The characters in the novels Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë each face choices that change their lives and which affect not only their own lives, but also those of individuals. around them. These choices influence their future and can completely change the course of the novel. When critically evaluating these novels, it is very important to consider the choices made by young people throughout their journey; these choices can ultimately shape the entire plot of the novel. The first choice to consider is Lydia's decision to run away with Wickham, and ultimately marry him, and Lydia seems to not understand how her running away with Wickham could be seen as a sinful act. Zimmerman (Zimmerman 64-73) believes that "Lydia's interest in marriage superseded any other perspective [she] might have had, including moral ones." Often, marriages were arranged between parents to ensure that their daughters or sons would find suitable husbands and wives, both in terms of money and social status. Marriages were also common to form political unions between houses or to finalize a business contract. So the fact that Lydia and her family are not from a wealthy background, Wickham cannot want her for financial reasons, therefore society would assume that they ran away for sordid reasons. Of course, this would dishonor the family and bring his family into disrepute. They would be excluded from society and without society, the Bennet sisters could not hope to have a successful marriage. Lydia married Wickham because she believed he possessed great wealth and high social status; However Wickham married Lydia for her looks and naivety. For example, according to Austen (Pride and Prejudice: 263), "Wickham's affection for Lydia was just what...... middle of paper ......ics, 1992. Print.• Gubar, Susan . “Facing the Face: Emily Brontë’s Hell Bible.” (1963): Print.• Hagan, John. “Sympathy Control in Wuthering Heights.” Nineteenth-century fiction, (1967): 305--323. Print.• Harmon, William, C. Hugh Holman, and William Flint Thrall. A literature manual. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. Print.• Morgan, Susan. "Intelligence in 'Pride and Prejudice'." Modern Philology, (1975): 54--68. Print.• Unknown. “The power of choice determines destiny.” Literature Network Forums, 2005. Web. March 25, 2014. .• Walder, Dennis. The realistic novel. London: Routledge, 1995. Print.• Zimmerman, Everett. “Pride and Prejudice in Pride and Prejudice.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 23. 1 (1968): 64-73. JSTOR. Web.http://www.jstor.org/stable/2932317 .