“. . . the death of your daughter would have been a blessing . . .” (286)

The Bennet family is concerned that Lydia has run off with Wickham not only because of his reputation, but also because of what a relationship out of wedlock could do to their daughter’s as well as their own. In Austen’s time, as Mary says on page 280, “the loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable, that one false step involves her in endless ruin.” Now that Lydia has publicly been in a relationship with the man, she has no option but to marry him so as to avoid the social consequences. This is significant because, even though she had an independent moment in running away with him, she is now forced into marriage. Were she to not marry him, death may have been favorable to her future prospects as “damaged goods” – goods that another man was unlikely to marry.