] Marianne is intelligent, well-read, sensitive (not to other people unfortunately). Compare her to other young ladies like the Steele sisters (very vulgar)or to Mrs. Jennings' daughters (true, they are married, but were and are nevertheless very stupid). In such cases we must think of the available ladies to the Colonel.

If we were to assume that all of the near Regency novel ladies are representative of the women of the time, we have to allow that there is a high proportion of insipidity among the women of the day. The lack of opportunities that women had compared with their male counterparts of the day, particularly with regard to education, could lead to nothing else. When we look at the list of all the female characters, it is easy to imagine how he could overlook a little (or a lot) of whininess in order to end up with someone with whom he could have an intelligent conversation with. Of the reasonably well-educated women, there are a lot of shallow or just plain mean women. Marianne is thoughtless, but not mean.

To name a few:
(insipid)
Mrs. Bennett
Mrs. Bertram
Lydia Bennett
Harriet Smith
Anne Steele
Miss Bates
Dora Copperfield
Rosamund Vincy
Claire Gibson