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So Lidia has come out on top as the least inhibited character in Pride and Prejudice. Well, truth be told I was thinking of Mr. Hurst when I put up this survey but it has to be admitted in many ways Lidia probably does score higher on the cool/punk scale than Mr. Hurst.
Essentially Mr. Hurst is a most ordinary drunk and also a conformist after all there's little in his behavior that goes against the established canons apart from getting wasted and sleeping on the couch every now and again.
Lidia, on the other hand, is a fountain of unstoppable sexual energy that cares little about social conventions. Nor does she care about what great lengths others may be forced to go to in order to preserve at least the appearance of those social conventions she seems to be so blissfully unaware of. She elopes with Wickham without a second thought even though she knows her sister Lizzy may have a thing for him. Then they're staying at this dubious place in London, when she spots Darcy from the window. Then when Wickham is basically bribed to marry her, she's on cloud nine, happy as a lark.
In fact it got me thinking that perhaps the reason behind Lidia's uninhibitedness is that she knows so little and cares so little. As the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss and so is stupidity. Happy people are not very smart people usually. This reminds me of an episode from Woody Allen's classic Annie Hall in which he's vox-popping people on the street, asking them whether they're happy and if so what the secret to their happiness is, he finally runs into this couple who tell him they're perfectly happy and that their secret is that they're pretty dumb and don't really care about things. It looks like some of us are too smart for our own good, as in not smart enough to make something of ourselves but smart enough to realize what hopeless losers we are.
So if you're like that perhaps you may learn a thing or two from Lidia and the likes of her. She is very emotional and very happy because she doesn't really care what other people might think or feel or say. True, the downside is that those around her often end up having to sort out the messes she leaves behind but it doesn't affect her in the least.
So Lidia you are the best, with not a care in the world and your eternal infatuation with uniforms.
1 comments:
I can't say I'd disagree with that! Lydia is a hopelessly silly character, but not unrealistic. The reality, I'm sad to think, is that so many of us are more like her than we'd expect. The things we distract ourselves with, while a great many of them may be amusing, are only that, and yet occupy much of our time. It makes us happy, and like Lydia, when we are distracted from the things that are happening around us, we are blissfully unawares and happy.
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