I Have No Clue What I'm Doing

“Emma and I have always loved each other, really.”

Mr. Bennet is so proud that he won't leave his daughters destitute and feels it entitles him to disengage even more from the family social activities. Society finds him to be a charming excentric.

Mrs. Bennet, now free of having to get her girls married, is a little less pushy (though still a bit vulgar). Her nerves impact her less because she doesn't need them to get attention. She gets a little snooty about Meryton and it's "provincial ways"

A proper governess is hired for Lydia, and Kitty. They acquire polish and airs. They are always properly chaperoned which is a good thing since they are now a tempting target for fortune hunters. They love the attention and forget all about Meryton and it's militia (though of course the militia doesn't forget about them).

Mary blooms under the attention, for she may not be pretty, or witty, but she is now rich and that is enough to attract some men. She loses her need to always display and finds a very serious, and solid clergyman to settle down with.

Jane is flooded with suitors for she is the prettiest, genteel, and too kind to turn anyone away. She still pines for Bingley but he is bitter thinking she no longer cares for him and truly was only interested in his money.

Dearest Lizzy is amused by the changes but manages to keep her wit and charm. Society is not quite sure what to make of her and her secret smiles and fine eyes. She has suitors of course but she doesn't trust a one of them. She runs into Darcy one day and finds she understands him better. Even ends up confiding in him. Perhaps he could be her true friend amidst all this insanity?

And Darcy. Well the man ran from the woman only to be once again ensnared. The impediments of her fortune have disappeared. And now that her family is rich it seems no one finds their birth to be all that low. But she wants him as a friend, and then discovers his dealings with Bingley and out right hates him.

Today I saw again Pride and Prejudice (2005) and I'm in NEED of some good fics that haven't been written 15 years ago.

So two things always bothered me about Pride and Prejudice:

1. Jane Austen seemed weirdly cruel to Lydia and

2. Why Kitty? Like, in a novel so tightly, so expertly plotted and cast, what was the point of this seemingly superfluous character?

For ages my answer to those two questions was:

1. Well, progressive, proto-feminist though Austen was, she was not immune to the standards of her time, sadly

2. She needed someone for Lydia to interact with I guess?

I didn’t love those answers but it’s all I had. After re-reading P&P again though…epiphany! I get it! And these two outlying problems are actually connected!

Okay, so hear me out (and possibly laugh at me for not realising this sooner).

Lydia is a flibberty-gibbet. Yes, she’s badly brought up by a silly mother and an indifferent, indolent father, but she’s also naturally not particularly thoughtful, not contemplative or serious, she’s outgoing, flirty, superficial and flighty. She’s good-humoured, she likes to have fun, she’s boy-crazy. She’s a teenager.

Upon first reading, her story seems a typical cautionary tale of its time. It seems to say: listen up teenage flibberty-gibbets! If you go about Lydia Benneting, you’ll end up ruined or married to George Wickham! It seems like Austen has no sympathy for Lydia, who is written as irredeemably stupid and deserving of her punishment… except Kitty.

See, Kitty is just as bad as Lydia. She is like a poor copy of her younger sister. She’s like Lydia in every way except less successful at Lydia Benneting. She also runs after officers, flirts, laughs and seems to entertain no serious thoughts at all. But she does not end up punished. Nothing bad happens to her at all. In fact, in the end she’s taken under Elizabeth’s wing, and there matures, improves and grows out of flibberty-gibbetdom.

And that’s the point. That’s the real moral to Lydia’s story. That’s what should have been Lydia’s arc if Lydia had had better luck!

You might think: no, Lydia needed better guardians. But to rebut this I give you Georgiana.

Here we are presented with a girl whose character we have no reason to fault, and whose guardians are attentive, loving and careful. She still falls for the same trick Lydia does. What does that tell us? Of course it tells us that Jane Austen thinks the moral of Lydia’s story isn’t: don’t be a teenage flibberty-gibbet and don’t let your teenage daughter be one. It’s really: the only reason your teenage daughter or sister escaped being taken advantage of by a predator isn’t high morals on her part (or that she wasn’t wearing a mini skirt and make up) or that you’re such a super parent, but the fact that a skilled predator has simply not taken the trouble.

That’s what Kitty is for. Kitty is what Lydia would have been if she had not attracted a predator. Austen wasn’t cruel to Lydia. She was sorry for Lydia.

I guess ultimately we can see what she really thought of Lydia through Darcy: he thinks her annoying and vulgar, yes, but when he finds her with Wickham, he doesn’t want to rush her to the altar to be rid of her as a problem. His first desire is to return her to her family, so she can finish growing up. He understands that primarily she is not a misbehaving child who needs to be punished or controlled. Primarily, she’s a victim. He’s powerless to help in the end, and so Lydia’s tragedy is complete.

I should have trusted my old friend, Jane. She’s no slut-shamer. What she’s really doing with Lydia’s story is destroying the “but what was she wearing” argument. And Pride and Prejudice has proven itself to be, once again, far ahead of its time.

Mr. Bennet is so proud that he won't leave his daughters destitute and feels it entitles him to disengage even more from the family social activities. Society finds him to be a charming excentric.

Mrs. Bennet, now free of having to get her girls married, is a little less pushy (though still a bit vulgar). Her nerves impact her less because she doesn't need them to get attention. She gets a little snooty about Meryton and it's "provincial ways"

A proper governess is hired for Lydia, and Kitty. They acquire polish and airs. They are always properly chaperoned which is a good thing since they are now a tempting target for fortune hunters. They love the attention and forget all about Meryton and it's militia (though of course the militia doesn't forget about them).

Mary blooms under the attention, for she may not be pretty, or witty, but she is now rich and that is enough to attract some men. She loses her need to always display and finds a very serious, and solid clergyman to settle down with.

Jane is flooded with suitors for she is the prettiest, genteel, and too kind to turn anyone away. She still pines for Bingley but he is bitter thinking she no longer cares for him and truly was only interested in his money.

Dearest Lizzy is amused by the changes but manages to keep her wit and charm. Society is not quite sure what to make of her and her secret smiles and fine eyes. She has suitors of course but she doesn't trust a one of them. She runs into Darcy one day and finds she understands him better. Even ends up confiding in him. Perhaps he could be her true friend amidst all this insanity?

And Darcy. Well the man ran from the woman only to be once again ensnared. The impediments of her fortune have disappeared. And now that her family is rich it seems no one finds their birth to be all that low. But she wants him as a friend, and then discovers his dealings with Bingley and out right hates him.