There is nothing in Pride and Prejudice to contradict this statement. As she expects, Elizabeth is shocked. Certainly Mr Collins has not changed, and we see Charlotte humouring him with some skill. Likewise she has to suffer the interference of Lady Catherine with good grace. But Elizabeth has 'to give Charlotte credit for the arrangement' Ch. Austen herself once received a proposal—her only proposal, in fact—from a Collins-like man.
His name was Harris Bigg-Wither, and she had known him since childhood. She accepted his proposal, and there was a celebration in the Austen house that evening. Then, the next morning, she announced that she had changed her mind.
Austen, I imagine, agreed to marry him because it made sense, and because she was the kind of person who did what was sensible. She is taking two different stories, from two different moments in time, and placing them alongside one another, implicitly comparing the caution and constraint of an earlier generation with the individualistic freedom of a later one.
My parents and grandparents came, pretty much, from nothing, but were blessed with intelligence and character, and favored, on an unknowably vast number of occasions, by chance. My dear Charlotte—impossible! For Charlotte, marrying Collins is the only possibility. In , the critic D. Harding, who had trained as both a literary critic and a psychologist, thought that this view of Austen missed what was most interesting about her. To understand Austen, he thought, you had to think of her as a person living in a town, in a house, surrounded by friends and family.
Her novels, he argued, were really for, about, and against the people she lived with everyday. How did Austen feel about the people around her?
She needed to share her interior life, her deep convictions and feelings. What she needed was a way to do this without transgressing the bounds of decorum, of propriety, of good taste, of sound judgment, fairness, and equanimity.
This, rather than the ambition of entertaining a posterity of urbane gentlemen, was her motive force in writing…. At the Netherfield ball, Elizabeth was shocked when Mr. Darcy asked her for a dance, and she agreed out of surprise.
Charlotte, who saw the whole exchange, told Lizzy that Mr. Darcy was complimenting her by asking her to dance. She advised her not to turn him down because she was attracted to George Wickham , saying that Mr. Darcy was a man more powerful than Mr. When Elizabeth refused Mr. Collins' offer of marriage, Charlotte gave a sympathetic ear for him to talk to.
She was able to steer his attention towards herself, and he eventually proposed to Charlotte, which she accepted. Bennet would die so her daughter could take over Longbourn. Charlotte asked to be the one who told Lizzy of her engagement, which Mr. Collins agreed. Elizabeth was shocked by Charlotte's announcement, but she wished her well, hoping that her friend would be happy. She left Lizzy, and their friendship seemed slightly strained afterwards. Elizabeth and Charlotte eventually repaired their friendship by the time she married Mr.
But not Charlotte. She wants to get out of her parents' house, and she's not getting any younger, so she hooks up with the gross Mr. Collins , knowing that he is probably her last chance to be the mistress of her own house: she "accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment" So, our question is: does this decision make her somewhat more empowered, showing that she takes control of her own life? Or is this just spelling out how limited women's choices were back in the day?
Charlotte also gives us a counterpoint to Jane's approach to marriage. Where Jane is quiet and shy, Charlotte, on the other hand, has no problem making it clear immediately to Mr. Collins that she's up for it if he is: she sets out specifically to "secure [Lizzy] from any return of Mr. Collins' addresses, by engaging them towards herself" Charlotte gives telling advice on the subject of marriage early on.
When gossiping with Elizabeth about just how much of a crush Jane has on Bingley, Charlotte says: "If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark […] In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels" 6.
Lizzy makes fun of her, but, of course, Charlotte's right. Shortly after, Charlotte also gets in that famous line, "happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance…It is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life" 6.
Elizabeth laughs at her, and says, "You would never act in this way yourself. As we know, though, that's exactly what Charlotte does.
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