I think Edward is actually, fundamentally, a really sterling guy. Yes, he weasels around the situation with Lucy Steele, but when it comes to the point he's actually very brave about it. He defies his whole family and plans to settle down with a woman he doesn't even like on an impossibly tiny income, and I honestly think that, however miserable he and she might be (and as she's mostly in it for the money she would be very, very miserable) he wouldn't reproach her with it until he learned she never loved him. I don't think he's weak, just has some of the indecision of youth embedded at the heart of his character by a terrible, unfortunate decision made in that youth. His strength comes out later and I'm glad he's rewarded for it.
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