There has been an ongoing discussion on the P&P board about whether or not Charlotte did the right thing.Charlotte
Posted by Kate on November 20, 1997 at 13:45:06:
There has been an ongoing discussion on the P&P board about whether or not Charlotte did the right thing.
I don't have my copy with me (unforgiveable!) but I recall that somewhere in the section we are reading it says that Sir William had been a shop holder in Meryton, but that when he was knighted he bought himself an estate and aspired to a higher standard of living and status - and it's obvious from all his references to St James etc that he is trying to be something he is not.
Could he, therefore, even be described as a "gentleman". Can Charlotte, like Lizzy, claim to be a "gentleman's daughter" and therefore able to think of marrying anyone other than the nobility? Is Charlotte in fact marrying "up" by marrying Mr Collins, given that he is a clergyman, (and therefore a gentleman) and is in line to inherit (not buy) an old and reasonably valuable estate? Has she in fact made a good marriage, by these lights, rather than settled for the best she could do?
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