The ways in which Mr Darcy and Mr Collins propose are very different. Mr Collins is confident that Elizabeth will accept, however when Mr Darcy proposes he is much more nervous because he actually loves her. Overall, Mr Collin’s proposal is clumsy and condescending, which actually summarises his character. He begins his proposal by informing Elizabeth that he wants her as his wife, when he uses the term “before I am run away with my feelings on this subject”, it already shows his proposal will be unsuccessful because this actually nearly makes Elizabeth laugh. He then continues with his reasons for marrying, but these are also very wrong because all his reasons are about him and that it would make him happy, not putting any thought or consideration on how Elizabeth might feel about this. His first reason is that he is now a clergyman “to set the example of matrimony in his parish”, he is trying to say he is now at a stage where he is expected to get married. His second reason is he thinks marriage will make him happy, he is not aware that this is unlikely to happen if he simply marries out of convenience. His third reason is that Lady Catherine has told him he must do so, he then goes on about Lady Catherine as he usually does saying things like “your wit and vivacity I think must be acceptable to her”, this was a foolish comment because he is already assuming that Elizabeth has accepted to marry him when he hasn’t even given her a chance to speak yet. This was not the first time he was speaking highly of Lady Catherine. He first showed signs of his obsession with her in the letter he sent to Mr Bennet and his family.
His writing technique showed he behaves like a sycophant, with the way he describes her as ‘the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh’, and with tactless gestures he informs them that he wishes to marry one of the daughters after he comes to visit them. The letter which introduced Mr Collins already hinted what his character would be like. Mrs Bennet was now pleased to hear he wishes to marry one of her daughters and is now anxious for his arrival. However, the rest of the family recon he’s a bit odd in the way he is obsessed with Lady Catherine, Elizabeth first says “He must be an oddity, I think, I cannot make him out. – There is something very pompous in his style. – And we cannot suppose he would help it, if he could. – Can he be a sensible man sir?” The choice of word she uses is correct; he is very pompous in his proposal to her, because he makes it out to be all about himself. Catherine and Lydia did not take too much notice about the letter received. This also outlines their personality in the novel; they aren’t too interested in doing much except for flirting with soldiers. This is later on shown when Lydia runs off with Mr Wickham, and then only after that she gets married to him when she was the youngest of her sisters, she was only fifteen years old. This showed how different Elizabeth was from her younger sisters, they have no interest in marrying for love.
The description given of Mr Collins is not positive, ‘he was a tall heavy looking young man’ and his air was ‘grave and stately’. He also complements Mrs Bennet on having ‘so fine a family of daughters’, he seems to complement a lot of people in the novel, especially Lady Catherine.
As Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth, she eventually felt the need to interrupt him, she says “You are too hasty sir!” she needed to inform him she has not accepted his proposal yet, and has no intention in doing so. At this point, Mr Collins still isn’t too concerned with her reply, and still assumes she will accept him sooner or later. But Elizabeth is now losing her patience; she says “your hope is rather an extraordinary one after my declaration” and “I am perfectly serious in my refusal. – You could not make me happy”. This brought Mr Collins’s spirits down; he however replied by complementing her saying “I cannot imagine that her ladyship would at all disapprove of you”, but her reply made it final she did not want to marry him. During his proposal before Elizabeth interrupted him, he also made a lot of annoying repetitions, such as he kept saying how he will inherit their house when her father passes away, but whenever he said that he said “which may not be for several years”, the repetition was irrelevant and irritating. The comparison is when Mr Darcy proposes, he does not repeat what he is saying, but he does however assume Elizabeth will accept him and also isn’t very concerned when she also turns him down, even though her answer means more to him that it does to Mr Collins.
After Mr Collins had just been turned down by Elizabeth, Elizabeth opened the door and was immediately congratulated by her mother, but Mr Collins interrupts her, because his hand had not been accepted. Mrs Bennet goes crazy, she called Mr Bennet to get him to reason with her, however, he agrees with Elizabeth he tells her “Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you again if you do”. I think he replies like this because he made the mistake of marrying Mrs Bennet when he was younger and does not want his daughter to make the same mistake against her free will. This shows that Mr Bennet and Mrs Bennet do not really communicate very much, have nothing in common and he doesn’t really want to be married to her, but now does not really have much choice. This also shows more of a connection between Elizabeth with her father than her mother.
When Elizabeth and Mr Darcy first met, there was hardly much attraction between them, but after a small time period he begins to fall for her, however Elizabeth was oblivious to his feelings. One of the differences between the proposals is the mood Elizabeth was in before the proposals. Firstly, she was expecting a proposal from Mr Collins, and she was even ready to reject him, she was in one of her fairly, normal cheerful moods. Before Mr Darcy proposed to her, she had just found out that Mr Darcy had prevented Mr Bingley from asking her sister Jane to marry her. She received the news from Colonel Fitzwilliam that Darcy had “saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage”. This put Elizabeth in a terrible mood, she was upset for her sister, and angry because this will break her heart, the last thing she wanted to do at the moment was to see Mr Darcy. She was feeling prejudice and went out of her way to make herself more upset by sitting in a room alone. Mr Darcy’s mood is also very different to how Mr Collins was feeling before he proposed. Mr Darcy was as usual, cocky and confident the she will accept his proposal, but yet at the same time was scared and nervous because he does love her and really does want to marry her.
When Mr Darcy entered the room in which Elizabeth was, she was sitting alone, reading the letters from her sister Jane, as he enters she answers him with ‘cold civility’. His anxiousness is shown as he ‘sat down for a few moments, and then getting up and walked about the room’, he is nervous because even though he refuses to inform her in a nice way, he is in love with her, and this proposal means a lot to him. Unlike Mr Collins’s, who was not really interested in getting married to someone he loves. There are other circumstances involved, Mr Darcy loves Elizabeth, but is put off by her families behaviour (such as her younger sisters flirting) and her family status because he is very proud about his father and his family name, they are much better off than the Bennets. He also didn’t ask Elizabeth to dance at the beginning when they first met. Miss Bingley wants to marry Mr Darcy however, so when she finds out he is interested in Elizabeth, she tries to say things to put him off her, this backfires against her, it resulted in Mr Darcy even more interested in Elizabeth because he realises what an extraordinary girl she is. Elizabeth was surprised to see him, but there was silence between them for several minutes. Then Mr Darcy tells her “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you”. He is informing Elizabeth on his feelings by expressing how he is in love with her, but against his will. He does have his circumstances for being against wanting to marry her.
However, she does at first, politely rejects his proposal, until he then asks why, this is when the argument breaks out. This is another difference to the proposals, even though it is more tense because of Mr Darcy’s anxiousness and because of the argument between them, there is more response from Elizabeth, when Mr Collins was proposing to her, he didn’t give her a chance to speak. Elizabeth replies with her reasons for rejection, she asks him “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your free will, against your reason, and even against your character?” She also says “do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man, who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?” She now informs him how angry she is with him about what he told Mr Bingley to not marry her sister. He now did not deny that he did this, but admits to it, he says “I have no wish of denying that I did every thing in my power to separate my friend from your sister”. Until this point, Mr Darcy was fairly calm, but now Elizabeth mentions Mr Wickham, when he told her all about him a few months back, now Mr Darcy begins to get angry. Elizabeth now makes it clear she does not want to marry him. When Mr Darcy went out, he left Elizabeth astonished, she could not believe she had just received an offer of marriage from him.
Mr Darcy and Mr Collins are similar in their proposals in that they are both positive that Elizabeth will accept them and they therefore present themselves in such a manner that this is made obvious. Mr Collins verbally declares this assumption, “you may assure yourself that no ungenerous reproach shall ever pass my lips when we are married”. Mr Darcy does not openly mention his assurance in Elizabeth’s acceptance but makes it obvious in his manner; she could easily see that he had no doubt of a favourable answer. He spoke of apprehension and anxiety, but his countenance expressed real security. Until Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, neither of them are honest about their feelings towards each other.
The novel ends when Mr Darcy and Elizabeth get married, and Jane and Mr Bingley get married, even though they connected from the beginning and did not have as much time as Elizabeth and Mr Darcy did to get to know each other.
