Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

with him from the moment she sees him. Quick and bright,
she is attracted to him immediately, taken by his looks
and his conversation. Austen describes him as "perfectly
correct and unassuming" (63) . Wickham settles on
Elizabeth and begins his play for her feelings and
perhaps even her hand in marriage. He begins with his
past and his relationship with Darcy.
What Wickham does not say about Darcy or himself is
pivotal to his gaining position in the upper middle class
and the military. Wickham, like Collins, is taken with
the extrinsic value of Longbourn, reasoning that
inherited property means prosperity and wealth. Access
into Elizabeth's good graces depends on him telling his
side of the Darcy legend and keeping Darcyfs side quiet.
Access to Lydia will depend on Lydia's silence as well as
the silence of those around her. In this way, Wickham
tells no real lie, but neither does he tell the real
truth.
As Tara Wallace suggests, silences in Pride and
Prejudice are never accidental or neutral (46) .
Wickham's silence, like Mr. Bennet's, is a studied
absence of self-referral regarding family and social
settings. Although Wickham talks a great deal about the
wrongs done to him in the past and about himself, he does