Alida Wrote:
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> What Lydia did would be seen as unwise and
> immature in any age, but in the nineteenth century
> the double standard ensured that folks would put
> the blame on the woman/girl, rather than on the
> man/boy. We don't know what Jane's father would
> have said or done, but from what we know through
> Jane's letters I think we can be sure he was not
> as mean-spirited as Mr Collins!
Well, actually, Jane Austen wrote that at first, Mr. Bennet did not want Lydia and her new husband to stop by Longbourn as they traveled north to his new position in Regulars. Mr. Bennet was quite angry with the girl. He was only persuaded to allow the couple to visit by the entreaties of Jane and Elizabeth.
Personally, I do not find Mr. Bennet a very good father, for all that he could show entertainingly rapier wit and was somewhat supportive of Elizabeth.
But that given, I still think Mr. Collins showed busy-bodiness above and beyond the call of cousinly duty when he wrote
Quote
"...I must not, however, neglect the duties of my station, or refrain from declaring my amazement at hearing that you received the young couple into your house as soon as they were married. It was an encouragement of vice; and had I been the rector of Longbourn, I should very strenuously have opposed it. You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing."
We hear nothing of the rector of Longbourn behaving as Collins says he would in that position. This suggests that not every churchman would follow Collins's rather brutal advice. As written by Jane Austen, he's clearly a mean, stupid man lacking both humor or kindness. One can feel sorry for him because he had a horrible father and because he is obviously not too bright. But our pity cannot make him any more noble. (Unless, of course, we rewrite him in fanfiction. And, then he is not Jane Austen's Mr. Collins).
It was only his ability to be a decent provider that won him a wife willing to ignore his boorish and obsequiously oleaginous behavior. What can you say of a wife who admits (proudly) that she avoids him as much as she can. In company, she smiles and looks the other way when he says something embarrassing. Poor Charlotte had desperately wanted to escape the fate of elderly spinster sister dependent on her brothers, and only that purpose spurred her.
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Mr. Collins to be sure was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still, he would be her husband.
-- Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it.
As to that imaginary attachment, Mr. Collins married Charlotte with probably as little real feeling she surmised. His vanity had been badly stung by Elizabeth's rejection, and within hours, he was rebounding. Just another ignoble feature in a petty, small (though physically tall) man.
