Among all the novels written by J ane Austen, Pride and Prejudice has been valued as the most successful and popular masterpiece. This novel is peopled with characters of her own social class: The ladies and gentlemen of the landed gentry. The plot of this novel revolve around the intricacies of courtship and marriage between members of her class, which is great attraction to many readers. Deeply impressed by four different marriages in Pride and Prejudice, I made an analysis of those four types of marriages and came to an conclusion that one's character reflects his or her marriage and their attitudes towards marriage. The four couples, varied in their characters, presented us with four different distinct marriages.
The first marriage presented before us is the marriage of Collins and Charlotte. Collins was a conceited and foolish young man. He would inherit the estate of Longbourn, the property of Mr. Bennet upon his death, which amounts to depriving five daughters of Mr. Bennet of everything. Therefore, the five daughters would have not enough money to support their life unless they are lucky enough to marry well-to-do husbands. Collins was vulgar and servile, seldom opens his mouth without mentioning his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Her “affability and condescension” (J ane Austen 58) is so impressive upon him that he felt greatly flattered only by “her visit in his humble parsonage”.(J ane Austen 59)
Collins was pompous and narrow-minded man who never possess his own conception of love, he intends to get married merely because it was the particular advice and recommendation of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. To begin with, he made up his mind to marry one of the daughters of Mr. Bennet as a way of reconciliation with the Longbourn family. The beautiful J ane, undoubtedly, is his first choice. But when he was informed that J ane had been privately engaged, he swiftly change J ane to Elizabeth, who is “equally next to J ane in birth and beauty” (J ane Austen 62). No mutual acquaintance and love between each other. Marriage to Collins was only “a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances” and “advice from Lady Catherine de Bourgh” (J ane Austen 95). J ane Austen gave us a full statement of his background and character. “Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society. The greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father, and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance. The subjection in which his father had brought him up, had given him originally great humility of manner, but it was now a good deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequential feeling of early and unexpected prosperity.” And “the respect which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good option of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his rights as a rector made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.” (J ane Austen 61)
His character can be vividly reflected in his first proposal to Elizabeth and determines that his court was a failure. We are not surprised at his failure when we read his ridiculous proposal to Elizabeth: “But the fact is, that being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of your honored father. I could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as little as possible, when the melancholy event takes place.” (J ane Austen 95) How rapacious and pompous he is! To acquire the wealth as well as a wife! What a ridiculous idea of his marriage conception it was!
Having been refused by Elizabeth, he quickly marries Charlotte. “In as short time as Mr Collins' long speeches would allow, everything was settled between them to the satisfaction of both.” (Mordecai Marcus 274) We can see from here that his love to Charlotte was by no means sincere and genuine. To Collins, Charlotte was the only choice he could make. He was the very man who was incapable of normal personal feelings. His whole character has been absorbed by his social mask, and he relates only his social self to other social surfaces. Thus Collins did not exactly capitulate to social claims, for he never recognized personal claims, and he was blind to the fact that his own personal claims were distorted social claims. A brief analysis of his combination of arrogance and servility will explain this distortion. Collins valued only social power, and so he sought security by cringing before his superiors. To his potential inferiors he was arrogant and rude, which behavior expressed anger at those who would not recognize his social power and vindincative compensation for his cring. As long as a wife could be settled, it doesn't matter whether it was Charlotte or Elizabeth or anyone else.
Charlotte seems to me is a mediocre and vain young lady. She accepted Collins solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment. Her mediocre perception and eagerness to get married prevent her from detecting Collins' pomposity and foolishness. We can also see her attitudes towards love and marriage from her words “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar before-hand, it doesn't advance their felicity in the least. They always contrive to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.” (J ane Austen 110) That is her idea of marriage, which accounts for her quick marriage with Collins. Besides, Collins is the only alternative to penury and social isolation.
Charlotte's letters about her married life to Elizabeth fully revealed her vain character. She (Charlotte) wrote cheerfully, seemed surrounded with comforts, and mentioned nothing that she could not praise. The house, furniture, neighborhood, and roads, were all to her taste, and Lady Catherine's behavior was most friendly and obliging. She knew that Elizabeth had looked down upon her for her choice, as no one could understand the strangeness of Mr. Collins' making two offers of marriage within three days and “any woman who marries Collins, a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man, can't have a proper way of thinking.” (J ane Austen 110) Actually, she marries for the sake of marriage but she pretends to be happy. Charlotte is pitiable and Collins is contemptible. “Their marriage presents a complete abandonment of personal claims in favor of social claims.” (Mordecai Marcus 275)
