Interchangeable is a good description of Sir John’s and Charlotte’s way of thinking about marriage partners. Charlotte seems to think a match with Brandon would have been delightful (Ch. 20) although at the time she had only seen him twice. The apparent success of their marriages depends, it seems, on the absence of expectation (for real affection or compatibility) of at least three of the participants and the cheerful dispositions of Charlotte and Sir John who put up with their sour and cold partner with everlasting patience and good humor.

I think Charlotte and Sir John would have made a jolly pair and the park would have been continually rocking with laughter if not elegance. Charlotte is unfazed by the “many people come to dine with us that I never saw before, it is quite charming!” while Sir John delights “in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold, and the noisier they were the better was he pleased” per Ch. 7. Charlotte would never have to remind her husband he is being rude (Ch. 20) and they would at all times good-heartedly stand on as little ceremony as possible.

Lady Middleton and Mr. Palmer are both standoffish people who seem to entertain merely for personal gain—his to win votes and hers for vanity. She entrains for the satisfaction of displaying “the elegance of her table, and of all her domestic arrangements” (Ch. 7) which is in kindred spirit with Mr. Palmer’s fatigue at being “forced to make everybody like him” (Ch. 20) by entertaining so many strangers at home. She would never have to scold him for flouting ceremony and together they could be well piqued over Mrs. Jennings vulgarity.