Maria was engaged to Mr. Rushworth when she set her cap on Henry Crawford. Their flirtation continued even after her marriage. When Fanny Price rejected Henry's advances, he ran away with the married Maria. His punishment? Loss of respect. For Maria the consequences were more severe. Mr. Rushworth divorced her, and her father, Sir Thomas, banished her to live in a remote cottage with Mrs. Norris.
Maria had destroyed her own character, and [Sir Thomas] would not by a vain attempt to restore what never could be restored, by affording his sanction to vice, or in seeking to lessen its disgrace, be anywise accessory to introducing such misery in another man's family, as he had known himself.
It ended in Mrs. Norris's resolving to quit Mansfield, and devote herself to her unfortunate Maria, and in an establishment being formed for them in another country—remote and private, where, shut up together with little society, on one side no affection, on the other, no judgment, it may be reasonably supposed that their tempers became their mutual punishment.
Lydia's punishment for being giddy, impetuous and foolish resulted in lifelong unhappiness. Her parents' leniency towards her brash behavior allowed her passion to rule her. Too late Lydia learned that passion rarely lasts.
"It had always been evident to [Elizabeth] that such an income as theirs, under the direction of two persons so extravagant in their wants, and heedless of the future, must be very insufficient to their support; and whenever they changed their quarters, either Jane or herself were sure of being applied to for some little assistance towards discharging their bills. Their manner of living, even when the restoration of peace dismissed them to a home, was unsettled in the extreme. They were always moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation, and always spending more than they ought. His affection for her soon sunk into indifference; her's lasted a little longer; and in spite of her youth and her manners, she retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had given her."
