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Pride and Prejudice?

I'm reading Pride and Prejudice right now, and I don't understand some parts of the book. When they are mentioning the soldiers, why do they say '------shire'? what is that?

also, when Lydia elopes with Wickham, why did they want to them to marry? nowadays, people usually try to convince people who elope not to marry. What would happen if Lydia and Wickham didn't marry? is n't that the point of eloping?

that's as far as i'm up to right now, so if someone could help me, thanks.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The reason to have Lydia and Wickham marry is that in that period there was a very strong taboo against sex without marriage. If Lydia ran off with a man she didn't marry, not only would it be impossible for her to get married later on, but it would shame her whole family, and the other sisters would have found it much harder to make good marriages.

The references to ---shire often occurred in nonfiction books when the author wanted to talk about incidents without identifying the real people or places involved. By putting it in a novel, Austen adds to the feeling of authenticity, and also possibly avoids offending real officers who might be considered similar to the character.