By far the greatest similarity of the two proposals was the manner in which both of the men proposed to her. Although Mr Darcy did begin his proposal by telling her, “I ardently admire and love you,” Both of the men, instead of telling her their feelings, told her of how she is lower down than them but they were prepared to, “put up with it.” Both men insulted Elizabeth’s family. Mr Darcy did so by saying, “I did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister.” Although Mr Darcy did say this after Elizabeth’s refusal, Elizabeth already knew that he had done this so disliked him even more before he proposed.
Mr Collins insulted Elizabeth’s family by saying, “To fortune I am perfectly indifferent, and shall make no demand of that nature on your father.” To cut it short, he knew that he was much more better off and of a higher social stature, and he was basically rubbing this in her face, which was not what Elizabeth had expected when he finally got round to proposing to her.
The two proposals clearly showed Elizabeth what the two men thought of her, and what their reasons for proposing to her were. She knew that the reasons for Mr Collins proposing to her were, number 1, because he had been told to by Lady Catherine de Bourgh to do so, number 2, because it seemed to him as though Jane was not available, and number 3, because he thought he had to marry one of Mr Bennet’s daughters to express his gratitude for all he had done for him.
Mr Darcy’s proposal eliminated Elizabeth’s prejudices towards him, for she thought that he was too proud to socialise with people of a lower class than himself, where in fact, he was just too shy to talk to people that he did not know. His proposal also made his feelings for Elizabeth clear, although he also made it clear that he was slightly annoyed for letting himself fall in love with someone of a lower social class than he was.
The manner in which the two men handled the rejections was also very contrasting. Mr Darcy allowed Elizabeth to speak, and he did listen to her although it was clear to Elizabeth that he was shocked and perhaps even angry that she had said no. It was clear that Elizabeth respected the fact that Mr Darcy listened to what she had to say, which was far from what she felt about the manner in which Mr Collins handled the dismissal of his proposal. He was rude and obnoxious; he would not listen to what Elizabeth had to say, he did not believe that Elizabeth had refused his hand, but the thing that frustrated Elizabeth the most was that he did not respect Elizabeth’s opinion.
After each refusal, both men’s feelings are clear. Mr Collins, who immediately after proposed to Charlotte, clearly had no real feelings towards Elizabeth for if he did, he would not have got over the rejection so quickly. Mr Darcy on the other hand was genuinely upset because he did love Elizabeth, he did not want to leave Elizabeth, but in the end respected her wishes and left whilst he still had feelings for her (this is shown later on in the book).
The reason why she rejected them both comes back to her many discussions with Jane. She simply did not love either of them enough to spend the rest of her life with them. The reasons for this were that she could see right through Mr Collins, and she had not spoken to or seen enough of Mr Darcy, to get to really know him
