*possible spoilers*
First, Wickham tried to elope with Darcy's sister although it was more because he wanted her money than anything else.
Then he goes with Lydia Bennett and I never understood that. She was extremely childish, immature and annoying. Add to that, extremely poor. I never understood why he chose to run off with her.
Plus, once it shows them in hiding and she comes to me rubbing his hair and putting her arms around him, he does not look very happy.
Not a paedophile, just a fortune hunter! Poor Georgiana was suitably rich and impressionable.
As far as running off with Lydia is concerned, Aunt Gardiner writes to Elizabeth (after Elizabeth discovers Darcy's part in bringing the marriage of Wickham and Lydia about):
[Darcy's] first object with [Lydia], he acknowledged, had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her, offering his assistance, as far as it would go. But he found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. She cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving Wickham. She was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, he thought, to secure and expedite a marriage, which, in his very first conversation with Wickham, he easily learnt had never been his design. He confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment, on account of some debts of honour, which were very pressing; and scrupled not to lay all the ill-consequences of Lydia's flight on her own folly alone. He meant to resign his commission immediately; and as to his future situation, he could conjecture very little about it. He must go somewhere, but he did not know where, and he knew he should have nothing to live on. Mr. Darcy asked him why he had not married your sister at once. Though Mr. Bennet was not imagined to be very rich, he would have been able to do something for him, and his situation must have been benefited by marriage. But he found, in reply to this question, that Wickham still cherished the hope of more effectually making his fortune by marriage in some other country.
After Wickham's plans to marry the rich Miss King fell through, he ran away from the regiment because he'd run up debts. I don't think he planned to take Lydia with him, but she attached herself to him. He certainly did not intend to marry her but, doubtless, would avail himself of any physical favours she may bestow! As soon as a rich woman came along, Lydia would have been flung aside.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Pedophiles are attracted to children, not young ladies of almost marriage age...and there is no evidence that Wickham wanted anything but money from Georgiana.
Lydia chose to run off with Wichkam...not the other way around.
Sorry, but Georgiana was 15 when she was fooled and Lydia was as well around 16, not sure if 16 yet. It IS considered pedophilia nowadays.
sharePedophilia is an attraction to pre-pubescent children. Lydia and Georgiana were not pre-pubescent. They were young ladies.
http://currentscene.wordpress.com
Exactly. They were young ladies of age to be married, not children. They were young enough to be naive and therefore easy targets for Mr Wickham, but they were adults, especially by the standards of the time. I'll also point out that Wickham was attracted to Elizabeth, who was about 21. He was no pedophile.
Incidentally, Austen made a point of describing both Georgiana and Lydia as unusually tall and with well developed figures, maybe to offset their young age and emphasize that they were physically mature. In Lydia's case, it seems to be a way of hinting that she was sexually precocious - which is made clear enough by her attitude to men.
Tell me the truth. Are we still in the game?
No, it's not. Pedophiles are sexually attracted to children, not teens. The Latin base of the word has not changed, nor has the dictionary definition. Wickham liked them gullible, but he was not attracted to children.
sharecafea_acidulata2009, I understand what you're saying - that, by law these days, it would be illegal for those girls to sleep with someone... well, in some countries. In others', it's not.
I believe the Japanese age of consent, for example, is about 13 or 14. In New Zealand it's 16.
That being said, as others have pointed out, paedophilia actually means an attraction to pre-pubescent children. They like to group those who break sexual law (with a post-pubescent minor) with this group, though it's technically incorrect.
Nowadays is the point. It was very common for girls of fifteen and sixteen to marry back then. Many a girl of sixteen married men old enough to be their grandfathers. At least Wickham was more Lydia's age!
There's no point judging people by today's standards. Everyone married first cousins in the past, too. Queen Victoria married her first cousin! Today's royals are all totally inbred.
However, as klorentz has pointed out, it's still not pedophilia. Pedophila is a sexual attraction to PREPUBESCENT children. Not people who are biologically adults, which both Georgiana and Lydia are. Whether or not they are emotionally ready for sex/marriage has no bearing on the subject. They are still not prepubescent children.
http://currentscene.wordpress.com
Todays royals are not "all totally inbred" though certainly the royalty of most of Europe and pre-revolutionary Russia were related. Marrying cousins in all walks of life was a commonplace. There is, actually no real reason against it unless there are known defective genes on both sides.
However, it has in modern times become an abhorrent thing CULTURALLY for many North Americans, who see it as akin to marrying their brother and sisters more or less. Most of the world doesn't see it that way.
My great grandfather in his early 20s married my great grandmother when she was 13 in the 1890s. It was more common for young girls to marry early at that time.
shareNo. It's not.
It would be statutory rape and the convicted would be a sex offender.
But it's not pedophilia.
From Wikipedia: Pedophilia or paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.
That would not make Wickham a pedophile.
Incidentally, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was married at about 12-15 year of age.
http://www.gotquestions.org/how-old-was-Mary.html
So; if Wickham is a "paedophile", so is God.
Why isn't that a headline in the Daily Mail?
Because, by any dictionary definition of the word, neither one is a pedophile.
You are committing the ethnocentric fallacy; just because today's Western culture sees marriage at such a young age negatively, it does not follow that other cultures also do so today or did in the past.
Also, in the past, people had shorter lifespans than we do today. They could not afford the luxury of marrying at 25, 30, or 40. At 40, most people were dead.
No worries,however; next time God disagrees with you, we'll make sure it'll make front-page news ;-)
Lydia was “out,” which means her parents had officially put her on the marriage market.
shareI agree with most of the comments expressed on this site except that age 15/16 was a legal age to marry in Georgian Era England. Also, in current American law it may not have been looked upon as pedophilia but rather rape.
A pedophilia is not so much interested in age as in physical features. Every pedophile has a type. Some even have adult relationships that for all intent and purposes are underdeveloped in physical features. Young gymnasts and dancers are an at risk population for pedophilia for this reason.
Well, in that era young ladies were supposed to be grown up earlier than in these days' conceptions. I'm not even sure if there was the age of 18 as the age of majority. Parents wanted their daughters to find a husband so quickly that even the age of 15 or 16 would do. Those were the times back then (well, the truth is that nowadays a person can marry even from the crude age of 16 with parents' consent). Perhaps when girls had their first period they were considered women.
Maybe Wickham didn't intend to be a pedophile, but he might have chosen such young ladies because they were lacking experience and were easier to fool.
Perhaps he realized he was no bargain himself when Mary King apparently thought she could do better. If he and Lydia were cars they'd have been on the back row of the lot. Together. The pedo suggestion is just wrong.
share16 was still pretty young for marriage in the Regency period. The average for women to marry was 23, which is why it was such a silly joke for Lydia to have called Jane an old maid.
shareYes, but Lydia was still “out” so her parents placed Lydia in the position to be courted and married off at that age.
shareLEtMeFly, speaking as a member of said gender, most men's mentality regarding women is simple. If she's got the 'qualities' we don't care about age (of course nowadays we're bound by law to make sure they're 18+). And to the 'predatory' subgenre that Wickham was part of, the more gullible the better. So it's only natural that he went for Georgiana and Lydia but by no means was he a pedophile in any sense of the word.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."
You might wanna look up a word prior to using it.
Wickham targeting 15yearolds means he's not a pedophile
___
Anyone who has ever read any spoilers,
knows that Winter Is Coming
[deleted]
If you're going to watch a period drama, please take off your 2014 viewing lens. It was not at all unusual for girls of Lydia's age to marry. Whether it's creepy to you or not today is beside the point - it was a common societal convention back then.
For a follow-up question, please don't ask why there aren't people of color in the film.
As Lizzie said to Lady Catherine, all her sisters are "out" (to society) so Lydia is of marriageable age (it would have been their parents' decision that their daughters were older enough to socialise/look for suitors). Wickham was money hungry, missed out on some rich young ladies and got stuck with clingy, childish Lydia.
share