George and Georgiana: Symmetries and Antitheses in Pride and Prejudice

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http://www.jasna.org/publications/persuasions/no29/burns/

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journal articles
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Margie Burns, George and Georgiana: Symmetries and Antitheses in Pride and Prejudice, Persuasions, No. 29 2007, http://www.jasna.org/publications/persuasions/no29/burns/

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©2007 The Jane Austen Society of North America, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Abstract

Even after multiple re-readings of Pride and Prejudice, the character of George Wickham repays close detection. He does not “unfold”—even multiple re-readings do not deepen him into a character for the reader to relate to—but close pursuit of this snakiest of snakes through the narrative timeline discovers an awesome amount of leftover material in him. Flaubert or Tolstoy or even Thackeray would have indulged fuller development to a character anything like Wickham, and actor Hugh Grant extends himself in the more superficial role of rival to Darcy in the two Bridget Jones films. Austen, in contrast, sketches Wickham rather thinly, more by inference than through direct dialogue and action, and ultimately passes him along to Lydia Bennet like a bolt of leftover fabric