Verity's Book

My Bane

GadSul this is for you. *glares* *hides under pillow*

Anyways, this is the essay I mentioned on my conversation board. In Classical Conversations we've been reading Pride and Prejudice(never done that before, boy! *eyeroll*) and had to argue in our essay that EITHER Mr. Collins' proposal was more socially acceptable than Mr. Darcy's, or vice versa. For some insane reason, I decided to argue for Darcy. AND I procrastinated writing it until the night before class.

And because somebody said they wanted it, I give you...

THE INCONVENIENCE OF MARRIAGE PROPOSALS

Any girl would like to get a marriage proposal. All right, most girls would like to get a marriage proposal. What about the guy's part, though? How hard is it to come up with that proposal? By the poor quality of the proposals in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one would say pretty hard.

Pride and Prejudice, a satirical novel placed in early 19th-century England, follows the romantic entanglement of Elizabeth Bennet, a gentleman's daughter of small means, with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy and very proud landowner. The book includes two proposals of marriage. The first is from Mr. Collin's, Elizabeth's near relation; his proposal is often considered the more suitable, as Mr. Bennet's estate has been entailed away to him and in marrying Elizabeth he is doing the family a common amends for the day. Mr. Darcy's proposal, on the other hand, passionate and contradictory, while it tugs far more at the heartstrings, is generally acknowledged to be the less appropriate to the social constraints of time and place.

However, this is simply not the case.

That Mr. Darcy's offer is better by the standards of the time shall be proven in three simple points. First, as Elizabeth Bennet states in Chapter 56 to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, "He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter. So far we are equal." While in pure monetary terms Mr. Darcy may have had the superiority over her, their social status was essentially the same in the eyes of any reasonable person. (Some people, it must be said, are not reasonable. But that will always be the case.) Mr. Collins, on the other hand, has absolutely no mention of titles or manors to his name at all. To wed him, Elizabeth would actually be marrying down.

Secondly, Mr. Collins rather blatantly insulted Elizabeth's lack of finances, and alluded indelicately to her father's pending decease and how the house must pass subsequently to himself – language that no self-respecting person would find proper.

Finally, Mr. Collins' language is focused almost uniformly on himself. He is an obvious boaster and flatterer, and while the era may have been one of falsity and facades, Mr. Collins' are simply too ostentatious, too obvious, to be acceptable. Darcy's haughty pride is an asset to him where Mr. Collins' unctuous sentiment is not.

It is often argued, and stated in fact by Mr. Darcy himself, that the lack of Elizabeth's connections ought to deny her an alliance with him. This has been briefly touched on above. Simply put, Elizabeth is in the class of gentry. Even if her mother was less than that, it does not make it improper for Mr. Darcy to request her hand. It makes it more unlikely, yes. But hardly improper. And if it should happen – as indeed it does happen – it merely proves that Elizabeth must be a woman well worth marrying.

Viewed through the lens of 19th-century society, it may not be at first clear whose proposal of the two was more proper. They both have severe flaws, to say the least. But after careful examination, the judicious observer will find that Mr. Darcy takes the higher place.

*peeks from under pillow* Did y'all like it?