Mr.Wickham v. Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice
"I am determined that nothing but the very deepest love will induce me into matrimony", the charming heroine, Elizabeth, remarks to her sister Jane. She finds this deep love with Mr.Darcy, but before she discovers that he is her true love, Lizzy has to overcome many obstacles. These include her inferior social position, her lack of money and lack of accomplishments and the ill-bred conduct of some of her family. The hardest struggle that Lizzy has, however, is overcoming her own prejudice towards Mr.Darcy, exacerbated by her attraction to Mr.Wickham.
Originally called 'First Impressions' Pride and Prejudice concerns the self-discovery and growth of the two main characters, Lizzy and Darcy, who overcome their opinions of each other , enabling them to fall in love. Elizabeth has to change her mind about the deceptive Mr.Wickham before she realizes her true feelings.
Elizabeth cannot fail to be impressed by Wickham's easy manners and practiced charm. Indeed, he impresses the whole village with his smooth social skills. Mr.Darcy's proud and arrogant manner, in contrast, chills the people of Merryton. Wickham appears easy-going and amusing, a welcome change from Darcy's difficult, haughty and taciturn disposition, perfectly depicted by Colin Firth in A & E's TV series, Pride and Prejudice.
Puzzled by Darcy's incivility to Wickham and still smarting from his refusing to dance with her, Elizabeth is prepared to believe almost any account of Darcy which confirms her opinion of him. When Wickham tells her how Darcy deprived him of a profession in the church by not allowing him to have the family living. Darcy's father had promised Wickham the living and Wickham accuses Darcy of disgracing his father's memory by his actions. He tells Elizabeth that Darcy is proud and dislikes him for no reason.
Wickham's story of ill-treatment appears very plausible. Self-deprecativing, likeable and a good conversationalist, he soon convinces Elizabeth of the truth of his story. Cunningly, he finds out from Elizabeth before he relates his account her opinion of Darcy. Even his pursuit of the wealthy Miss King fails to create much of a dent in Elizabeth's affections for Wickham.
One of the great themes of Jane Austen is that appearances can be deceptive. It is not until after Darcy's first proposal when she reads his letter that Elizabeth starts to wonder if Wickham's story is wrong. In his letter he explains his point of view and she begins to see that his pride and arrogance hides good character. She notices his affection for his sister, his excellence as a squire at Pemberley and his friend's good opinions of him. Most of all, though, it is Darcy's altruistic action of chasing Wickham and making sure that he marries Lydia, her sister, that make her realize that he is very moral character who truly loves her.
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