#Wickham

[bethanydelleman]

One text post for each dubious male character in each Austen novel

George Wickham, Pride & Prejudice

Mr. Elliot, Persuasion

John Thorpe, Northanger Abbey

John Willoughby, Sense & Sensibility

Henry Crawford, Mansfield Park

Frank Churchill, Emma

Bonus:

Jane Austen Text Posts

[dum-spiro-spero99]

ETOILE IN A NUTSHELL

[oswincoleman]

Jenna Coleman as Lydia Wickham in Death Comes to Pemberley, episode 2

[rambleonwithrosie]

Inspirational female representation is not flawless girl-bosses. It never has been. That's another one-dimensional unattainable version of perfection same as the 50s Housewife was. We can't all be Aunt Bea or Black Widow those are caricatures of what it means to be a woman and only highlight limited aspects of femininity without character growth or nuance. Assassin is no more of a personality than cook is.

Inspirational female representation in media is women who make mistakes and are still given value even after blundering. It's Anne falling off a roof. It's Evie wrecking a whole library and nearly ending the world. It's Eowyn in a suicidal depression riding into battle with the goal of dying. It's Lizzie believing everything Wickham says about Darcy.

It's Anne learning that you shouldn't fall for a bully's bait and pride has its place and it should be kept there. It's Evie learning that maybe don't assume something is safe because sometimes it definitely isn't, whether that's ladders or big black books. It's Eowyn learning to love herself and that she doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. It's Lizzie learning not to jump to conclusions about people's character.

It's the space for mistakes and growth. These characters are loved and lovable before, during, and after their mistakes. While they learn from the mistakes they make there is no pressure that from that moment on they are perfect and do nothing else less than perfectly (the mummy sequel doesn't exist here because they made Evie into a cardboard cutout of who she had been in the first film and stripped her depth and warmth). These women are allowed to fail, learn, and grow. They are also some of the most resonant characters in the history of women in literature and film. Who here consumed the media where they are represented and didn't feel akin to at least one of them in some way?

[mametupa]

[hotjaneaustenmenpoll]

Propaganda :

Willoughby : ...

Wickham :

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Howards End (1992, James Ivory)

11/11/2024

[atarsto]

By the way I drew @tanetime​‘s Wickham in October!!

This is a redraw of a much older drawing that I’m still very proud of. Which I you can see below the keep reading cut!

From late 2020!

[callmeanxietygirl]

[volcanicmudbubbles]

My headcanon is that Darcy and Wickham were good friends when they were little. Serious adult Darcy is drawn to playful people; it makes sense that as a child he liked pretty, vibrant Wickham.

But then — something. Darcy might’ve become aware of class structure and started backing out of the friendship: coldly, with no finesse, in a way that hurt Wickham. They might’ve turned on each other in a fight for Darcy’s father’s attention. Or Wickham realized he’d be relegated to a comparatively tiny house with a comparatively tiny income, and done any number of things in jealousy and resentment.

[bethanydelleman]

Mrs. Reynolds is biased but not wholly wrong when she remembers Darcy as a sweet child. He thought himself superior but was never, never haughty with those under his care. Personally, I headcanon Wickham as rude to Pemberley staff as a child and teen, but BOTH boys were spoiled.

No you're totally right. Darcy's problem is being polite to people specifically outside of his family and/or sphere of influence:

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoiled by my parents, who, though good themselves, (my father particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable,) allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight-and-twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.”

I think it does really say a lot about Darcy that he's benevolent to his employees, because there are a lot of petty tyrants out there being terrible to people under them. This also plays into why Darcy's redemption doesn't change him "in essentials." He was a good person, he just had allowed himself to be rude to those he considered unworthy of his politeness. Once he expands his good nature to everyone, he's doing it right.

I have to imagine Wickham got at least one servant pregnant before he went to university.

[tanetime]

Now that I've posted both Wyneer and Wickham I guess I can post this unfinished comic I made two years ago, based on a fic I was writing.

In which Wickham conducts research on Wyneer's masks.

Establishing direct communication with your magical alternate personalities is ill-advised.

I didn't think this was that funny back when I made it, but it was funny enough for a friend to get that Wyneer face printed on a mug and send it to me.

[veryhotsoccerplayers]

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

Actually, I know damn well Darcy never sat down and thought about marrying Lizzie. If he had, it would have been a week before he was rounding up Bingley, sitting him down, and looking him in the eye like he was about to propose high treason and going, "Jane. You still down bad for her?"

Coin toss whether Bingley would actually get to answer before Darcy turned around and flipped over a whiteboard like

and launched right into the most detailed migration pattern known to Regency England to keep the extraneous Bennets as contained as humanly possible by rotating them between various Bingley/Darcy estates. Like, we're talking about trading them off for minor holidays a decade out kind of detailed.

"If you and Jane take them for Lady Day ten years hence, Elizabeth and I will take them for Michaelmas. We'll all be together for Christmas and Midsummer, so we'll divide the responsibility individually on those days."

This would be followed by thirteen different spreadsheets projecting joint expenditures so Bingley knows what sort of financial commitment he'll be shouldering and how to minimize it, what proportion Darcy will take care of, what the estate plans are in case Darcy predeceases anybody, when they should probably roll out various stages to keep it from affecting their respective sisters' ability to maximize their own husband-hunting--whole nine yards.

Darcy does not know that he'll probably be murdered when the Bingley sisters find out why he asked for their social calendars. He'd be marginally fine with that at this point, because the fucking Napoleonic War campaigns were not as meticulously planned as his roadmap to getting the other three Bennets satisfactorily married, and Darcy feels about as able as if he'd spent the last year on Elba.

It takes Bingley a few minutes to realize why this is happening, then he's like

"You proposed to Elizabeth?! Congratulations!"

Darcy... knew there was something he was forgetting.

That man would have kicked the Collins's door open with four binders tucked under each arm, dumped them in a pile in front of Elizabeth, and loudly announced that if they get married tomorrow he can have her entire family except for Jane extraordinary renditioned to the Scottish moors by Sunday and then been like

"Why are you yelling at me?! I promise you, it will work! You'll never see anyone in your family except for Jane again, I swear it!" when she starts yelling at him.

[hotjaneaustenmenpoll]

Okay so is Wickham awful ? yes! But as he is up against Willougby who is equally awful if not more so I would like to add some reasons why George Wickham is actually hotter than John Willoughby (2008)! First both may be thought of as bad people but great company yet only one wears regimentals! Wickham is friends with Denny! And we all love Denny! (And I have it in my head that in persasion it's implied Willoughby and Mr Elliot are in the same set but that may be wrong). One comes back and is all beggy and self-pitying but Wickham comes back and is shamelessly jolly - still shamelessly tries to flirt with his wife's sister- and to me personally if you are going to be a cad - be a cadddd - trying to justify it makes it worse - Wickham embraces being a bad boy and deep down we love it! So please I am begging the people save the one true Jane Austen F*ck Boy! SAVE GEORGE WICKHAM!!

As they both ran off with 15 year olds I will allow some light Willoughby bashing here but don't make it a habit people!

Willoughby (2008) Vs Wickham (1995)

[firawren]

Pride and Prejudice 1995 text posts, part 6 of ? - prev set, next set

More: Persuasion 1995 text posts | Sense and Sensibility 1995 text posts | Northanger Abbey 2007 text posts | Emma. 2020 text posts