yes

She deserved someone who could match her intelligence. Such as the accountant she married.

i really liked reading your analysis. why do you think wickham married lydia? he couldn't have known that mr.darcy would pay lydia's "dowry"?

@@aditik8959 - Thank you. My impression (keeping in mind that Austen didn't want the novel to be dark), was that Darcy simply threatened Wickham into marrying Lydia even though she had no fortune. This would have been easy. Wickham had gone AWOL from his Militia unit due to his gambling debts to the other red coats. He merely brought Lydia along for sex. As a young virgin of the upper class, she was far better than any diseased whores would be. There were no organized police in those days yet. Darcy need only spend a modest sum to hire some thugs to help take Wickham by force and return him to Colonel Forster. Who would very likely let Wickham's fellow soldiers collect what Wickham owed them in his own broken bones. So, Wickham never really had a choice. Darcy could literally get him beaten to death without having to dirty his own hands doing it. This was not good for Wickham. More as a favour to Elizabeth than anything else, he bought Wickham a commission in the Regulars. Since the Napoleonic Wars were still going strong, there was always a possibility that Wickham would die at Waterloo (although Austen could not have predicted this when she wrote the novel since it hadn't happened yet). Regardless, Wickham never loved Lydia, and would have grown to resent her more over time since his marriage to her prevented him from marrying a wealthy woman. As a couple, they don't really get a happy ending.

He was forced to by Darcy so that she and her family wouldn't lose her reputation. Darcy made a deal with Wickham that he would pay off his gambling debts if he married Lydia. He never intended to marry her, he was only using her because he's basically a player/womanizer and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. The reason they elope is because Wickham is trying to hide from his debtors because he has no money. Lydia was just silly enough to believe he was into her and wanted to marry her so she went with him.

@@aditik8959 - Thanks! To support what @goddess601 wrote in slightly more vulgar terms, Mr. Darcy could have simply arranged to have Wickham dragged back to his Militia regiment which he went AWOL from, where the men he owed money to would very likely break all of his bones and toss his body into the sea. Wickham was hoping that he could hide in London and use Lydia until he got bored with her. But Mr. Darcy knew that his sister's disgraced governess and Wickham's prior accomplice in trying to marry Georgiana lived there and would probably be Wickham's first place to seek shelter. Lydia was so marriage-crazy that she didn't even consider whether there was *anything* about Wickham that made him an appealing husband. In the end, she just focused on marrying before her older sisters and didn't care about the future. So, even once Darcy found them, Lydia was set on getting married, and Darcy, along with Lydia's uncle Mr. Gardiner, settled on forcing the marriage to save the rest of the Bennet sisters from scandal. Wickham had no love for Lydia, but his fake charm was enough to fool her for a while. It is said in the novel that their affection for each other didn't last long.

​@@goddess601exactly. Wickham is portrayed as a rather superficial and not very witty either. There was not a particular design in his escape, just the desire of hiding from his creditors.

So totally agree. Look up the Utah adaptation. They get together in that one.

Not really. At least, not for years until eventually her father died. Mary, an upper class girl, had focused herself on appropriate accomplishments for a young lady of her social class. But, that meant that she had no domestic skills. Mrs. Bennet makes a tart point of informing Mr. Collins that none of her daughters have anything to do in the kitchen because they can afford a cook. So, until Mr. Collins inherits Longbourn, his essentially middle-class lifestyle without household staff would have been problematic as Mary was too upper class to even know how to cook or clean house. This is implied to be the reason why Collins dropped the idea of marrying a Bennet girl after Elizabeth turned him down, and instead married Charlotte Lucas, whom Mrs. Bennet noted made good mince pies.

Collins married right (Charlotte). It would be problematic with Mary, a loner with no household experience and socially awkward to be getting along with others, and critically, Lady Catherine. Maybe well into the future. In memoirs of Austen including letters, by nephew Edward Austen Leigh, Mary married Mr Phillips’ clerk. Mr Phiillips at that point in Pride and Prejudice, was the clerk at Mrs Phiillips’ (and Mrs Bennet’s) father, an attorney at Meryton. Kitty, in the last chapter of P&P was never allowed by Mr Bennet to visit Lydia, but had the benefit of being with either Jane or Elizabeth. In the same memoirs, the letter also mentioned Kitty marrying clergy near Pemberley.

@@hazelco8622 - Also, Mary at least benefitted from her sisters getting married off in that Mrs. Bennet, who hates attending social functions alone, and Mr. Bennet hates them in general, resulted in Mary being forced out into society as her mother's companion. With her sisters now having moved away, she no longer found herself being constantly compared (unfavourably) to them. This helped her develop confidence and a sense a place in society.

Thanks!😉 But it was very kind of him to visit and condole with them!🤣

@@Anita3 Indeed!

Lost in Austen has a good Mary Bennett

"Well I'm not.goung to sit with him for anyone." Kitty. lol Mr Collins a rascal.

I love Peyton's squeal after Haley tears that pore-cleaning strip off of Brooke's nose.

mine too!

same, the first 4 seasons is the best when they are still in high school

2x08