In a novel alert to the complexities and insecurities of social position, preoccupied with questions of responsibility and respectability, the episode, in respect to Lydia's downfall, emphasises the vulnerability of the Bennet daughters and give rise to considerations of primary responsibility for Lydia's downfall. "She has no money, no connections" p225. The fault, for Lydia's downfall, does not lie with Wickham; I do not excuse the soldier's behaviour nor suggest that he is not at fault for carrying out such a ridiculous, care-free affair but he has no duty to be responsible for Lydia. Mr Bennet, however, is...
proposal, is 'happiness… such as he had probably never felt before' p295. By the end of the novel, as a result of Lydia's downfall, Darcy has been converted into a figure of comic reconciliation. Darcy, the new aristocratic man, uses his power and knowledge to re-establish social harmony, a harmony symbolized by multiple marriages: Lydia's to Wickham, Jane's to Bingley, and most important, his own to Elizabeth. Darcy is shown to be loving and therefore lovable; thorough his desire for the heroine, he is transformed from an aggressive and potentially threatening figure into an ally and a husband.