George Wickham Quotes

As to his real character, had information been in her power, she had never felt a wish of enquiring. His countenance, voice and manner had established him at once in the possession of every virtue.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. The realization that Elizabeth has been been wrong in her understanding of George Wickham hits home and hard. Because Wickham was charming and handsome, she decided from those first impressions that he must be a good person. So she failed to question the aspersions he cast on Darcy’s character and as a result was prejudiced against Darcy. But Darcy’s letter forces her to reconsider her opinion of Wickham, question her poor judgment of people and realize her lack of knowledge of herself.

She was now struck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger, and wondered it had escaped her before. She saw the indelicacy of putting himself forward as he had done, and the inconsistency of his professions with his conduct.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. Elizabeth looks back with hindsight on her meetings and conversations with George Wickham. She starts to see those conversations in a different light, realizing now their "impropriety" and "indelicacy" and the "inconsistency" of what he was saying with his conduct. She is shocked at how blind she was.

"How despicably have I acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind! But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. This is the pivotal moment of self-knowledge and self-rebuke for Elizabeth when she realizes how much her judgment has been clouded by her own pride and prejudice. She has read the long letter from Mr. Darcy explaining himself. For her it sheds a new and clear light on the noble qualities of Darcy’s character and the deceit and predatory nature of the handsome George Wickham, all of which she had been blind to. In a moment of epiphany for her, she recognizes that her belief in her good judgment of others was mere vanity, and that she never really knew herself until now. Using a metaphor, she compares her unwillingness to see the true characters of Darcy and Wickham to the blindness that a lover has for the flaws of their beloved.

"Now I have got some news for you," said Lydia, as they sat down at table. "What do you think? It is excellent news – capital news – and about a certain person we all like!"
Jane and Elizabeth looked at each other, and the waiter was told he need not stay. Lydia laughed, and said:
"Aye, that is just like your formality and discretion. You thought the waiter must not hear, as if he cared! I dare I say he often hears worse things said than I am going to say. But he is an ugly fellow! I am glad he is gone. I never saw such a long chin in my life. Well, but now for my news; it is about dear Wickham; too good for the waiter, is it not? There is no danger of Wickham’s marrying Mary King. There’s for you! She is gone down to her uncle at Liverpool: gone to stay. Wickham is safe."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 39. Lydia Bennet displays a complete lack of tact and decorum when she announces some gossip and speaks about the appearance of a servant at the table. Describing the waiter in demeaning and dismissive terms, she obviously looks down her nose on the serving class. Her gossip concerns the end of George Wickham’s relationship with Mary King.

You never will be able to make both of them good for anything. Take your choice, but you must be satisfied with only one. There is but such a quantity of merit between them; just enough to make one good sort of man; and of late it has been shifting about pretty much. For my part, I am inclined to believe it all Darcy’s; but you shall do as you choose.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. Elizabeth is discussing Wickham and Darcy with Jane. In typical Elizabeth wit when commenting on the goodness of men, she delivers the memorable line that between the two there is just enough merit to make one good man. Darcy is that man, she declares.

There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. What Elizabeth says to sister Jane concerning Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham highlights the dangers of judging a book by its cover, something she has been guilty of. Reading Darcy’s letter shocked her into self-knowledge, so that she now realizes that Darcy is the one with the goodness, while Wickham had only the appearance of it. Before this her prejudices about the two men she has been romantically associated with clouded her judgment about them.

"He is now gone into the army," she added; "but I am afraid he has turned out very wild."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Mrs. Reynolds says this to Mrs. Gardiner about George Wickham. The Pemberley housekeeper tells Elizabeth and her party that Wickham was the son of her late master’s steward, who had been brought up by him at his own expense. Wickham’s "very wild" description could be said to foreshadow the nightmare he will turn out to be for the Bennet family, when he runs away with one of the Bennet daughters.

Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the -shire militia removed from Meryton? They must be a great loss to your family.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. Caroline Bingley tries to embarrass Elizabeth in front of Mr. Darcy when Elizabeth visits his ancestral home of Pemberley. In a spiteful comment Caroline brings up Elizabeth’s connection with George Wickham and her younger sisters flirtations with him. Caroline is not happy to see Elizabeth in Pemberley because she sees her as a rival for Darcy’s affections.

Dearest Lizzy, I hardly know what I would write, but I have bad news for you, and it cannot be delayed. Imprudent as a marriage between Mr. Wickham and our poor Lydia would be, we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place, for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Elizabeth receives a horrible letter from Jane to say that Lydia has run away with Wickham from Brighton to get married in Scotland. But a second even more horrible letter from Jane reveals the bad news that Wickham has no plans to marry Lydia and the pair have been traced to London.

Even if he could form such a design against a young woman of Lydia’s connections, which is not likely, can I suppose her so lost to every thing?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Jane, who sees the goodness in everyone but not the badness, finds it hard to believe ill of George Wickham after reports that he has no plans to marry Lydia when they run off together. She also cannot bring herself to accept that her flirtatious youngest sister would be a willing party to such a scheme.

"When I consider," she added in a yet more agitated voice, "that I might have prevented it! I, who knew what he was."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Elizabeth feels guilty over her lack of action in preventing George Wickham’s seduction of her sister Lydia. She acknowledges that she knew of his previous attempt to seduce Georgiana, and could have warned her family about him. The villainous Wickham’s seduction of Lydia is driven by the desire for sex rather than for marriage.

If gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection, Elizabeth’s change of sentiment will be neither improbable nor faulty. But if otherwise – if regard springing from such sources is unreasonable or unnatural, in comparison of what is so often described as arising on a first interview with its object, and even before two words have been exchanged, nothing can be said in her defence, except that she had given somewhat of a trial to the latter method in her partiality for Wickham, and that its ill success might, perhaps, authorise her to seek the other less interesting mode of attachment. Be that as it may, she saw him go with regret.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Here Austen discusses how Elizabeth’s love for Darcy has grown and evolved. Two ways that she could fall in love are described: love built on a foundation of gratitude and esteem, and love at first sight. Elizabeth has tried the second way with Wickham and admits that it has had no success. But Elizabeth’s affection for Darcy has followed the first path – a "less interesting mode of attachment" – and is built on the gratitude and admiration she feels from getting to know Darcy. This passage speaks to the theme of first impressions. It examines the way people can sometimes misread and misunderstand others by hastily making up their minds based on first impressions – like Elizabeth does. When the novel was originally written in 1796-1797 it was titled First Impressions. That was changed to Pride and Prejudice when it was first published in 1813.

But Jane knows, as well as I do, what Wickham really is. We both know that he has been profligate in every sense of the word; that he has neither integrity nor honour; that he is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Elizabeth makes this comment about George Wickham, when her aunt points out that Jane does not think Wickham is capable of taking advantage of Lydia. Lydia has run off to London with Wickham, provoking a family crisis. Elizabeth claims Jane knows that Wickham is a deceitful and immoral character without integrity or honor.

Mrs. Bennet, to whose apartment they all repaired, after a few minutes’ conversation together, received them exactly as might be expected; with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives against the villainous conduct of Wickham, and complaints of her own sufferings and ill-usage; blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. When Mrs. Bennet learns of the elopment of her favorite and youngest daughter Lydia, she erupts into tears of regret, hurls abuse at the villainous Wickham and feels very sorry for herself. She blames everybody but the person who indulged the wayward behavior of the wild Lydia – herself!

And now here’s Mr. Bennet gone away, and I know he will fight Wickham, wherever he meets him; and then he will be killed, and what is to become of us all? The Collinses will turn us out before he is cold in his grave, and if you are not kind to us, brother, I do not know what we shall do.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Mrs. Bennet pleads with her brother Mr. Bennet for help after Lydia’s flight to London with Wickham. Otherwise Mr. Bennet will be killed when he fights Wickham and the Collinses will evict them from Longbourn and they will be homeless, she warns.

You need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater, when I write to them, and sign my name "Lydia Wickham." What a good joke it will be! I can hardly write for laughing.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Lydia writes this in the letter she leaves behind when she elopes with Wickham. In the note, sent to Colonel Forster’s wife, Lydia refers to Wickham as the "one man in the world I love, and he is an angel." To Lydia, running off with a man is a huge joke. But in her foolishness she doesn’t stop to think about the repercussions of her actions for her and her sisters.

All Meryton seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three months before, had been almost an angel of light. He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family. Everybody declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world; and everybody began to find out, that they had always distrusted the appearance of his goodness.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. The gossip machine cranks into top gear in Meryton after Wickham runs away with Lydia. In the residents’ crosshairs are the one-time "angel of light" who is now branded the "wickedest young man in the world" and credited with seducing someone in "every tradesman’s family." It’s discovered too that he owes a lot of money to people in the locality. There is ironic description in this passage. You have the metaphorical description of Wickham as "almost an angel of light," which conjures up the image of Lucifer (meaning light-bearing in Latin). Also Wickham’s intrigues are said to be "honoured" with the "title of seduction."

Yes, yes they must marry. There is nothing else to be done. But there are two things that I want every much to know – one is, how much money your uncle has laid down, to bring it about; and the other is, how I am ever to pay him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 49. Mr. Bennet responds to Mr. Gardiner’s letter stating that Wickham and Lydia have been persuaded to marry if Wickham has his debts paid and receives a small yearly stipend. Mr. Bennet suspects that Mr. Gardiner has already paid Wickham a great deal of his own money and he dislikes the idea of being indebted to his brother-in-law. Wickham is being paid to wed Lydia.

Well! I am so happy! In a short time I shall have a daughter married. Mrs. Wickham! – how well it sounds! And she was only sixteen last June.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 49. After her previous regrets and lamentations about Lydia’s elopement and hurling invectives against the "villainous" Wickham, Mrs. Bennet is now in raptures over her daughter marrying him. Mrs. Bennet flip flops a lot between ecstacy over her schemes to get husbands for her daughters and lamentations about her personal suffering when these don’t work. After receiving her brother Mr. Gardiner’s letter that Lydia is to be wed to Wickham and her reputation saved, Mrs. Bennet suddenly reverses her opinion on the character of the fortune-hunting Wickham. Now he is fit to be her son-in-law. Here again the shallow, foolish, tiresome and vacuous Mrs. Bennet makes us laugh – but at her! The passage is another example of Austen’s fine use of ironic humor. Mr. Gardiner’s letter explains that Wickham will wed Lydia if Mr. Bennet pays Wickham a small sum of money annually to Wickham – the Bennets suspect that Mr. Gardiner has also already paid Wickham a good deal. The fuller quote of Mrs. Bennet’s reaction to this news from her brother: "It is all very right; who should do it but her own uncle? If he had not had a family of his own, I and my children must have had all his money, you know; and it is the first time we have ever had anything from him, except a few presents. Well! I am so happy! In a short time I shall have a daughter married. Mrs. Wickham! How well it sounds!"

Had Lydia’s marriage been concluded on the most honourable terms, it was not to be supposed that Mr. Darcy would connect himself with a family where, to every other objection would now be added, an alliance and relationship of the nearest kind with the man whom he so justly scorned.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. Elizabeth is concerned that Lydia’s marriage to Wickham will push Darcy further away from her. She cannot see him wanting to connect with a family that has made an alliance with the man he rightly scorned. To Elizabeth, she and Darcy appear even more separated now by Lydia’s marriage.

From such a connection she could not wonder that he would shrink. The wish of procuring her regard, which she had assured herself of his feeling in Derbyshire, could not in rational expectation survive such a blow as this. She was humbled, she was grieved; she repented, though she hardly knew of what. She became jealous of his esteem, when she could no longer hope to be benefited by it. She wanted to hear of him, when there seemed the least chance of gaining intelligence. She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. After Elizabeth learns that Lydia will marry Wickham, she takes the opportunity to think more deeply about her feelings for Darcy. While her rival for Darcy’s affections Caroline Bingley is jealous of her, Elizabeth is only jealous of winning Darcy’s admiration. She longs for him and wants to hear of him. But she is fearful that his feelings for her in Derbyshire will not survive the scandal with Lydia. Now that Wickham has married into the Bennet family, she expects that Darcy will keep his distance from her. Is Elizabeth at last realizing that she is hopelessly in love with Darcy?

How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. The narrator warns of the dangers involved in allowing passions overrule virtue. This refers to Lydia’s whirlwind affair with George Wickham when the boy-crazy fifteen-year-old elopes with the military officer to go to Gretna Green. This is a place in Scotland where fast weddings were performed for eloping couples. But it turns out that the pair don’t go there and instead went to a love nest in London.

What do you think of my husband? Is not he a charming man? I am sure my sisters must all envy me. I only hope they may have half my good luck. They must all go to Brighton. That is the place to get husbands.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. After a forced marriage to Wickham and putting her family through a form of hell, an unrepentant Lydia returns to Longbourn. She sees no fault in her behavior and jokes about her luck in finding a husband in Brighton. With great irony she hopes her sisters get half as lucky in finding a good husband in Brighton. Lydia is unaware that Wickham had to be paid to marry her.

"And then when you go away, you may leave one or two of my sisters behind you; and I dare say I shall get husbands for them before the winter is over."
"I thank you for my share of the favour," said Elizabeth; "but I do not particularly like your way of getting husbands."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. When newly married Lydia makes a flippant remark about getting husbands for her sisters, Elizabeth puts her in her place. Lydia boasts about how she successfully found a husband, while her sisters are still single, but little does she realize how difficult it was to get Wickham to marry her. The irony is that Wickham had to be bribed to wed her.

Wickham’s affection for Lydia was just what Elizabeth had expected to find it – not equal to Lydia’s for him. She had scarcely needed her present observation to be satisfied, from the reason of things, that their elopement had been brought on by the strength of her love rather than by his; and she would have wondered why, without violently caring for her, he chose to elope with her at all, had she not felt certain that his flight was rendered necessary by distress of circumstances; and if that were the case, he was not the young man to resist an opportunity of having a companion.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. Here Elizabeth is thinking about the elopment of Wickham and Lydia. She figures out that Wickham did not elope and marry Lydia out of true love but because of "distress of circumstances" (he owed a lot of money locally) and "an opportunity of having a companion" (he is a serial sexual predator). The elopement was also driven by Lydia’s strong infatuation for Wickham.

Oh, yes! He was to come there with Wickham, you know. But gracious me! I quite forgot! I ought not to have said a word about it. I promised them so faithfully! What will Wickham say? It was to be such a secret!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. Giddy over her marriage to Wickham, Lydia recounts to her family all the details of her wedding, including the revelation that there was one unexpected guest there – Mr. Darcy! She had blurted it out before she realized it was meant to be a secret.
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