In Pride and Predjuice life is not all fun and
games. There are many pressures in
life: mothers with high expectations for a good
marriage and a girl's own expectation of
what life and
hopefully marriage will be like.
Charlotte Lucas is the oldest daughter in a
large family, she
is not the most beautiful girl, and she is twenty-seven, well beyond the
marrying
age. Charlotte is Elizabeth Bennett's
best friend and Mr. Collins, the man
Charlotte finally
marries, is Elizabeth's cousin.
Charlotte Lucas will marry to solidify
her life, not
because she loves, for many people are unkind about her ability to marry
well; thus after
her marriage to Mr. Collins, she spends all of her time avoiding him.
Charlotte knows
that even though she wants to marry more than anything in the
world, she does
not expect love to come about; thus, she decides that it is probably even
better if you
don't know a thing at all about the person you are marrying. While
Charlotte is speaking
to Elizabeth about her sister, she expressed her opinion as to Jane
Bennet's
relationship towards a gentleman. She
says it is probably better not to study a
person because
you would probably know as much after twelve months as if she married
him the next
day. Charlotte even goes as far as to
say that "it is better to know as little as
possible of the
defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life" (p.21).
Charlotte
considered Mr. Collins "neither sensible nor agreeable" but since marriage
had
always been her
goal in life, "at the age of twenty-seven, with having never been
handsome, she
felt all the good luck of it" (p.107).
Charlotte is speaking to Elizabeth on
her marriage to
Mr. Collins, "I am not romantic, you know.
I never was. I ask only a
comfortable home;
and considering Mr. Collins' character, connections, and situation in
life, I am
convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can
boast on entering
the marriage state" (p.110).
Charlotte is optimistic in entering her
marriage even
though Elizabeth is not.
The people associated with Charlotte, even her
dear friends, have little
expectation for
Charlotte's marrying well. While Mrs.
Benett is speaking to Mr. Bingley
the subject of
Charlotte Lucas comes up and Mrs. Bennet can not help but to comment
about Charlotte's
beauty, "...but you must own she is very plain. Lady Lucas has often
said so..."
(p.39). Even good-natured Jane,
Elizabeth's sister, has something to say about
Charlotte's
marriage to Mr. Collins. Jane argues
that Mr. Collins is respectable and that
Charlotte is from
a large family and is not exceptionally wealthy. She also states that
Charlotte,
"may feel something like regard and esteem for our cousin"
(p.117). Elizabeth
taking the
opposite point of view on the issue says, "Mr. Collins is a conceited,
pompous,
narrow-minded,
silly man;" then continued to list reasons as to why, "the woman who
marries him [Mr.
Collins] cannot have a proper way of thinking" (p. 117).
Charlotte, having gone into her marriage with
Mr. Collins with her eyes open,
puts most of her
energy into avoiding her husband.
Charlotte finding herself now having
to deal with her
husband makes her quarters in the lesser part of their house, leaving the
more attractive
part to her husband so he will spend more time there (p. 144). Also,
Charlotte and Mr.
Collins take walks every morning, which Charlotte walked
considerably fast
in order to leave Mr. Collins to every view, "with a minuteness which
left beauty
entirely behind" (p.134).
Elizabeth, while visiting Charlotte, observed
another way in
which Carlotte tolerated her husband, her observation was, "Her home
and her
housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns,
have
not yet lost
their charms" (p.183).
Charlotte neither being pretty nor wealthy has
compensated for her husband's
annoying traits
in many ways. In a time when most girl's
goals were to get married,
Charlotte
achieved her goals. Even though she may
not love, not even like her husband,
she is happy
because she will not be a spinster.
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