What impressions have you gained of Mr. Collins by the conclusion of volume 1? Do you think he is a suitable husband for Charlotte?

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When Mr. Collins is first introduced he seems to be the “grave and stately” vicar, formal, with a great sense of propriety. He compliments his cousins and apologises profusely at any slight indiscretion, as for example, when he makes the mistake of assuming the Bennet’s had no cook. However, further on I found out that this is just a mask. His thankfulness and apologising is carried totally to excess, because he’s really quite a stupid man. He even admits his humbleness is to make his superiors feel more superior. Having grown up in little society, Mr. Collins has no social grace and being thrust into it has inflated his ego. He feels he should have authority as a clergyman and should command respect by having Lady Catherine De Burgh as a patroness. He is extremely proud and is always boasting about how rich and wonderful Lady Catherine is and how good she is to him long after everyone else is bored to tears, which also indicates how socially unaware he is.

“In describing to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion…he (Mr. Collins) was happily employed until the gentlemen joined them…To the girls, who could not listen to their cousin, and had nothing to do but to wish for an instrument…the interval of waiting appeared very long.”

Mr. Collins is also very gauche; he constantly “puts his foot in it” without realising it and sometimes insults where he means to compliment. For example, when he is talking to Mrs. Philips he is so struck with the room that “he declared he might almost have supposed himself in the small summer breakfast room at Rosings, a comparison that did not at first convey much gratification.”

All in all Mr. Collins’ humble upbringing combined with his very high opinion of himself and his new status (and his pride about it) makes him “a curious mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self importance and humility.”

Being a clergyman, Mr. Collins tells us a lot about the clergy. The clergy, it seems, was not so spiritual or vocational as it is now. Taking up residence in a parish was referred to as getting a “living”. It was first and foremost a way for gentlemen to have a job and still be gentlemen. The person who had the church on his or her land was the patron, and chose the vicar. Lady Catherine probably chose Mr. Collins for his fawning servility because he would do what ever she wanted and be grateful for it. Mr. Collins sums up his duties for us himself:

“In the first place, (the rector) must make such an agreement for tithes as may be beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron. He must write his own sermons; and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties, and the care and improvement of his dwelling.”

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Mr. Collins’ first duty in his mind is to extract the most money he can from the peasants who work around him to benefit himself, but not quite so much as to put him anywhere near the earning scale of Lady Catherine, which she would not appreciate. He is greedy therefore and doesn’t seem very vocational if the first duty he thinks of is how many tithes he should set. He mentions nothing about helping parishers with problems or charity work but does mention “care and improvement of his dwelling”. This seems to me to be very hypocritical because if Mr. Collins has a decent and comfortable, and I might add, free dwelling, as a clergyman, and is not interested in material goods, he should employ his time and his parishers money better.

Having the patroness Lady Catherine de Burgh, Mr. Collins gives us insights about the aristocracy. Mr. Collins is totally in the thrall of Lady Catherine and is totally dependent on for his

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living. The aristocracy is the crème de la crème and the aristocrats know it. Having a title commanded great respect from all the lower classes, as Mr. Collins says to Elizabeth “…with the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite. Mr. Collins constantly says that Lady Catherine condescends to tell him this or that, like she is lowering herself to speak to him, a mere clergyman. Lady Catherine is quite a big busybody in Mr. Collins’ life and feels perfectly at ease at it, and Mr. Collins is totally thrilled for her to have any interest in him. This says that the aristocracy had a feeling of superiority over anyone lower than them and feel that they can intrude on them because they are better. For example Lady Catherine gives her opinion twice unasked (which Mr. Collins thinks quite wonderful) on the subject of his marrying, which is a really personal matter. Then when she invited him to form a quadrille table because she could get no one else she said,

“Mr. Collins, you must marry. A clergyman like you must marry, - choose properly, chuse a gentlewoman for my sake; and for your own, let her be an active useful sort of person, not brought up too high, but able to make a small income go a good way. Find such a woman as soon as you can, bring her to Hunsford, and I will visit her.”

Lady Catherine is not only telling him to get married but also telling whom he should marry and make sure she would approve of her. She also visited him in his parsonage and “perfectly approved of all the alterations he was making, and had even vouchsafed to suggest some herself, -some shelves in the closet.” Lady Catherine is directing Mr. Collins’, which shows that in those times the aristocracy had real superiority over other people and could lord over them and the lower classes had to allow this and respect the upper class. Mr. Collins has no problem because he is humble, servile and obsequious to Lady Catherine to make her feel more superior to keep her favour.

Money and society are very important to Mr. Collins. He grew up under an “illiterate and miserly father” which implies not much money and he did not get out in society much. Now that Mr. Collins has a living and a steady income he moves in social circles and even associates with his patron a bit. This shows that money and society went hand in hand, the more money you had the higher up in society you were and the more you were respected. When Mr. Collins became a clergyman with a living his social status was raised and the fact that he was actually in society with a decent living swelled his head considerably. Money and society also controlled whom you married. People did not marry between the classes and there were even restrictions within mainly the higher classes. Mr. Collins decided to marry one of the Bennet girls because they were of suitable status and connection, that which was similar to his own. After Elizabeth makes her refusal of his marriage proposal he tells her “…it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage will ever be made to you. Your portion (of her inheritance) is unhappily small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications.” What he is saying is that it is likely that Elizabeth will never be asked to married again because even though she is beautiful and has a good sense of humour and other qualities, she is poor, by upper class standards (because the property is entailed away from the female line) and the fact that she does not have much money will be a black mark which every suitor will see.

On marriage and love Mr. Collins has a very different view than in today’s world. On love he is utterly naïve. He thinks he understands women and is good at subtly paying courtly compliments and flattering when they are usually silly and can go in the wrong direction. When he is first having dinner with the Bennets he tells Mr. Bennet that his compliments “…arise chiefly from what is passing at the time, and though I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to

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give them as unstudied an air as possible.” This really seems quite ridiculous which aptly sums up Mr. Collins. Also, I think he is rather indifferent to love, in his proposal he tells Elizabeth of his

reasons for marriage, and for coming to Hertfordshire to select a wife. (Another sign of his wrong way with woman; he tells Elizabeth that he came to select a wife, so she has been picked like out of a herd of sheep.)He says that as clergyman, he should marry. Then he says that it would greatly to his happiness, then that Lady Catherine had said he should (and he mentions that perhaps he should have said this first). In none of these does he mention love and in a proposal, love is usually the

only reason; it is more like a proposition than a proposal. He ends his little speech with the words “…when we are married.” He automatically assumes she will accept him, another social blunder. None of these things endeared him to Elizabeth. When Elizabeth refuses him he just doesn’t believe it. Again his naivete shows because he believes Elizabeth is just being coquettish.

“I am not now to learn,” replied Mr. Collins, “that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favour; and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second or even a third time. I am by no means discouraged…”

It takes Elizabeth several refusals before Mr. Collins begins to comprehend the fact that Elizabeth is refusing him and tries to persuade her. He says “my situation in life, my connection with the family of De Burgh…are circumstances highly in my favour.” Marriage to him is not based on love but the suitability of the alliance using money, station in life and connections as determining factors.

So will Mr. Collins make a good wife for Charlotte? She herself is not interested in love. After Mr. Collins’ proposal he asked her to name the day of the marriage “and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment was gained.” Charlotte only accepted him for a home of her own, and at twenty-seven, without being handsome she probably thought it was her last chance, and it was in agreeable circumstances to her. She later relates to Elizabeth

“I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins’ character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance at happiness with him is as fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.”

Charlotte and Mr. Collins’ views on marriage are fairly similar so they could get on well together without huge expectations about falling in love or requiring romanticism. The only problem could be that Charlotte is quite intelligent and Mr. Collins is dull, socially inept and fairly stupid. She could find herself embarrassed often in company and bored in private, she is moving to a new place so she would have to make new friends and become accustomed. However, as intelligent as she is, Charlotte will probably be able to contain Mr. Collins a bit and with her own home to run she will have more to do than at Lucas Lodge, and she will be able to make new friends in her neighbourhood. As she said, Mr. Collins has a good situation in life and has a very powerful patroness so she will be living as she was already accustomed and be the mistress of her own house. Though Mr. Collins is a bit silly and awkward, he is kind and gentle and not very demanding, as long as Charlotte comes when Lady Catherine calls them. She does not expect Mr. Collins’ love he is, at least, affectionate to her and that is all Charlotte really asks for. Therefore I think that Mr. Collins is a suitable husband for Charlotte and that they will get on at least tolerably well together.