Lydia's folly (Chapter 46-49)

After knowing Lydia’s folly, Elizabeth turns immediately to Darcy, illustrating the closeness developing between them. Their shared sense of guilt about failing to expose Wickham’s true nature aligns them emotionally and gives them a common purpose. The Bennet parents come across as highly inadequate at this point in the text—Mrs. Bennet’s stupidity and Mr. Bennet’s refusal to take responsibility of his children.
During the crisis, the Gardiners again step forward to act responsibly. It is Mr. Gardiner, rather than Mr. Bennet, who takes charge of the search in the city. On the contrary, Mr. Bennet even returns home after a time. Mr. Gardiner finds Lydia, and even pays Wickham to convince him to marry her, who is filling the adult role that the Bennet parents have vacated.

Pride and Prejudice is critical of the difficulties faced by women in English society of the period. Elizabeth, the voice of reason and common sense at this point in the novel, condemns Lydia’s behavior as “infamy” and declares that if Lydia does not marry Wickham, “she is lost forever.” The only voice of moral relativism belongs to Mrs. Bennet, who is so happy to have Lydia married that she does not care about the manner of the marriage’s accomplishment. While Lydia may have escaped social stigma, Mr. Bennet still condemns her and Wickham, saying, “I will not encourage the impudence of either, by receiving them at Longbourn.”