Lydia and Wickham

                The love story of Lydia and Wickham is perhaps the farthest thing from a love story in the entire "Pride and Prejudice" novel. A majority of their relationship occurs as dialogue between other characters and not with their personal accounts. The relationship's progression is also experienced out of order, with the initial shock of it, the resolution, and then finally the progression. Jane Austen uses dialogue from the other characters, characterization of the couple, and point of view to describe their relationship.

                Their relationship begins quite abruptly and with little forethought, very similar to Lydia's personality. She is a flirtatious and outgoing young girl who does not have much foresight to the consequences of her actions. Running away with Wickham is one of the worst ideas she has ever had, due to it ruining her family's reputation but she sees it all as a good joke. It is also indicated to Elizabeth, that "W.(Wickham) never intended to go there, or to marry Lydia at all." This she learns from her sister relaying information from another soldier. Most of the events surrounding this relationship are passed via gossip of other characters. By doing this, Austen gives this marriage an air of mystery, as well as allowing the reader to feel the same stressful unknowing felt by the Bennets.

                After Wickham and Lydia are found, they end up marrying even though it never seemed possible. Wickham was not a wealthy man and he was only promised five thousand a year when he married Lydia. Elizabeth knows that this is not enough but cannot deduce what changed Wickham's mind. Throughout all of the issues of marriage, Lydia remains blissfully ignorant to all of the trouble she has caused for her family and friends. When she arrives home, she declares that "I am sure my sisters must all envy me. I hope they may have half my good luck." She is completely oblivious to the nature of her marriage, as well as the nature of her husband himself. Due to this being one of the only times the opinion of this marriage is given by Lydia herself, it confirms her flirtatious, ignorant, and simple-minded nature.

                This relationship is resolved in the book without indication of how it was done. At this point, the reader is seeing from Elizabeth's point of view, and are therefore just as ignorant as she as to how Wickham was persuaded to marry Lydia. She knows that Lydia's inheritance was not enough to satisfy him and his debts which was why he had no indications of marrying her in the first place. After their wedding, Lydia lets it slip that Mr. Darcy was present when the two of them were married. This confuses Elizabeth since she knows of the two men's animosity so she inquires about it from her aunt, Mrs. Gardiner. Her aunt then explains that "His (Wickham's) debts are to be paid, amounting, I believe, to considerably more than a thousand pounds, another thousand in addition to her own settled upon her, and his commission purchased." All of this was done by Mr. Darcy to essentially bribe Wickham into marrying Lydia. This event is the perfect example of Wickham's character. He only wanted to marry for money but was willing to pretend to love Lydia because she was young and flirtatious. When it was necessary for him to marry Lydia according to the Bennet family, it requires thousands of pounds from his archenemy to satisfy him enough to marry her.

                The marriage between Lydia and Wickham is the most loveless relationship in Pride and Prejudice. By using dialogue of the other characters, characterization, and point of view, Jane Austen is able to describe the very nature of this relationship. Lydia is an ignorant coquette who sees marriage as something fantastic and fun, with no consequences to herself or her family. Wickham wants to marry for money and until he is bribed into doing so, he has no intentions of ever marrying Lydia, although he does not indicate this to her. Even though a majority of this relationship is experienced from Elizabeth's perspective which keeps the reader ignorant to what is happening, it is obvious that there is no love in their relationship. Wickham loves money and Lydia loves the idea of marrying a soldier, she does not really care who it is. Together, they make a completely horrible and loveless pairing.