Body Paragraph Number 1

Mr. Collins’ proposal to Elizabeth conveys an overarching theme of Jane Austen’s era which is the inability of men to treat women equally. When Collins rejects Elizabeth’s refusal to his proposal, his actions would be considered despicable today. Austen using an exaggerated response from Mr. Collins to make her satire clear: “it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept,” (Austen 76). Clearly Mr. Collins is immediately framed as an ignorant and simple minded man from this response to Elizabeth’s rejection. However, the response may be an exaggeration but it still depicts a major issue in Austen’s time. Men simply suppressed the voice of women because they could and women were accepting of it. Even though Mr. Collins eventually accepts her rejection, he still feels as though she is in the wrong because she will now have a tarnished reputation among men for not consenting to marriage. Women have only small ability to woe a man in the courting process while men hold virtually all the power. This concept does not sit well with Austen and she chose to express her concern and disdain towards this social norm in England. Mr. Collins also expressed his intention to marry her for his benefit, but never hers: “I am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness” (76). Elizabeth clearly wants a marriage to involve love and feelings, where as Mr. Collins, who has only just met her, believes marriage has such little importance that he barely even needs to get to know his wife. By ignoring the internal side of marriage and simply dictating his actions based on Elizabeth’s beauty and the morality of keeping the Bennet estate within their family, he displays a major flaw in the way marriage is perceived back then. Austen struggles with this concept and using her novel to criticize it, but her audience at the time still failed to catch on to her ideas and it was until the 20th century that her book became more popular.