Charlotte's choice
Posted by Sandy H on December 04, 1997 at 13:24:18:
In response to Choosing husbands, written by AmyB on December 04, 1997 at 13:03:48
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] This discussion reminds of one of my favorite messages of the novel when Mr. Benet is giving Lizzy his blessing and says : "... I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage." What great advise; I assume he would tell a son the same thing.
First of all, I think, not only did Mr. Bennet give Lizzy great advice, but what advice for that time! I think Charlotte's choice of a husband was more in keeping with the time. I had forgotten how practical she was in her choice of Mr. Collins. Jane Austen writes that she believed that marriage was "the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune." She obviously didn't care for Mr. Collins. She even told Lizzy. "I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home."
] Do you see an assumption that once the women decides which man she wants to marry she just has to play her cards right? In each case Charlotte's, Jane's, and Lizzy's we see each decides, eventually, and eventually gets who they want. This is further supported since we see two of the men decide who they want to marry and are turned down. II love this.
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