Lydia's Marriage In Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen

No room for mistakes. All eyes judging. Being the youngest sibling in society is truly a burden. Especially in 19th century England, the youngest carries the responsibility of representing their family last. On top of navigating life with the least experience, imagine being the youngest woman in a family. The Regency Era’s intense pressure for women to marry into financially stable families encouraged them to prioritize social status over love. Although women generally accepted this duty, sometimes the stress resulted in rash decisions, similar to Lydia Bennet’s decision to marry Wickham in Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen uses this decision to develop Lydia’s small role as the semi-supportive youngest sister to the potential cause of family

Bennet and Lydia’s resulting character development. At the beginning of Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s personality develops around successfully marrying off her five daughters. As securing money becomes a challenge throughout the story, Mrs. Bennet comes off as irritable and unloving towards her children. Once Mrs. Bennet hears news of Lydia’s marriage, she immediately softens as Austen describes her reaction that “...their mother had the satisfaction of knowing that she should be able to shew [sic] her married daughter in the neighborhood” (297). Austen’s emphasis on Mrs. Bennet’s change in attitude to praise shows the excitement marriage brings to her family’s social status in Meryton. On the other side, since Lydia is the youngest of all of the Bennet sisters, she uses society’s excitement over her being a married woman in 19th century England to elevate her own self-worth. Austen exhibits Lydia’s newfound confidence through the way Lydia insults her sisters after returning to Longbourn as she proclaims: “I am sure that my sisters must all envy me. I only hope they may have half my good luck” (300). Austen adds excitement to the story through Lydia’s own response her new status; furthermore, Lydia’s superior attitude intensifies the suspense of the stability of her sisters’ futures in comparison to

Due to Darcy and Wickham’s rocky family history, Elizabeth doubts that Darcy would propose to her again with Wickham’s addition to the Bennet family. Marrying into a family including the man who tried to cheat him of his father’s money and take advantage of his sister on top of the Bennet’s financial inferiority would shatter his noble image entirely. Austen increases the uncertainty that Lizzy will achieve her cliché happy ending and make her family proud, initiating suspense in both the plot and the reader’s hope for Austen’s characters. In the storyline, Lydia’s shameful marriage encourages Lizzy to give up on the man she loves as “it was not to be supposed that Mr. Darcy would connect himself with a family...[allied]...with the man whom he so justly scorned” (295). A shadow not only casts on Lizzy, but also on Jane’s chances at winning Bingley’s heart for similar reasons of marrying into a weaker family with Wickham in it. However, Lydia ignores the suspense her change of consciousness allots to her sisters as Austen incorporates climax through Lydia’s choice of her own happiness in a society revolving around the opinion of