Explain how Austin’s use of nouns and formalistic language and semantic fields supports our understanding of the characters of Lizzy and Mr Collins and their attitudes to marriage.
The general feeling the reader gets from this chapter is that Mr Collins does not want to get married for love. He wants to get married because he feels it is the right thing to do. We know this for he uses business semantic fields such as, “business, declaration and orderly manor.” On the other hand Lizzy is the heroin figure in the book and she believes that you should follow your heart and only ever marry for love. I prove this by looking at the linguistics in the chapter.
The chapter starts by describing Mr Collins way of getting ready to ask Lizzy for her hand in marriage. Austin uses lots of proper nouns, which gives it a very formal tone. Also the use of business semantic fields. This gives the impression that he sees this marriage as a business deal. There is a very rushed feel to the whole of the chapter especially when Mr Collins is talking this is shown by words such as, “soon, hastening.” This is because Mr Collins believes that time is money. This is ironic for proposing should be something that you spend time over. This is the view of Lizzy for she believes that it should take time and you should not have to almost persuade someone to marry you. It should be spontaneous.
