Lizzy and Mr. Wickham

Pride and Prejudice, a novel focused on the importance of first impressions on love, has stood the test of time to become a literary classic.  The book has many different couples and relationships, the most popular of course, being the relationship of Lizzy and Darcy.  They hate each other in the beginning, but grow to love each other as the story progresses, a true fairy tale.  While the relationship of Lizzy and Darcy is one of pride and prejudice, it is not the only one in the novel.  A relationship that may be overlooked in discussions, and film adaptations of the novel, is the relationship of Lizzy and Mr. Wickham.  Joe Wright’s 2005 film adaptation starring Keira Knightly only briefly hints at the relationship.  Their relationship has just as much pride and prejudice as Darcy and Lizzy’s however, it doesn’t get the spotlight it deserves.  This is most likely because it does not have a fairy-tale ending, rather it ends with Wickham marrying Lizzy’s sister, and almost ruining her family.

            When Lizzy and Wickham meet, she is immediately under his spell.  On their introduction, he played the part of the perfect man; she thought that he was “far beyond them [the officers] all in person, countenance, air, and walk (252).”  Officers are a favorite of the Bennets and she puts him even above them.  This shows how much Lizzy cares for Wickham just after meeting him.  Austen also uses situational irony during their introduction.  Just after Wickham is introduced, Darcy and Bingley ride up.  “Mr. Wickham, after a few moments, touched his hat—a salutation which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return.  What could be the meaning of it?  It was impossible to imagine; it was impossible not to long to know (250).”  This choice encounter creates an air of mystery for Wickham, and a perfect reason for him to disclose the “injustices” that Darcy had plagued him.  When Wickham and the girls go to the Phillips’s house, Lizzy is all too eager to have a seat next to Wickham and talk with him.  She felt that “that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker (252).”  Austen uses descriptive diction, with many adjectives to talk about the relationship between Lizzy and Wickham.  When they finally reach the topic of Mr. Darcy, Wickham tells her,   ““I have no right to give my opinion,’" said Wickham, " ‘as to his being agreeable or otherwise (252).’”  A few sentences later, he goes on to disclose his tale of being forced out of his profession out of the house because Darcy was jealous.  Lizzy is quick to believe Wickham because she does not believe he has a reason to lie.

Lizzy falls under Wickham’s spell, which is crushed only after she learns the truth of Mr. Darcy.  Even when Wickham has relations with Miss King, Lizzy still likes him.  She only grows to see the other side of Wickham after Darcy’s letter, which uncovers the truth to Wickham’s “injustices.”  Even when she reads the letter, she still has some feelings of affability towards Wickham, because she “This must be false!  This cannot be!  This must be the grossest falsehood!  (321)"—and when she had gone through the whole letter, though scarcely knowing anything of the last page or two, put it hastily away, protesting that she would not regard it, that she would never look in it again.  When she finally sees the truth in Darcy’s statements, she wants nothing to do with Wickham.    

Wickham and Lizzy’s relationship was destined for failure.  He was a liar, and she was willing to believe him.  However, Lizzy is a smart girl, so she would have found out about his lies eventually.  Their relationship would not have worked out anyway, as Lizzy does not have enough money to offer him for the marriage.  The relationship of Lizzy and Wickham is another example of how prejudice can be harmful, but it also serves as a stepping point to helping Lizzy marry Darcy, so it was not for nothing.