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A Gentleman’s Education: the early years — 5 Comments

  1. This was a very interesting post. Basic education should be the right of every human. Keeping a population ignorant is cruel and inhuman. Education was one of the signs of a gentleman, as only they could afford it. Wickham’s misuse of the gift from his godfather was a waste of money and the opportunity for him to make something of himself. He would have been assured a living for the rest of his life. We see the missed opportunity but are glad he signed it over.

    Many JAFF stories embrace the notion that Elizabeth was given the equivalent of a gentlemen’s education by her father. She was raised as the son Bennet never had. She was intelligent, well informed, spoke several languages and helped run the estate as would a firstborn son. This was unusual during this time period as girls were not as well educated as boys. This further exasperated the Mrs. Bennet of mean understanding as she didn’t see the sense in it.

    • The thing is, even if Elizabeth received unusual levels of education at the hand of Mr. Bennet, she was very unlikely to have learned the classical languages the way a boy would have. The time and discipline alone would not have been likely provided by her parents–Mom need her for other things and Dad wasn’t exactly the disciplined time. Moreover, all the reading of the classics and philosophy tends to create a form of thought that she would not have been exposed to. So, she would have been very well educated for a woman, but that still would not have been a man’s education.

      I think that’s really hard for modern readers to grasp.

  2. This is a fascinating post, especially since I’ve invested my life in education, first as a university instructor (adjunct) in literature, writing, and German, and then for 21 years as a home educator. I continue teaching online writing and literature courses for homeschooling families (although some public school families supplement their education with us).

    After reading this, I can see how Wickham completely threw away his education; it was an expensive and oh-so-promising gift from Mr. Darcy…especially all the way through Cambridge. Did Wickham ever graduate? I don’t know if that fact is in evidence in P&P except in the fact that he demanded the living from Darcy after accepting compensation for it, so perhaps he did graduate.

    I can see how receiving a gentleman’s education would have primed Wickham to believe that he deserved a gentleman’s “leisure,” being quite unaware (or ignoring the fact) that most gentlemen worked very hard at running their estates and making (hopefully) wise investments through their “man of business,” etc. Wickham must have watched both Mr. Darcy senior and then his son work hard at building their estate, but he seemed to think that a gentleman ‘s life was one of gambling and womanizing, which was indeed true of some “gentlemen” but not of the examples immediately under Wickham’s nose.

    A wiser man would have used his gentlemen’s education as a tool for his own betterment, as a way to elevate himself above his birth and to indeed pursue the clergy or the law as many a younger son of the nobility would have. But Wickham is more envious than wise, and more lazy than hardworking, and we see how it turned out for him!

    Thanks for this interesting post!! Your research is always fascinating!! 😀

    Warmly,
    Susanne 🙂

    • It really is interesting what role education plays in the character of Wickham. Throwing it away is a great deal more telling of his character than the modern reader tends to realize.

  3. Pingback:Tutoring in the Regency, by Zoe Burton by Zoe Burton on Austen Authors

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