Elizabeth hates Collins; she finds him stupid, pompous and laughable, not quite in the same way as Darcy; she has “every right to think ill” of Darcy because he was so rude and horrible to her but we know she loves him because of the way she acts after the proposal at Hunsford. Lizzy becomes very irritated when Mr Collins won’t believe her refusal and ends up being exceptionally blunt towards him in retaliation. When Darcy proposed to her, “she answered with cold civility” and told him that she has “every reason in the world to think ill of you.” This shocks Darcy but Elizabeth is just so fuming with him for his sudden change in his opinion of her, the same as Mr Collins she really can’t stand him.
Mr Darcy proposed to Elizabeth for the reason that he loves her, in contrast Collins asks her for her hand in marriage because Lady Catherine De Burgh told him to acquire a “useful wife.” Darcy tells Lizzy how he can’t control his love for 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.” Collins first set eyes on Jane but after her mother told him of Jane and Mr Bingley's happiness, he went after her sister, Lizzy who was second best. He doesn’t love her like Darcy and his reasons for marrying her are simply, as Lady Catherine de Burgh says, “an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high, but able to make a small income go a good way.” Mr Collins just needs someone to be “useful” dissimilar to Darcy who wants to marry her for love.
Collins never tells Lizzy he loves her since he doesn’t, whereas Darcy tells her “how much I admire and love you.” Mr Darcy’s proposal is fairly long, equal to Mr Collins’s offer, but different to him, Mr Darcy lets Elizabeth speak, Collins doesn’t let her speak until he is finished and when she at long last gets to tell him no, he won’t believe her. He is wholly astonished when he finally realises Elizabeth’s refusing his proposal, he just assumes she would say yes, not like Darcy who is clearly infuriated when she doesn’t accept and is utterly heartbroken as she harshly refuses. Physically, prior to the proposal Mr Darcy “sat down for a few moments and then getting up walked about the room” in an “agitated manner” and he is struggling to cope with his feelings for Lizzy. Conversely Mr Collins seems very relaxed and reassured when he proposes to her, he acts in the opposite way to Darcy, and he just clasps his hands and begins.
Mr Collins is laughed at right the way through this story but much more when he proposes to Elizabeth at Longbourn, on the other hand Darcy is a very serious character and things don’t change when he asks for Lizzy’s hand in marriage at Hunsford. He is especially sombre about his love for her, “nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just.” Collins, in contrast thinks that, “it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom the secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favour,” he is “there-fore by no means discouraged but what you have said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long” while Darcy understands first time that Elizabeth is firm with her refusal.
Austen contrasts the style of both proposals and the structure. Mr Darcy’s proposal consists of short sentences whereas Collins’s has long sentences, which are boring, drawn out and they flow. Conversely Darcy is finding it hard to talk and the speech is very moving and tense. Lizzy was expectant of Mr Collin’s proposal and doesn’t feel repentant for him when she refuses, however she wasn’t expecting a proposal from Darcy and “she was at first sorry for the pain he was about to receive.” Mr Darcy is a really proud man, “his pride, his abdominal pride,” when he tells her how much he despises of her and how he has “struggled. It will not do,” his “feelings will not be repressed” Elizabeth is extremely offended since he’s telling her how much he hates her and simultaneously is proposing to her. He says how he “despises” of her and that he doesn’t want to love her. On the other hand she is insulted when Mr Collins tells her, “it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made to you” and he mentions often that when her mother and father are deceased she will have nothing so she would be better off marrying him. Not surprisingly, Lizzy is very affronted by this as much as she is Darcy, because he talks about her parents’ deaths and suggests that she most likely won’t get proposed to again.
At the end of Collin’s proposal Elizabeth storms out because she is really insulted and angry at him, in contrast when Darcy’s proposal draws to a close he hastily walks out, “you have said quite enough madam” following her ruthless refusal of his marriage offer. When Darcy is gone, “she knew not how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and cried for half an hour,” Lizzy is very upset with herself since she loves Darcy but rejected his proposal. If Mr Collins continues any further to asking for her hand in marriage she will ask her dad to help her say no to him, as for the proposal at Hunsford, if Darcy was kinder to Jane and Bingley and hadn’t been proud of breaking up their relationship Elizabeth may have been less blunt to him.
To conclude I feel that Austen prepares the reader to be expecting Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr Collins and Mr Darcy by writing their proposals in such a way. She utilizes Collins’s pompous characteristic to make motive for Elizabeth’s refusal of him, Mr Collins just presumes that Lizzy will accept and thinks she is only joking when she refuses. Conversely Austen makes Lizzy’s refusal of Darcy realistic because he tells her how he hates her and can’t throw away his love for her when proposing to her, this is insulting to her and even though she loves him she says no since he was horrid to her when they first met. We are glad that Elizabeth doesn’t accept Collins’s proposal as he doesn’t deserve her and just requests a useful wife, we are upset that she doesn’t accept Darcy’s offer of marriage but can understand her reasons why. Overall I believe Austen writes both of these proposals most effectively and guides the reader.
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