Throughout the classic novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the reader learns how first impressions can be created within the first seconds you meet a person. Austen explains how first impressions are hard to forget, but unless the person being judged changes the impression they made, then it will stick to and define them for life. The reader acknowledges the growing relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy that becomes strained when Lydia decided to go off and marry a man she did not even know. Getting eloped before getting engaged was considered a disgrace to the family’s reputation in the 1800’s. Because of this, Lydia becomes a less essential character that everybody loves to dislike. The reader makes a critical first impression
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Further on in the novel, the reader learns about Lydia’s reckless decision to elope with a man that she is not even engaged to. For example, Lydia’s recklessness of going off with a man is judged by her sister Elizabeth when Austen writes, “She had never perceived, while the regiment was in Hertfordshire that Lydia had any partiality for him; but she was convinced that Lydia wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody. Sometimes one officer, sometimes another, had been her favorite, as their attentions raised them in her opinion. Her affections had been continually fluctuating but never without an object. The mischief of neglect and mistaken indulgence toward such a girl.-Oh! how acutely did she now feel it" (266). Evidently, Lydia’s actions of going off with Wickham has made Elizabeth curious as to why she did it. However, she realizes that Lydia probably only did it because she wanted to be with someone. She didn’t want to be alone and single anymore. Elizabeth further examines her sister 's actions in a different perspective by stating, “Perhaps I am not doing her justice. But she is very young; she has never been taught to think on serious subjects…she has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity. She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner...nothing but love, flirtation, and officers, have been in her head” (269). …show more content…
While many first impression that are made are incorrect, there are also many that are portrayed to be true. In Lydia Bennet’s case, the first impression that a reader makes about her is that she is irresponsible and careless. This characterization identifies her throughout the entire novel because she does nothing to change it. She continues acting in an irresponsible manner and does not seem to change her
Further on in the novel, the reader learns about Lydia’s reckless decision to elope with a man that she is not even engaged to. For example, Lydia’s recklessness of going off with a man is judged by her sister Elizabeth when Austen writes, “She had never perceived, while the regiment was in Hertfordshire that Lydia had any partiality for him; but she was convinced that Lydia wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody. Sometimes one officer, sometimes another, had been her favorite, as their attentions raised them in her opinion. Her affections had been continually fluctuating but never without an object. The mischief of neglect and mistaken indulgence toward such a girl.-Oh! how acutely did she now feel it" (266). Evidently, Lydia’s actions of going off with Wickham has made Elizabeth curious as to why she did it. However, she realizes that Lydia probably only did it because she wanted to be with someone. She didn’t want to be alone and single anymore. Elizabeth further examines her sister 's actions in a different perspective by stating, “Perhaps I am not doing her justice. But she is very young; she has never been taught to think on serious subjects…she has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity. She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner...nothing but love, flirtation, and officers, have been in her head” (269). …show more content…
While many first impression that are made are incorrect, there are also many that are portrayed to be true. In Lydia Bennet’s case, the first impression that a reader makes about her is that she is irresponsible and careless. This characterization identifies her throughout the entire novel because she does nothing to change it. She continues acting in an irresponsible manner and does not seem to change her