be shackled to Wickham for life because of a poor choice at 15/16.
(I also think it’s interesting that he says that he was able to help Georgiana because of Georgiana’s decision—a level of initiative he emphasizes but which most takes on her ignore.)
#i lowgrade resent all adaptations' takes on georgiana and l'affaire ramsgate #darcy finds out because /georgiana/ chose to tell him—and she makes that choice because of her love and respect for him #lydia does not give a single fuck about anyone's feelings beyond her own because of how she's been raised #if austen is consistently preoccupied with any one thing it's the education of girls tbh #and boys actually (to a lesser extent) #and pride and prejudice is very much about the ways in which parents and parental figures warp or help the younger generation #and that's super present in the georgiana/lydia parallels-opposition