While Mr Wickham may not be morally gifted, he is certainly charming, and a very skilled speaker: “Elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he [Wickham] finally seated himself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into conversation… …made her feel that the commonest, dullest most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker”. This shows how his combination of charm and good speaking gives Wickham the ability to engage, and set people at ease; Wickham begins to blind Elizabeth with his looks and combination of other characteristics before moving to another topic.
Further into the chapter, Wickham makes inquiries about Mr Darcy to Elizabeth who, with her normal intelligent and perceptive barrier discarded, is defenceless to the possibility of deception from Wickham’s skilful rhetoric. Wickham is able to exploit this, and when says (on the subject of Darcy), “I have no right to give my opinion”, – a clear moral statement – he then follows this up by saying, “as to his being agreeable or otherwise”. In the context of Wickham and Elizabeth’s previous conversation, the latter part of speech clearly indicates that he believes Darcy to be disagreeable. This is a blatant contradiction, which Elizabeth, not being in her normally intelligent and perceptive mood, fails to realise; it is unlikely that the reader will pick up on the significance of this whilst reading through, consumed with empathy for Elizabeth. The contradiction that Wickham makes is made clear when he says, “His behaviour to myself has been scandalous”. Not only is he making an opinion, he is making a very strong personal opinion which completely dissolves his own moral statement. He follows this by saying, “I verily believe I could forgive him anything and everything”. This has two implications: Firstly he is trying to increase his own integrity in the eyes of Elizabeth whilst he has her hypnotised under the control of his skilful rhetoric. Secondly, this is completely baseless, as it is revealed to Elizabeth later in the book that it is in fact Wickham who has acted scandalously towards Darcy. Wickham therefore, is under the scrutiny of Darcy, rather than having anything that he could forgive Darcy of.
This conversation continues in the same vein and eventually moves Elizabeth to say something unrecognisable from her normal character: “He deserves to be publicly disgraced!” Although Elizabeth is strong-minded, her own morals would normally never allow her to even think of something such as publicly shaming an acquaintance. Elizabeth is normally very good at channelling her own desires and feelings through rationality, but in this case she has become completely unbalanced; obscured by her own prejudice against Darcy’s pride.
Elizabeth becomes completely enveloped by Wickham. At one point she thinks of saying “A young man, too, like you, whose very countenance may vouch for your being amiable” – this thought process directly equates looks to how nice a person is. Jane Austen does not believe this is how an intelligent, rational person thinks; she is showing the dangers that looks and skilful rhetoric present to even the most intelligent. This is highlighted by Elizabeth’s final impression of Wickham and the fact that she could only think of Mr Wickham: “whatever he did, done gracefully. Elizabeth went away with her head full of him”.
Although Mr Collins does not have any sinister intent, he too is an unsuitable marriage partner for Elizabeth, and as the opening line of the chapter in which he proposes marriage to her suggests, “The next day opened a new scene at Longbourn”, the circumstances surrounding this event are of farcical proportions. Mr Collins is a somewhat pathetic and pompous character; he seemingly knows only what he is told, and plays lap dog to his patroness Lady Catherine. Jane Austen builds Mr Collin’s character as being devoid of romance, and although she does not heavily endorse romance, without it, there is no emotion to channel with ones reasoning. What is left is an exceptionally dull shell of a character: Mr Collins. This can be shown by the way in which he prepares to propose and is full of business-like connotations: “Having resolved to do it without loss of time, as his leave of absence extended only to the following Saturday, and having no feelings of diffidence to make it distressing to himself even at the moment, he set about it in a very orderly manner, with all the observances, which he supposed a regular part of the business.” Mr Collins resembles the pre-twentieth century robot; he feels no fear or nervousness in proposing to Elizabeth, suggesting a lack of emotion and real admiration for her. This is in direct conflict with Elizabeth’s own personality, where everything she does is carried out with purpose and reason. He relates to the process as if he were conducting a business transaction; he makes sure that everything is carried out efficiently and “orderly”. His use of language also suggests that he believes that a wife is the property of her husband by saying, “coming into Hertfordshire with the design of selecting a wife”, as if he were visiting a shop to buy a new pair of shoes. Jane Austen has highlighted another female injustice carried out by society. Presumably Elizabeth, with her set of morals, would also object to this property/wife comparison.
Mr Collins also reveals his reasons for deciding to marry, he tells Elizabeth that he wishes to marry because he is a clergyman and wants to set an example, he believes that marriage itself will make him happier – as opposed to marrying Elizabeth making him happier – and lastly because his patroness suggested marriage. Not only do these reasons do not necessitate marriage with Elizabeth in particular; it shows that Mr Collins has an exceptionally weak character. Elizabeth on the other hand has a very strong character, which was shown by the way in which she walked a long distance through muddy country to visit her sick sister, and mainly against the wishes of her family. This difference in strength of character gives yet another reason for the unsuitability of a marriage between Elizabeth and Mr Collins.
Elizabeth finds the whole experience ridiculous: “[Elizabeth’s] feelings which were divided between distress and diversion”. She even finds herself on the brink of laughter at one point after Collins says, “But before I am run away with my feelings on this subject”. The context in which Mr Collins says this sounds so pompous and ‘learnt’ that it makes his feelings sound even less sincere. The fact Elizabeth finds the process amusing shows that she could never really be a suitable partner for Collins, who would most likely has no sense of humour of his own.
The idea that Collins bases his life on facts and from what he learns through other people or books, rather than personal experiences is shown by his reaction when Elizabeth rejects his proposal. He replies dismissively, believing that it is natural for women to reject proposal a number of times; he believes that they are simply playing ‘hard to get’: “ ‘I am not now to learn,’ replied Mr Collins, with a formal wave of the hand, ‘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 their refusal is repeated a second or even a third time’ ”. The word ‘applies’ has more business connotations, he is talking about proposal as if he were filling out forms; this is shown again later when he says, “I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application”. He talks about women as if they were a different species, and shows his total lack of personal experience with women.
After Elizabeth leaves the room, Mrs Bennet comes in to talk with Mr Collins. Mr Collins gives an account of the “interview”; resting in the belief that Elizabeth is all but his. Mrs Bennet is disturbed by the fact that Elizabeth says no, realising that she does in fact, mean no. Mrs Bennet calls Elizabeth “headstrong and foolish”, in explanation of her rejections of marriage. After hearing this, Mr Collins quickly decides that Elizabeth may well be an unsuitable marriage partner and says, “if she is really is headstrong and foolish, I know not whether she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation”. In a matter of a few lines, Mr Collins has made a total change in opinion. If he really admired Elizabeth as much as he says he does, the emotional reversal would suggest a total lack of reason and logic. Elizabeth has reason and logic in abundance; on the other hand it could suggest that he never really admired Elizabeth to the degree he suggests. Both possibilities provide good reason for Elizabeth and Mr Collins being unsuitable partners.
Neither Mr Wickham or Mr Collins are suitable marriage partners for Elizabeth; Wickham lives a life fuelled by deceit and devoid of morals, and it seems Collins has almost no life of his own at all and is a total personality mismatch for Elizabeth. It is for these reasons that Jane Austen’s heroine, on her moral high ground and full of character, could never marry either of these men. In the end, there is really only one possible match for Elizabeth Bennet.
