Pride & Prejudice School Character Locker

Jane Austin’s 1813’s Pride and Prejudice is a book full of characters from all different backgrounds that connect with one another through lavish events thrown by society. All of the characters have at least one of these many different personalities and characteristics such as intellect, wisdom, witty, outspoken, shy, friendly, conniving, quirky, sweet-tempered, modest, irrational, wild, conceited, and boy crazy. But out of the 17 main characters I chose one to whom I made this locker for; which is Lydia Bennet.

Lydia Bennet is a teenage girl between the ages of 15-16 in this Jane Austin’s tale. She is the youngest child out of her 5 siblings and certainly acts the part of a younger sibling. Due to the lack of much attention and guidance from both her mother and father, she is wild and an attention seeker. She is your typical teenage girl, who like other girls her age or around her age are obsessed with their appearance, boys, money and balls (parties). One thing she loves most in the whole wide world is the regiment (military). And when they come into town all of the girls including Lydia and one of her older sisters Kitty just go BOY CRAZY. So bad to the point that Lydia run’s away with an officer under the impression of an elopement which only happened because the officer was paid secretly to marry her. Just so she wouldn’t bring ridicule and disgrace her family name and ruin her 4 elder sister’s chances at a good companionable marriage.

In this locker made for this teenage girl is at least 5 items that would be in there if this really was her locker. The first item in the locker is a silver sequenced hair bow. This bow symbolizes how both girly Lydia is and how much she loves shiny things. For instance Lydia is obsessed with things that have a more exaggerated look than others surrounding it. Due to the lack of attention from both of her parents, she has to find ways to stand out even if that means going wild and crazy. Just like the silver sequenced bow.

The daisy ring in the ring box symbolizes two things both a ring and her love flowers. In the 1800’s a major thing in a girl’s life was the thought of getting married. So the ring show’s that importance in which a girl is almost always thinking about getting married. The daisy shows the love that Lydia has for flowers but not per say that specific flower. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austin writes about lavish gardens that Lydia and her older sisters like to stroll in.

In addition to the items above including the sparkly sequence bow and the daisy ring there are 3 more items on the list. The next item in the locker is a tissue, representing a handkerchief. The handkerchief is usually given from a girl or boy declaring an attraction for the opposite sex. During this time when someone dropped their handkerchief either on purpose or not and someone came along and picked it up…. it showed respect and hopefully the beginning of a new friendship. So many women and teenage girls such as Lydia and Kitty would intentionally drop their handkerchief in order to find a way to get the attention and an introductory for meeting a new and agreeable man of their liking. Preferably the militia men, who were extremely popular at this time.

The next item from the list of things that Lydia would put in her locker to describe herself would be a mirror. This symbolizes the way Lydia cares about her appearance, which is now to the point of vanity. She spends so much time in the mirror because she takes pride in her looks. Whether she’s at home or venturing outside misbehaving she is always looking presentable in the latest outfits if she can. When seen looking at herself its probably her examining her figure, her hair, makeup and comparing herself to others.

Last but not least one of the most important items in her locker would be a heart with a picture of a guy in it. Mainly because of how fond she was of guys. Her love for guys has gone from just being in love to being obsessed. An example would be how flirtatious she gets around them and bragging about her beauty and flaunting around. Lydia makes sure she looks good no matter what the occasion is with the help of a mirror.

By gathering all of this information from Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice novel about Lydia really helped with figuring out what items would she gave put in her own locker today in life. The items chosen to represent and symbolize the important factors of a girl’s life was a good representation of doing just that. Each item meant more to Lydia than just simply what they were meant to do. These 5 items help shape Lydia’s character into who she truly is than becoming one of her elder sisters. The sparkly sequenced bow, the daisy ring, the handkerchief, the mirror and the boy crazy picture helped her standout like her older sisters which is what she initially wanted.