Austen portrays her consummate husband through Darcy. At first, Austen u

Austen carefully chooses the characteristics of her ideal husband through the follies of the other characters, as shown through Wickham and Mr. Bennet. Mr. Darcy fills their shortcomings with his own exceptional characteristics, emphasizing his traits that make him such a good husband, and through these traits such as control over power, having a good nature and being of a fatherly figure; Austen has created her ideal husband.

Austen’s ideal husband is not without his contrasts to further Austen’s opinion of a poor husband, who would exhibit poor understanding of power and money, a good nature and the role of a father figure, as seen in George Wickham. One of the only male characters Austen actually describes as extremely good-looking, Wickham is portrayed by Austen as attractive and charming from the start. Austen’s most significant use of first impressions is between Wickham and Elizabeth as Elizabeth places her trust in Wickham due to his amiable personality and her dislike of Darcy’s pride. Wickham’s true nature is soon to be revealed when he shifts his focus off of Elizabeth and to Miss King with the intent of acquiring her new fortune. Mrs. Gardiner also warns Elizabeth of Wickham’s nature, telling her to, “not involve yourself, or endeavor to involve him in an affection which the want of fortune would make so very imprudent” (142). Wickham’s nature lay within his wallet, and therefore leaves him shallow and emotionally thin. Another view of the nature of George Wickham is clear within Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth after his first proposal. Within it, Darcy explains how Wickham, even after the late Mr. Darcy provided for him, pursued a marriage with Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, for the purpose of retaining her fortune. His greedy nature in fact directly correlates to his use of power and money. Austen depicts a good husband of attaining the ability to manage power and money, therefore resolving that Wickham is in no manner an even mediocre husband. Wickham’s main concerns when confronted by Darcy to marry Lydia are those of monetary value. He is heavily in debt and is also in search of a marriage in which he may retain a large fortune. Wickham has little to no power over his money, therefore requiring his demands to Darcy to repay his outstanding debt and to pay him a thousand pounds over what Lydia was to already receive. As a father figure, Wickham does nothing to classify him as a poor one, but through his shallow nature and his irresponsibility, you can allude to the fact that given a situation such as the one in which Darcy was placed with Lydia, Wickham would react poorly and in a manner that would always be focused towards self-benefit.

ses Darcy to confront a social flaw at the time, which was the stereotyping of individuals based on class. Upper class and very wealthy, Darcy is of course is of an elite caste who are intended to marry f

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