Charlotte Lucas and William Collins

Charlotte Lucas and William Collins enter into a marriage of practical convenience that starkly illustrates the economic pressures on women in Regency England, transforming a friendship and exposing the divide between romantic and pragmatic views of matrimony.

Identity and Background

Charlotte Lucas, the eldest daughter of Sir William Lucas and Lady Lucas, is a sensible, intelligent young woman of about twenty-seven who has long been Elizabeth Bennet's intimate friend. She is not handsome, and her family can give her little fortune. Mr. Collins, a tall, heavy-looking young man of five-and-twenty, is the Bennet cousin who will inherit the Longbourn estate under the entail. He is a clergyman who has been fortunate enough to receive the valuable rectory of Hunsford through the patronage of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. His character is a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility, formed by an illiterate and miserly father and a weak head made conceited by early and unexpected prosperity.

The Courtship and Engagement

Mr. Collins arrives at Longbourn with the intention of choosing a wife from among the Bennet daughters as his plan of amends for inheriting their father's estate. He first fixes on Jane Bennet, but Mrs. Bennet warns him that Jane is likely to be soon engaged, so he quickly transfers his attentions to Elizabeth. After Elizabeth firmly refuses his proposal, Mr. Collins's pride is hurt but he suffers in no other way, and he transfers his attentions to Charlotte Lucas during the remainder of his visit. Charlotte, who has been listening to him with great civility, sees her opportunity. She perceives that Mr. Collins is not a sensible or agreeable man, but she accepts him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment. As she later explains to Elizabeth, "I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, 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." The engagement is settled quickly, with Sir William and Lady Lucas bestowing their consent with joyful alacrity, and the wedding takes place soon after.

The Marriage and Life at Hunsford

After their marriage, the Collinses settle at the Hunsford Parsonage, which is separated only by a lane from Rosings Park, the residence of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Charlotte manages her household with competence and composure, arranging the rooms so that Mr. Collins spends most of his time in his own book-room, leaving the ladies in the back drawing-room where they can escape his constant presence. Elizabeth, visiting them in March, observes that Charlotte has an excellent reason for this arrangement, and gives her credit for it. Charlotte talks of the healthfulness of Mr. Collins's gardening and owns she encourages it as much as possible. Elizabeth sees that Charlotte's home is neat and comfortable, and that she bears her husband with admirable address and composure. When Mr. Collins says something of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, Charlotte wisely does not hear it. Elizabeth perceives that Charlotte must often forget Mr. Collins to find any comfort in her home.

Thematic Significance and Contrast with Elizabeth

Charlotte's marriage stands in stark contrast to Elizabeth's own ideals and eventual choices. Elizabeth is shocked and disappointed by her friend's decision, seeing it as a sacrifice of every better feeling to worldly advantage. She reflects that Charlotte, the wife of Mr. Collins, is a most humiliating picture, and that it is impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she has chosen. Charlotte's pragmatic view of marriage, expressed earlier in her belief that "happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance," is fully realized in her union with Mr. Collins. She gains financial security and a comfortable home, but at the cost of intellectual companionship and genuine affection. The relationship serves as a foil to the marriages of Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley, and of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, which are founded on mutual esteem, affection, and understanding. Charlotte's choice, while rational and prudent within the constraints of her situation, represents the compromise that many women of her era were forced to make, and it deepens Elizabeth's understanding of the limited options available to women without fortune.