#georgiana darcy

[didanagy]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995)

dir. simon langton

[lightgaswaterelectricityrent]

this is my hand flex

[dearemma]

PERIODDRAMA APPRECIATION WEEK 2023

Day 5: Favorite period drama film ( Pride and Prejudice, Dir. Joe Wright )

[anghraine]

This is unnecessarily long, but: I was just thinking about Wickham's predation on fifteen-year-old Georgiana Darcy and then, almost exactly a year later, Wickham's predation on sixteen-year-old Lydia Bennet.

There are obvious parallels between the two incidents. In fact, they're so obvious that I think the incidents are sometimes treated as equivalent, with the consequences only differing by happenstance. I don't think that's true, personally.

There are some mechanistic sort of differences—Wickham put a lot more effort and planning into the Georgiana situation. He wanted to marry her for her money and to make her brother suffer. She had to be isolated from people who would look out for her interests, he had Mrs Younge in place, he had known Georgiana as a child and was able to exploit his own previous kindness to her as her father's godson, etc.

And Georgiana, despite all of this, and despite being swept away by a teenage infatuation with an extremely attractive man, was still uncomfortable with it. She was worried about disappointing a brother who raised her and whom she deeply loves and admires. When her brother actually showed up by surprise, she decided to tell him everything; Darcy takes pains to give her credit for this. Adaptations generally downplay Georgiana's active decision-making here, but the only element of chance is Darcy deciding to go to Ramsgate at all. He insists that he was only able to act because Georgiana chose to tell him what was going on.

This isn't meant to be an indictment of Lydia, though. Does she admire the parents who raised her? No. But why would she? Especially why would she admire a father who treats her mother and sisters and herself with profound contempt and no sense of responsibility? Why would she ever confide in him?

It's not like Lydia doesn't confide in anyone. In fact, she too confides in an older sibling, her sister Kitty. And in one sense, her trust in Kitty is not undeserved. Kitty does keep the secret. Presumably, she does this because, despite her occasional annoyance with Lydia, she is very much under her influence and goes along with whatever Lydia does. Regardless, she is trustworthy in that sense. Moreover, we see at the end of the book that Kitty is easily improved by being placed in better environments and taught how to behave. She just didn't know better.

How was she going to judge Lydia's situation correctly? Who was teaching her to judge anything correctly? Certainly not their parents.

If Mr Bennet had bothered to interest himself in his younger daughters and try and influence them for the better, impressionable Kitty is probably the one who would have benefited the most. The whole Lydia/Wickham thing would have fallen apart before it went anywhere if all the girls had been been properly raised, even if Lydia did exactly the same things.

And Lydia likely wouldn't do the same things if she'd been brought up properly and, you know, treated with a baseline of respect rather than being openly mocked by her father, the person most able to affect her development. Instead, at barely sixteen, she's been continually rejected by her father, over-indulged by her mother, and flattered by adult men (28-y-o Darcy says he and Wickham are nearly the same age). And she still tells someone what's going on, even though she doesn't care about her parents' opinions or the consequences of her actions. And she was under the protection of a colonel and his wife at the time, who also could have told someone or acted, and didn't.

It's not that nobody could have done anything about the Lydia/Wickham situation. It's that nobody did until Darcy found out and tried to extract her. But it was, in one sense, too late. To Lydia, he's just some unfun acquaintance who says boring things like "go home to your family and I'll do what I can to cover for you." That is, he tries to do what he did for Georgiana.

But Lydia is not Georgiana—she did not choose to tell him about any of this. She did not want to be extracted because she didn't know and couldn't be quickly made to understand what marriage to Wickham would mean in the long term. And she didn't care what her family thought because she had no reason to, pragmatically or psychologically.

Georgiana, otoh, did care about her family's welfare and the good opinion and affection of the head of her family. But despite their radical differences in personality, the most fundamental difference between the girls IMO is that Georgiana had every reason to believe that disappointing Darcy and losing his respect would be a change from the norm.

Normally he is affectionate and attentive towards her. They write each other long letters, he defends her to other family members, and praises her frequently. Georgiana, quiet and intimidated though she may be, talks more when he's around. Disappointing him had actual stakes for her.

Put another way, the potential loss of his good opinion mattered to her because he's gone to the trouble of raising her as well as he can and forming a good relationship with her. She chose to tell Darcy the whole thing because he had earned her affection and trust in a way that Mr Bennet has utterly failed to do. Even Darcy happening to visit Georgiana at Ramsgate comes from his affection and attention to Georgiana's welfare, even if he couldn't have known what would follow from checking on his sister at that particular moment.

Chance is always part of life, and it's part of the novel and these situations. But a lot of how these scenarios wound out was not determined by chance but by long-existing patterns in these girls' educations and relationships.

[greengableslover]

Oh, fetch my smelling salts, I feel my faintness coming on me again.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995) dir. Simon Langton | Episode 5

[obscurelittlebird]

[bethanydelleman]

The thing about Pride & Prejudice is we are given both the "perfect victim" in Georgiana and an imperfect one in Lydia. Lydia does not stir or even seem to want our compassion, but she is a victim. Jane Austen does not kill or truly impoverish Lydia, instead she assures us that her family, even the main character of the novel, will always protect her. Jane Austen cared about imperfect victims.

[most4rdently]

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.

[yaboisbullshit]

Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice series has eyes that are the definition of “doe eyes to fox eyes”.

In episode six when she’s talking to Wickham she swaps from innocently talking to him to getting in little jabs during their conversation and then instantly switches back to a more innocent look. God I love her so much.

[mygeekcorner]

Just watched pride and prejudice 2005 with @tbiris and she came up with the most delightful headcanon

You know that scene when Lady Catherine shows up in the middle of the night being upset about the rumoured engagement that Lizzie never heard about?

Who actually started that rumour? Tea purposes that Georgiana did!

She clearly saw her brother struggle and decided that he needed a little extra nudge in the right direction

[nymphpens]

Mr. Wickham talking about Mr. Darcy after eloping with his teenage sister for money:

[didanagy]

Pride and prejudice (1995)

dir. simon langton

[firawren]

Do you think Georgiana's marriage prospects dropped significantly when Darcy married Elizabeth? I can't imagine an Earl or a Viscount wanting to have Lizzy as a sister in law, considering the snobbish behaviour of the Ton.

I doubt it. There's nothing objectionable about Elizabeth herself, just her lack of a dowry and the behavior of some of her family members, and I think once she's married to Darcy, neither of those really matter much anymore. I doubt those objectionable family members are really mixing with Georgiana's marriage prospects.

While the Bennets have far less money than the Darcys, they are by no means poor, and they're the same social class. I don't think anyone who doesn't know the Bennets would think it odd that Darcy married a random gentleman's daughter. Apart from her lack of dowry, that would have been quite normal for him to do.

Georgiana still has an enormous dowry, is still related to an earl, is still pretty, sweet, and accomplished, and still has a very rich, powerful, and caring big brother to help her mix in the best society. I think she's going to do just fine.

[sarcasmiclife]

Georgiana Darcy is such a sweetheart I wish I could just wrap her in fluffy blankets and keep her protected and cherished for all time

[greengableslover]

‘To Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Be not alarmed, Madam, on receiving this letter, that it contain any repetition of those sentiments or renewal of those offers which were this evening so disgusting to you. But I must be allowed to defend myself against the charges laid at my door. In particular those relating to Mr Wickham, which if true, would indeed be grievous; but are wholly without foundation, and which I can only refute by laying before you his connection with my family.‘

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995) dir. Simon Langton | Episode 4

[succoallimone]

Literally cannot stop thinking about them