Mr Wickham Charming Hero Or Deceptive Villain?

Let's take a look at Pride & Prejudice's main antagonist. Is Mr. Wickham a true victim of his upbringing and circumstances? Is he a chancer and a rake with a deceptive side?

Feel free to drop a comment or two and let me know your thoughts.

0:00 Intro
0:55 First Impressions
1:58 An Interesting Young Man
2:48 Wickham's Arc - from protagonist to antagonist
3:39 Wickham Confides
4:43 Revelations of Darcy
7:04 Several Scandals
8:33 An Image of a Rake
8:54 A Hidden Character
9:54 A Foil to Darcy
10:20 Wickham as an antagonist to Elizabeth
10:57 A Moral Outcome
11:49 Outro
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[estrella]

😮Why doesn’t your channel have at least 20k subscribers? Come on people! Let’s get this entertaining and informative contributor over the 20k mark. It’s free! ❤😊

[maryhamric]

Wickham is a villain. He became selfish and entitled living amongst wealth as a boy and felt the world owed him as an adult. So he took what he wanted as he wanted. He gambled, lied, stole, manipulated, etc. He showed no change of character throughout the novel. Great video!

[HRJohn]

With respect, I think that you have missed an important revelation of Wickham's character before Darcy's letter tells us how unscrupulous Wickham is: he dumps Lizzy for Mary King, who has just inherited £10, 000. Lizzy is forgiving - understanding, almost: "..young men must have something to live on..", but even the first time reader won't be. Even if we've been taken in before ('fess-up time: I was) our (well, my) reaction was "this guy isn't a good person". Fortunately, Miss King is moved from Meryton, so her inheritance is safe (at least, from Wckham).

[sherryd]

Mr Bennett was the first person to see the real Wickham. After Wickham left the Bennett home after having tea, Mr Bennet said something to the effect of Wickham revels in his tales of victimhood and that Darcy might not turn out to be any worse than any other rich and powerful man of his station.

[kathrynmurphy]

I cannot get enough of your explanatory videos on p&p so please keep them coming. They give me a greater depth of understanding of the novel and of Jane. Thank you

[ShyyGaladriel]

I don’t think Wickham is Mr Darcy’s half brother, him running away with Georgiana would have been extremely weird if he was.

[margaret]

I have always thought that perhaps Wickham saw Elizabeths change of feelings for Darcy (even before she does) and thinks to use that to damage Darcy or at least get money from him

[celiafaux]

I'm pretty sure you're right about the draft title! Thanks for this video--I'm a new subscriber, and I'm excited for more P&P content!

[carolmeindl]

Darcy is not completely honorable. He did move in the shadows when he was manipulating Bingley and convincing him that Jane did not really care for him. And yet he says “ but disguise of every sort is my abhorrence “ Ha!

Also, it always amused me when Mr Bennett says of Wickham, once after he had been visiting at Longbourn”It was very good of him to entertain us so eloquently with stories about his misfortunes. With such narratives to hand, who would read novels?” It seemed that Mr Bennett could sense the inappropriateness of Wickham being so candid to strangers, but Elisabeth could not.

[andythain]

Again another interesting insight. The casting of Adrian Lukis as Wickham is perfection but then again wasn't all the casting in P&P 95. Tudor thanks for putting these together. Always interesting and insightful.

[poodlez]

I'm having such a good time with these videos! You do a great job and make me appreciate Miss Austen's talents even more.

[pollyparrot]

That was a good discussion of Wickham's character. One thing I really like about Jane Austen is that she goes for realistic, rather than melodramatic, resolutions to the human interactions in her novels. In this case, Lydia does not learn any lessons from the near-disaster that befell her - she is not even aware of it, and stays as annoyingly over-confident as ever. Wickham doesn't suffer any immediate serious consequences either, although being stuck with a silly wife who won't have much to recommend her once her youth and beauty are gone could be punishment enough.

[alidabaxter]

Thank you for another absolutely fascinating video, and you're discussing a man so vital to the twists and turns of the plot of Pride and Prejudice that it's irresistible to join in with the conversation. Like others, I don't think for a moment that he and Darcy are half brothers; his father managed the family's estates and I think he grew up with a chip on his shoulder about the difference in their stations and wealth, and always wanted an easy life - no matter what it took to get it. He is so smooth, such a credible sufferer, in contrast to Darcy's insistence on keeping his private life, including his sister's near-seduction, absolutely private (for which he blames himself later, as it enabled Wickham to be accepted in Meryton as a man without a stain on his character). Mr. Bennet is the only one to sniff anything of the rogue about him, at first. In the television adaptation he refers to the way Wickham recites his woes, but in the book it's more succinct, as he says to Lizzie, "Here are officers enough at Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably." But even he doesn't suspect Wickham would run off with Lydia. Wickham is the essential catalyst in the novel; once the scales fall from Lizzie's eyes about him, she realises how wrong she has been in other opinions, and crucially in her opinion of Darcy. It's such a wonderfully written book and I love listening to you and going over it again with you. Thank you so much.

[catherinehubbard]

I don’t believe Wickham is Darcy’s bastard half brother. Darcy describes his father as having strict principles, and he says to Elizabeth that he was the son of a high-ranking male servant, I forget which one. Darcy would not have lied to her about this. Wickham is jealous not only of the wealth but the lineage.

In the ‘95 adaptation, Wickham is smarmy and ingratiating rather than polite from the start. It’s not until later that Elizabeth perceives the impropriety of his telling her such damaging personal things right away. She was so angry and humiliated by Darcy that she wasn’t thinking clearly. She WANTED to believe the worst of Darcy’s character. It’s inspired writing and shows again what a painful burden her mother’s and sisters’ horrible public behavior puts on her. Darcy’s thoughtless comments at the first village dance hit very hard.

[rachelfandel]

I love your Pride and Prejudice videos!!! Keep them coming. This is how I found all of your channels. I have to go with villain here. He is very international in what he is doing, and he had many opportunities to better himself and he chose not to. I also always wondered if Lizzie’s change in attitude to him (after Darcy’s letter) set him off to pursue Lydia almost as a revenge against both Lizzie and Darcy.

[QUARTERMASTEREMI]

The scary thing is that if Elizabeth is easily fell for his charms too, it’s not wonder that little Lydia falls even harder for him! 😅

[BeeWhistler]

With Wickham, Austen has created a villain who was gross from the start and is only grosser to modern readers. Completely false, a greedy, lazy golddigger, AND a pedo groomer. He’s the worst.

[elizabethpeters]

I think that at least some, if not all of Wickham's vendetta against Darcy is because he is eaten alive by a deep-seated jealousy of Darcy from childhood that segues into hatred as an adult. He envies Darcy's wealth, intelligence, even his integrity because he lacks them.

[daniellayearim]

Yes he is a manipulating figure to everyone he meets. Resentful towards Darcy because even in his upbringing aside Darcy he is not on his level . Austin did not mention it in full but gave the impression he is a jealous person. At least by the end of the book it gives the impression because it is Lydia who writes to her sisters and they assure a donation from time to time or give money for a new commission for him. In a certain way Lizzy and Jane provide a bit for their sister even Lydia deserves it. Lydia's character is like her mother careless and in mind that it normal others have to provide for them ( out the words of her mother who finds it normal that her brother had to provide to solve the situation for Lydia not understanding the debt who was created ). For sure Austin in her novels did write about people or situations she knew not only fiction.

[YDdraigGoch]

Thank you so much for this video, Tudor! I love how you mentioned that Wickham and Darcy are complete foils to each other. Yes, Wickham might appear to shine forth as a great person, but that shine is of fool's gold. However, Darcy is the diamond in the rough that is right under our noses, and only reveals himself in time. I would also love to see a videos of Kitty and/or Jane on their characters, as well.