Compare the Proposals Elizabeth Receives From Mr Collins and Mr Darcy and Her Reactions to Them

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Compare the Proposals Elizabeth Receives From Mr Collins and Mr Darcy and Her Reactions to Them

“Pride and Prejudice” deal with several issues important to people in the early 19th century.  Marriage is a key theme in this book of love, hatred, pride and prejudice.  Marriage was highly imperative in the early 19th century, especially with girls born into less wealthy families.  Being over 25 and unmarried was an extremely undesirable position to be in.  It was also necessary for a young girl to marry so that she was not financially dependant on her family.  At the beginning of the novel, Austen writes, “a wealthy, single man must need a wife.”  This was the attitude of women who wanted and needed a husband.  For women in the early 19th century, women were customarily restricted to the home and their families.  For women in upper-middle class, such as the Bennet family, life consisted of dances, dinners and visits to their friends and relatives.  A woman’s place in society was to marry a (preferably wealthy) man as a duty to her parents.  Also she would have been expected to have at least one son to ensure that their family’s estate can stay in the family.  Mrs Bennet was so keen to marry her daughters off to a wealthy gentleman to ensure Mr Collins would not get the Longbourn estate, which would be disastrous.  As Mr and Mrs Bennett had 5 children, they had assumed that at least one of them would be a boy and inherit Longbourn.  However this was not the case, and due to an entail, women were prevented from inheriting estates, and therefore Mr Collins would inherit Longbourn.

Jane Austen uses different marriage models to show the common beauties and vices in marriages of the time.  The marriage model of Mr and Mrs Bennet show us that Mr Bennet married Mrs Bennet for her “youthful beauty,” despite the face that their personalities are mismatched.  This was often the case in 19th century marriages.  Lydia Bennet and Mr Wickam are all that a marriage should not be.  They are two reckless individual who have been forced together to save their families reputation.  There is also no way they can support themselves.  However, the marriage of Mr Darcy and Lizzy is a marriage model of an ideal match.  Lizzy has wit, strength of character, beauty, a good heart and other desirable qualities.  She is very well suited to Mr Darcy, who is intelligent, rational, handsome and (possibly most importantly) very rich.  

The main characters of this novel often have their judgement clouded by the powerful vices of pride and prejudice.  These vices must be overcome before the characters can find love and happiness through their true matches.

In chapter 19 Mr Collins enters the Bennet household and requests to be alone with Lizzy.  Lizzy has already guessed that Mr Collins will ask her to marry him, and she begs her mother not to leave.  Mrs Bennet will not hear of this, and quickly exits along with the rest of the family.  Mr Collins then delivers to Lizzy a very rehearsed, cold and unheartfelt proposal. Mr Collins  says that he has come to Longbourne specifically to ensure that “loss to them is as little as possible.”   Mr Collins believes that he is doing a huge favour to Lizzy if she marries him, and that the Bennets’ will be forever in debt to him for saving their daughter.  At first, Lizzy is desperate not to listen to Mr Collins or let him carry on.  However, as Mr Collins thinks he will be “run away with feelings” he decides to give a longwinded explanation of “the three reasons I wish to marry you.” Lizzy begins to find this situation rather humorous, as it is very clear that there are no feelings involved whatsoever, other than his pride, and prejudice.  

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This proposal brings out man of Mr Collins’ negative points.    This is another one of Mr Collins’ negative traits.  An example of how pompous he is is shown when he states his “three reasons for marrying you.”  The first is that it is the duty of every clergyman.  This alone shows that he is very concerned with how other people portray him and that he should lead by example.  This shows us that he is also arrogant, as he thinks that he is superior to other people and therefore, they should follow his lead.  His second reason that ...

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