Collins proposes to Elizabeth on Wednesday November
27th at her own house (Ch.19). Collins is a cousin of Mr.Bennet who will inherit
Mr.Bennet's estate after his death. This is why he is so arrogant and confident that
Elizabeth will not reject his proposal. Collins takes Elizabeth for granted and
impresses upon her that he is actually doing her a great favour by marrying her and
tries to exploit her financial distress to his advantage. He does not care to find out
leave alone respect her feelings with regard to marrying
him.
He is completely unromantic. His arrogance prevents
him from praising her beauty or her intelligence or flattering her before seeking her
consent. Collins gives three general reasons why he wants to marry without specifying
why he wants to marry Elizabeth in particular.
When he is
straightaway rejected by Elizabeth, he thinks that she is only acting coy. Collins
assumes wrongly that Elizabeth is only pretending that she does not like him and he
tells Elizabeth,
"however your natural delicacy may lead you to
dissemble"
Its a classic
example of a situation of comical dramatic irony: the completely unromantic lout that
Collins is he thinks that Elizabeth is pretending to be coy and hard to
get!
A little later, after he has formally proposed to her
and has been firmly rejected by Elizabeth he replies to her arrogantly and complacently
in the following words:
``I am not now to learn,''
repliedMr.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 the refusal is repeated a second or even a
third time. I am therefore by no means discouraged by what you have
just said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere
long.''
Once again, Collins
assumes that Elizabeth is really attracted to him and wants to get married to him but
that she is only playing hard to get and teasing him in the conventional manner of all
young women.
However, Elizabeth firmly rejects him saying
that she is not the conventional young lady who likes to be proposed to twice and that
her rejection of him is final:
``your hope is rather an
extraordinary one after my declaration. I do assure you that I am not
one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are) who are so daring as to risk
their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time. I am
perfectly serious in my
refusal.
Even
then Collins doesn't give up and remarks that when he next proposes to her she will
accept him:
``When I do myself the honour of speaking to you
next on this subject I shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than you have now
given me;
To which Elizabet
exasperatedly replies:
Do not
consider
me
now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature
speaking the truth from her
heart.''
Finally
the truth of the matter sinks into the thick headed Collins and he quits the place in
deep embarrassment.
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