Minor Characters in Pride and Prejudice: Charlotte's Influence on Elizabeth

Mrs. Bennet’s desperation is especially noticeable when Elizabeth, the protagonist, is given the opportunity to marry Mr. Collins, a distant cousin and a wealthy land owner. After learning of Elizabeth’s refusal to marry Collins, she implores Mr. Bennet to force Elizabeth to change her mind. In her final efforts to convince Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet addresses,

Fitting with the common theme between the two novels of the judgment of others, each heroine falls victim to a horrible misjudgment of the character of another. After discovering that the engagement between her brother and her friend Isabella has been broken, Catherine finds she has grossly misjudged her friend’s character, and thinks, “She was ashamed of Isabella, ashamed of ever having loved her” (Northanger 150). Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds her attachment the Wickham wholly inappropriate after receiving her letter from Mr. Darcy. After digesting the shocking contents of the letter, Elizabeth “grew absolutely ashamed of herself.—Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (Pride 156). And indeed, as suggested by Elizabeth’s mention of Darcy, this misjudgment goes on to affect each girl’s attachment to her future husband.

Elizabeth and Charlotte’s differences can best be seen on their answers to Mr. Collins’ marriage proposal. Mr. Collins first proposes to Elizabeth and she rejects him. Elizabeth does not love him and does not think that she will be happy if she marries him. Collins does not let the rejection get to him and he soon proposes to Elizabeth’s friend, Charlotte. Not having the same will power

This stands in stark contrast to what Miss Elizabeth Bennett wants. Mrs Bennett wants her daughters to marry because it’s thea only way for them to solidfy that they will have food on their plates and a roof over their head. Mr. Collins is Mr. Bennetts brother and is set to inherit his estate when he dies. He comes to visit in the middle of the book and his main intentions are to ask on of the daughters to marry him and to observe what he will in time own. Mrs. Bennett says in response to all this “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousnd a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” (57, Austen) The single man she speaks of his Mr. Collins, the Bennett kids uncle. Austen describes Mr. Collins as a self retious kind of man who thinks he is above the Benntt’s just because he is set to inherrit their estate. This gives him a villeness quality. Austen is commenting on the blindness of Mrs. Bennett to the qualitys of Marraige. She only shes Mr. Collins as money but Elizabeth sees him as a bad person to spend the rest of her life with and theirfore turns down his marraige purposal. Which causes trouble between her and her mother. This is the best example of the contrast in what the two women see as the meaning of Marriage.

Elizabeth’s strength, independence, and her intense willpower to assure that her marriage is coordinated only by love demonstrate the feminist portrayal of Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s desire for

Most importantly, due to his religious duty. As she told her friend, Elizabeth, about accepting a proposal from Mr. Collins, Elizabeth full of of shock replied, “Engaged to Mr. Collins! My dear Charlotte, -- impossible” (Austen, 122). Elizabeth’s shock is because she believed he would not be the right person for her. However, Tony Tanner agrees that Charlotte views her marriage strictly as a “preservative from want” (Bloom, 66). This symbolizes Charlotte marries Collins because she did not want to be a load for her family especially her mother who went through difficulties to find her a mate Marrying Collins helps Charlotte than it did for him because she received advantages such as financial, security, and unburden to her family as well as getting a higher rank. She coldly admits 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" (Austen, 123). Charlotte’s train of thought is Mr. Collins is her last option of marriage to have her own life instead of living with her parents. Their marriage is based on societal norms and she agrees to marry him, even with the knowledge that they have different personalities. She marries Collin in disregards of her self-respect and his undurable personality.

serve her best work ethic toward being the wife of Collins. Referring to her own statement, "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,”(Austen 30), she has chosen a life of misfortune. Unfortunately, Charlotte and Collins’ marriage was common in 1800s, and still is to our present days. We measure each other’s wealth, not love; we let future to depend on wealth, instead of creating our own pathway; we believe that wealth is the ultimate fame, not happiness. Pride is an empty pleasure that corrupts humans’ primary senses.

For Charlotte she married Mr Collins. Mr. Collins was not Charlotte first choice but she wanted to have security. She no longer wanted to be aberdon on her mother and father, as well as she was right on the edge of the age in which women were considered old if they had not married yet. The reason for marriage is polar opposites when comparing Charlotte to Elizabeth. Elizabeth believes in marrying for love and affection. Charlotte on the other had marries for security she may not have turley loved Mr. Collins, but she now knows she has a home and a husband. It is believed that Elizabeth deals with relationships in a pragmatic way. Not taking things fast, You can see this in the novel when she denies the marriage proposal from Mr. Collins. She found Mr. Collins to be rude and over controlling. Her mother was in disbelief and her father agreed that if she didn't want to marry Mr. Collins was her

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is among one of the timeless classics of the 19th century. Austen is championed with expert characterization and satire. The main plot revolves around the relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, so they would be considered the main, most dynamic characters. However, Charlotte Lucas is just as important when it comes to conveying satire in the novel. Her character chooses to marry Mr. Collins who proposed to Elizabeth first creating an extremely dynamic message. The Freudian theory of the id, superego, and ego is eloquently displayed through Charlotte Lucas by her interactions and choices throughout the novel.

The first proposal is from Mr Collins, a man to whom Elizabeth was not even his first choice; Jane, the eldest and most beautiful, was his first fancy, but when informed that she had been privately engaged, he swiftly switches to Elizabeth, who is ‘equally next to Jane in birth and beauty’. His introduction to Elizabeth is not a pleasant one, although he is too ignorant to notice; she finds him ‘a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man’. Her observation is quite correct, and illustrated to the greatest affect in his proposal speech.

Elizabeth’s father is more sensible than her mother and is described as ‘so odd a mixture of quick arts, sarcastic humour, reserve and caprice’ . Her mother however is not so difficult to work out, she is ‘a woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper’ , and the business of her life is to get her daughters married3. Charlotte’s mother, Lady Lucas, is not much different from Mrs. Bennet. She described as being ‘a very good kind of woman4’, and like Mrs. Bennet she was also set on getting her daughters married . Charlotte’s father is Sir William Lucas, and he is a very pleasant man known for his civil manners .

After Collins proposes to Elizabeth, Charlotte, knowing she needs a husband, jumps straight in with her tactics.  She doesn't however tread

This essay analyzes the two most influential characters in "Pride and Prejudice" and Elizabeth's self-realization.  We are working under the presumption that two other characters serve as catalysts to boost the final changes of the protagonist.

Charlotte is a neighbour and friend of Elizabeth, who is older and unmarried at the beginning of the story. She is simple in her values and does not question a women's role in society. Charlotte's main achievement in the story occurred when she was able to secure a proposal of marriage from Mr. Collins after he had been rejected by Elizabeth, who asked why she accepted. Charlotte explained "I am not a romantic you know. I never was. I only ask for a comfortable home; considering Mr Collins's character, connections, situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is fair, as most people can boast on entering a marriage state" By this Charlotte is questioning Elizabeth's values, believing she is over her head in her ideas. She is simply happy with what she has been dealt

Elizabeth’s snobbish pride hinders her from understanding her friend Charlotte Lucas’s best interests in regard to her desire to marry Mr. Collins. Elizabeth “prides herself on being a perceptive “studier of character,” as Mr. Bingley calls her, but how well does she really know her very good friend Charlotte…” when she “responds with amazement and horror” upon hearing that Charlotte wants to marry a man who is “dull”, “pompous” and “physically unattractive”. Elizabeth’s excessive pride blinds her from recognizing that Charlotte is “not much interested in men and very much interested in marriage” (Moler, 26). Elizabeth could have ruined the prospects of Charlotte’s marriage because of her self-importance in the way she