Lydia Bennet

Also known as: Lydia / your three younger sisters · Family: Bennet · Role: daughter · First appears: Chapter 1

In ch.1, Lydia Bennet is one of the Bennet daughters: Mr. Bennet calls his daughters “silly and ignorant like other girls,” while Mrs. Bennet describes Lydia as especially good-humoured. She is a sister to Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Bennet, Catherine Bennet, and Mary Bennet, and in ch.2 joins her sisters in staring at their father. By ch.7, visits to Mrs. Philips and Mr. Philips provide her with a new source of pleasure; she openly admires Captain Carter, and in ch.13 is among the fair cousins whom Mr. Collins comes prepared to admire. At the Netherfield ball anticipated in ch.17, her happiness depends on dancing, with George Wickham one of several partners who could satisfy her.

In ch.39, Lydia is closely associated with Mrs. Forster, calling her a friend, and shares in the amusement surrounding Chamberlayne’s disguise. When Mrs. Forster invites her to Brighton in ch.41, Mr. Bennet permits her to go despite Elizabeth Bennet’s objections, and Lydia leaves with her the next morning. Her promised letters to her mother and Catherine Bennet are always long expected and short. In ch.46–47, she elopes with George Wickham, intending to marry him, writing, “I should never be happy without him, so think it no harm to be off.” Mr. Bennet searches for her with Colonel Forster, while Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Bennet acknowledge that they had concealed Wickham’s character from her; Darcy later learns of the elopement at Brighton.

In ch.49, Mr. Gardiner finds Lydia and Wickham in London and arranges terms intended to secure their marriage, while Mrs. Gardiner takes Lydia into her protection. Mr. Bennet accepts the arrangements, and, after Jane Bennet and Elizabeth Bennet urge him to do so, agrees to receive Lydia and her husband at Longbourn. Lydia and Wickham marry at St. Clement’s in ch.51, with Fitzwilliam Darcy attending; he had found them, paid Wickham’s debts, provided Lydia’s settlement, and purchased Wickham’s commission. Lydia’s thoughtlessness later reveals Darcy’s assistance to Elizabeth Bennet, and by ch.61 Elizabeth rejects Lydia and Wickham’s expectations of further financial help, while Catherine Bennet improves after spending more time away from Lydia’s influence.