3.2 Carnal Love

Lydia Bennet, the youngest daughter but is the first to get married. She is pretty, naïve but frivolous and vanity. Because of being spoiled by Mrs. Bennet, she enters social circle early. She often goes to Meryton to visit and socialize with the officers in the regiment, and thinks that entertainment and persion are the meanings of life. She is deceived by Mr. Wickham’s handsome appearance, and considers him to be an amiable and kind man. Later, she elopes with Mr. Wickham. In fact, however, Mr. Wickham is a playboy. He is Mr. Darcy’s father’s god-son. He once got Mr. Darcy’s younger sister to fall in love with him and agreed to elope with him, only with the purpose of revenging on Mr. Darcy and getting Miss Darcy’s fortune. Luckily, Mr. Darcy found and prevented him in time. And Elizabeth once fell in love with him, but he suddenly turns his attentions from Elizabeth to Miss King, just because Miss King got a large amount of money from an inheritance.

He deceives Lydia to believe that he will marry her. However, he will never marry a woman without some money, and he only flirt with Lydia Bennet. In fact, he gets married with Lydia only because Mr. Darcy pays out his gambling debts and gives Miss Lydia a thousand pounds. So money plays an important role in their marriage. Their marriage is simply based on appearance and money rather than love, which makes they live in an unhappy life after they got married. Jane Austen criticized this marriage and thought that it would not be permanent