Lydia Bennet, Basic Character Information

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s youngest daughter, Mrs. Bennet’s favorite, a spoiled girl accustomed to getting her own way and described as being a “bar slut” by my high school English teacher.

Basic Information:

Age: 15/16, June birthday

Spouse: George Wickham (married in August)
Primary Residence: Longbourn (beginning of novel), Newcastle (following her marriage to Mr. Wickham)

Physical Characteristics: “Stout” (in this case meaning healthy and strong), “well-grown” with a “fine complexion and good-humoured countenance.” She is taller than all of her older sisters.

Personality Characteristics: Lydia is bold, brash, reckless and spoiled through over-indulgence on the part of her mother and neglect on the part of her father, both of whom allowed her to grow to be “vain, ignorant, idle and uncontrolled” as well as a flirt. The narrator says she has “high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence” which has been strengthened into self-assurance.

What to call her:

• Lydia – close friends and family
• Miss Lydia / Miss Lydia Bennet – everyone else, when one or more of her sisters is present
• Miss Bennet – everyone else, but only if none of her elder sisters are present
• Mrs. Wickham/Mrs. George Wickham – everyone else, following her marriage