Portraying A Happy Marriage

According to what I’ve just read, a man proposes to a girl like if he was picking up apples. He doesn’t think about it, or consider it. He just does it. Well, maybe I’m not qualified (yet) to comment about marriage since I’m not even close of taking that decision. But still, it’s far too comical for a man to propose to two women in less than five chapters. Yes, it’s like picking apples: ‘This apple is rotten so I’ll just go and pick up the next one until I find a good, juicy one.’ Apparently Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, and just ten minutes later in my reading schedule he proposes to Charlotte. Compared to this, I see how people are couples for years, and maybe, just maybe, after three or four years they marry. In Austenworld, after ten minutes, Mr. Collins proposes twice.

This portrayal of marriage in Pride and Prejudice seems (yes seems) a bit unrealistic. Charlotte’s marriage to Mr. Collins evokes a dour component to Elizabeth’s love story. Anyways, the sequence of the story almost guarantees the reader that Elizabeth will eventually find romantic happiness. On the other hand, Charlotte’s sudden marriage shows how the book exemplifies a patriarchal, male-dominated society where unmarried women have hopeless futures. According to Austen, Charlotte “accepted solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment” (97). This illustrates Charlotte as this hopeless woman, who marries for money, contrasted to Elizabeth’s idealism. She (Elizabeth) demonstrates her pride by not marrying a fool like Mr. Collins, or a snob like Mr. Darcy. Hence, establishing the dichotomy between idealistic and pragmatic women: those who marry for love, and those who marry for money.