Lit Crit

• Lydia refuses to conform to the strict and suffocating conventions of female propriety - Byrne


  Validation: Lydia is in raptures after her engagement and marriage which shows she is happy and oblivious to any harm.

  Negation: Lydia gloats about being married before Jane - showing she does value the status of marriage (she does conform).
• Lydia bounces off the page in all her glorious, noisy imperfection - Byrne

  Validation: ‘Lydia was Lydia still; untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy and fearless.’ She is irreverent and unchanged.
• Clearly you can’t stand aspiring girls, especially the plain ones - Todd on Mary

  Mr Bennet teases Mary’s ostentatious intelligence and reading. As does Austen, ‘say something very sensible, but knew not how.’
• I am not interested in pictures of perfection - Austen on her characters (Elizabeth)

  Elizabeth has flaws such as believing Wickham’s lies, but she also a strong heroine who does not care about other’s opinions