wickham married lydia bennet in pride and prejudice.
wickham married lydia bennet in pride and prejudice.
who does wickham marry in pride and prejudice?
lydia bennet
austen was first translated into japanese in 1926 when nogami toyoichirō and his wife nogami yaeko translated "pride and prejudice". nogami yaeko liked austen so much that she published a novel in 1928, "machiko", set in taishō era japan, that featured the heroine machiko who was inspired by elizabeth bennet. "machiko" also features a radical named seki who resembles wickham who castigates the social order imposed by the "kokutai" and whom machiko almost marries until she learns that he impregnated her friend yoneko whom he was seeing at the same time that he was courting her. the hero of the book is kawai, an archeologist and the wealthy heir to the kawai financial group, who makes a determined pursuit of machiko despite her repeated rejections of him on both social and political grounds, and finally proves himself worthy of her by giving up his fortune to help out the impoverished and striking workers at a factory his family owes. unlike "pride and prejudice" where the war with france only exists in the background, "machiko" deals directly with turmoil of taishō era japan where strikes were frequent, much of the younger "intelligentsia" were questioning the "kokutai" and admired the russian revolution, and the police waged a vigorous campaign against those accused of "thought crimes". in 1925, the imperial diet passed the peace preservation law, which made the very act of thinking about "altering the "kokutai"" a crime; the specific thoughts that were made illegal were republicanism, pacifism, and advocating the end of private property. those found by the police to be thinking these forbidden thoughts served lengthy prison sentences and were subjected to "tenkō" ("changing direction"), a process of brain-washing where left-wing activists were brain-washed to worship the emperor as a living god. in "machiko", which was published at a time when censorship was much less stricter in japan is set in the midst of these struggles as machiko and her fellow activists are constantly having to avoid the police. at same time, nogami attacked the double standard of male radicals who preached justice for the masses, but refused to treat women as equals, seeing the duty of female radicals just to be their obliging bedmates, and nothing more. in "pride and prejudice", wickham marries lydia bennet, which makes him part of the family so elizabeth bennet has to be civil to him, while in "machiko", machiko repudiates seki outright, saying his dishonesty and his contempt for women makes him unworthy of her.
jane austen in popular culture
darcy feels some responsibility for what wickham has done because he had not revealed wickham upon his arrival in hertfordshire, and this feeling prompts him to try to find wickham and lydia in london and work something out. simultaneously, mr. bennet and uncle gardiner are trying to do the same thing, but they fail, while darcy succeeds by using his connections and money, especially with a mrs. younge, who was implicated in wickham's attempted seduction of georgiana. after being bribed, she leads darcy to wickham and lydia. over several discussions, darcy is unable to persuade lydia to abandon wickham, so darcy is forced to bribe wickham to marry lydia. darcy brings the proposed deal to uncle gardiner, who grudgingly agrees to allow darcy to pay for the deal anonymously. the deal includes paying off wickham's debts and buying him an officer's commission in the army. in return, lydia and wickham marry.
fitzwilliam darcy, gentleman