Can We All Agree That Lydia Bennet is a Brat?
Lydia Bennet: Daughter. Sister. Entitled wild child. There aren’t too many book characters that I feel so strongly about than Lydia Bennet. As the youngest sister of the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Lydia is full of “personality” that can only be rivaled by her (almost) equally as annoying mother.
In fact, I’d venture to say if there ever was a modern-day Lydia Bennet, her name would 100% be etched with a permanent marker in Regina George’s Burn Book. Let’s see what makes her a great character but a horrible human; without further ado, here is a comprehensive list as to why Lydia Bennet is just awful:
She’s Attention-Seeking
Walking into the village all the time to pick up a boyfriend? Pretty attention-seeking.
Lydia is a notorious flirt and that’s one of the main characteristics that Austen gives her. She and her sister Catherine (otherwise known as Kitty) go into town often flaunting their looks in their pretty dresses when they learn that the regiment is in town. I guess there isn’t much to do in their sleepy country town until Mr. Bingley moves in and the hot soldiers come to town. The two of them make the most of the opportunity when it presents itself.
When Lydia goes on a trip out of town with the Gardiners, she writes letters to her family but they are filled with silly and trivial things that she could write about at home like dresses and parasols; not any memorable moments from her trip:
“When Lydia went away, she promised to write very often and very minutely to her mother and Kitty; but her letters were always long expected, and always very short. Those to her mother, contained little else, than that they were just returned from the library, where such and such officers had attended them, and where she had seen such beautiful ornaments as made her quite wild; that she had a new gown or a new parasol” (Austen, 252).
Sneaking in some humble bragging about the material things she’s bought. Classic Lydia.
She Thinks She’s Better Than Everybody Else
Hey, remember that time when Lydia took a leaf out of Jane’s book to learn how to be a caring and selfless person? Yeah, me neither.
A prime example of her self-obsession is when she elopes with George Wickham (another awful person). Considering that the whole premise of the book is to have all five girls married so they don’t become impoverished and starve to death after their father dies, being the first one married is a pretty big deal and Lydia certainly doesn’t let her sisters forget it.
After Lydia is married and her reputation is narrowly saved by Darcy, she visits her family to gloat about being the first married. Her mother asks her if she will write:
“‘Oh! My dear Lydia,” she cried, “when shall we meet again?”
“Oh, lord! I don’t know. Not these two or three years perhaps.”
“Write to me very often, my dear.”
“As often as I can. But you know married women have never much time for writing. My sisters may write to me. They will have nothing else to do’” (Austen, 334).
She’s an Awful Influence on Kitty
While Lydia is actually the youngest of the five girls, she is actually the one with the most influence on her older sister Kitty. The two are thick as foolish thieves throughout the whole novel until Lydia drops their sisterly relationship for bad boy Wickham.
In fact, a large part of Kitty’s character in the novel is that she doesn’t really have a character. She very rarely has any important dialogue in the book and the times she is mentioned, it is usually in connection with Lydia. This could be intentional on Austen’s part to show how Lydia controls people she finds beneath her. You can imagine there aren’t many.
Her Recklessness Affects Others
Not that Lydia would know this. She is such a self-absorbed person, she only cares about her own interests even if it means something unpleasant happening to someone she is supposed to care about.
When Lydia runs off with Wickham, she is putting her whole family’s reputation at risk as she becomes the gossip of the town. The large concern was that Lydia would have pre-marital sex creating a scandal so big that none of the other sisters would be considered suitable to marry (remember this is the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century).
Why is this a big deal? As a woman in the Georgian era, marriage meant survival. Women weren’t allowed to vote, own property, and there were very few occupations they could have that were socially acceptable. If anything, the girls would likely have become governesses or a similar occupation in that area. Women did run things like shops but this was likely because there was a husband who owned it. Unless widowed, a woman wouldn’t be able to run a store or anything like that. Furthermore, can you imagine Lydia with any sort of job? Ha!
Stop, Lydia, Just Stop
Granted, I will give Lydia the fact that she’s fifteen and young. We all do young and dumb things at fifteen, right? However, I have a really hard time thinking of Jane, Elizabeth, or Mary to be as silly as Lydia or Kitty at fifteen. What’s more, is that Lydia never learns her lesson by the end when the other characters experience some sort of development.
There is one great thing about Lydia Bennet though. It is that she is fodder for the great storyline that Pride and Prejudice has. She screws up so royally that Mr. Darcy comes to the rescue and it’s only until then that Elizabeth realizes that he’s the one for her and they live happily ever after. So thanks for one of the most studied storylines in the English language, Lydia.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Broadview Literary Texts, 2002.
