How do the marriage proposals of Mr Collins and Mr Darcy reflect the attitudes of the day?
Our attitude to marriage is very different to that of the people in the 18th and 19th century. In the 21st century people in the United
Kingdom mainly marry for love but in the 18th century love was a bonus! In the early 1800s you had to marry somebody from your own social class and people mainly married for money, status and to unite rich families because the only way to survive was to be part of a strong family. If you did not have family back up you could have starved and been very poor because if your family were not rich there would be no one else, as society would not help you. An example of this is Mr Collins and Charlotte's marriage
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Mr and Mrs
Bennet married for love but slowly grew apart as they were so different as many 21st century couples sadly do. Mr and Mrs Gardener had a very successful marriage as they were perfectly matched in status and personality.
Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydiawere the 5 daughters of Mr and
Mrs Bennet. Elizabeth and Jane were very close being far more sensible than their younger siblings. Mr Collins was Elizabeth's 1st cousin and they didn't know each other before Mr Collins came to the house. He knew that when Mr Bennet died he was entitled to inherit Longbourn and he wanted a wife to share it with and because Lady Catherine had instructed him to find a wife. Mr Collins thought that one of his cousins would want to marry him to hold on to the family house so he proposed to Lizzy after just 2 weeks, having first considered Jane only to be told she was shortly to become engaged.
Mr Darcy came to Longbourn with his friend Mr Bingly because he had rented a house. Darcy first met Elizabeth at a ball and became social acquaintances. They knew each other for about a year before the proposal and knew each other better than most other couples when they
got
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Mr Darcy, when proposing, made Elizabeth very angry with the things he said, "Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations beneath my own?" Darcy implied to Lizzy that he was doing her a favour as her family were clearly beneath his and despite that he loves her he is not happy as she is not wealthy and has a lower status than him.
Mr Collins felt that what he said in his proposal was good and positive; he also thought he was doing an honourable thing by proposing to Lizzy but insulted her greatly with what he said. "My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it is a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish." This implies that Mr Collins feels the most important reason to get married is because it is the right thing for a man of the parish to do Mr Collins also tells Lizzy how it was
Lady Catherine who instructed him to find a wife. "To fortune I am perfectly indifferent, and shall make no demand of that nature on
Elizabeth Bennet holds a few secrets from her family. While she is visiting the Collins’, Mr. Darcy enters the room Elizabeth is all alone in and abruptly declares his love for her. She politely declines his proposal for marriage, which turns into an angry accusation
marriage. She was to do just as he said, without so much as uttering a
will do this by finding a wife at a suitable age. There are four main
Mr Collin's never meet Elizabeth and before he even arrives to the Bennet's house he has already decided that he is going to marry one of them. Jane Austin also shows us that marriages were also a way of improving your lifestyle and family's connections. However in the 18th century it was unheard of and very rare to marry anybody who was lower or higher than you in social class, and stature. For example when Mrs Bennet learns of Netherfeild being taken "by a man of large fortune" who earns four or five... ... middle of paper ... ...
Thinking that he truly has lost Elizabeth brings out a more sensitive and sympathetic side of Darcy, and he proposes a second time. This proposal however, marks the real release of his prideful ways, and as Austin put it “was as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do"(Austin 157). This proposal marks Darcy giving up his pride about social class, and Elizabeth being hurt by him and his judgments. She accepts, and they finally allow themselves to be happy.
feelings as he did not want to love or marry a woman who was beneath
to find a wife. As most men do, Mr Collins first sets his sights on
much women sacrificed certain things in order to obtain a stable situation in a household. She
She emphasizes that marriages can only be successful if they are founded on mutual love. Elizabeth and Darcy 's relationship is really different from all the others in the novel. Elizabeth does not care about him being super rich and he does not find her the most beautiful. At the beginning, he thinks she is “tolerable”. They do not like each other at the beginning, they argue a lot and are really sassy towards each other. They are the opposite of amiable. Their relationship is far beyond just physical attraction. Darcy secretly helps out with Lydia 's situation. He does not want Elizabeth to be hurt nor does he want her family to ruin their repuation. He helps Elizabeth and does not bring it up, let alone brag about it. Love is not boastful. This shows the reader how contrasting Darcy and Collins ' characters are. “Elizabeth 's heart did whisper, that he had done it for her...” She has a feeling that Darcy is the one who helped out but she is not one hundred percent sure. Elizabethis wistful about saying so many bad things about him and she regrets her little speech when she rejected him. Unlike every other character in this novel, Darcy and Elizabeth took things slowly. Darcy purposes to her after a long time, when he was sure about his feelings for her. Even when she rejects him once he did not ask her over and over again, unlike
Fitzwilliam Darcy can be described as the epitome of high society and great pride. His arrival at Netherfield overshadows the arrival of Mr. Bingley even if only for a moment. Both men are handsome, and single; however, Darcy is said to be wealthier than Bingley by five thousand a year. Inevitably, the townspeople are already aware of this fact and find Mr. Darcy “much handsomer than Mr. Bingley” (7), the fortune of the former being an obvious factor in their statements. However; their opinion quickly changes when they
The reader is first acquainted with Mr. Darcy's arrogance at the Meryton Ball. Speaking of Elizabeth Bennet, he so snobbishly says that she was, " tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 9). His feelings of superiority to the people of the town lend Mr. Darcy to be judged as a man with a repulsive and cruel personality. The women, who had found him dashingly attractive at first glance, deemed him a man unworthy of marriage because he offered no positive qualities other than wealth. Not only did Darcy refuse to dance with Elizabeth, but he makes it clear that no woman in the room was worthy or met his standards of a suitable partner stating that, " there is not another woman in this room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with" (Austen 8). In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Darcy is only concerned with the wealth and social standing of the people in the town. Because of their lesser social rank, he feels they are un-deserving of his presence and refuses to communicate with them. As the novel progressed, however, Darcy became more and more accepting of the Bennet family. Growing most fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the straightforward, clever daughter, he finally breaks and confesses his true feelings of love for her. "In vain...
Mr. Bingley is often accompanied by Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is a very proud man. Elizabeth Bennet, who is proud of herself, and Mr. Darcy are not fond of one another from the start, these two characters pose the central conflict in the novel. As the novel progresses, Elizabeth receives a marriage proposal from her cousin, Mr. Collins, and turns him down. Mr. Collins then proposes to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend, who accepts. Elizabeth then leaves home to stay with, the Collins’ who live near Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s aunt.
order to realize that she is capable of being independent. Through her actions she was
firm in her belief that she did not need to dedicate her life to another man just because it was the social
The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love for his daughters while, on the contrary, Mrs. Bennet’s love is over-acted and conditional. Both parents help to shape their daughters’ characteristics and beliefs: Lydia reflecting Mrs. Bennet’s flighty and excessive behavior while Elizabeth inherits Mr. Bennet’s pensive and reflective temperament. Looking past their dissimilar personality traits and contradicting convictions, both parents hold the family together and play an integral role in the household structure.