Surprise in Pride and Prejudice

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Pride and Prejudice is an intriguing book with many surprises and unusual choices. The most unusual choice to me that was made was the problems arise from and involve elopements. One of the largest surprises to me was fact that Mr. Wickham had originally tried to elope with Miss Darcy. It was very interesting that a young girl that to my understanding was supposed to be so intelligent and innocent had been swayed so easily into the idea of elopement even at her young age. It surprised me greatly to discover the reason for Mr. Darcy’s major dislike of Mr. Wickham, which is where the idea of elopement originated in the story. Throughout the story they build Miss Darcy up to be “so extremely accomplished for her age” not allowing room for the possibility of her to have agreed to elope. According to Mr. Darcy the elopement resulted from Mr. Wickham’s abuse of his relationship with Miss Darcy; she was then “persuaded to believe herself in love, and to consent to an elopement.” The idea of Miss Darcy eloping at first seemed to be out of place in the story, but as the idea grew and developed, it was hard to think of another reason that could cause Mr. Darcy to dislike Mr. Wickham to a so great an extent. Another surprising moment involving elopement was when Lydia had “gone off to Scotland with one of his [Colonel Forster’s] officers; to own the truth, with Wickham!” This was surprising enough on it own, because they did not appear to be interested in each other at all. Nevertheless, the fact that “Wickham never intended to go there [Gretna Green], or to marry Lydia at all,” was shocking. Since, Lydia was not particularly wealth and Wickham needed money it made sense that he never intended to marry her, but it makes me wonder why they ran off together. However, the two of them getting married was also an unusual choice, because the author could have set it up so that

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