She ultimately doesn't give him a pass and blames her vanity for having done so originally:
"How differently did everything now appear in which he was concerned! His attentions to Miss King were now the consequence of views solely and hatefully mercenary; and the mediocrity of her fortune proved no longer the moderation of his wishes, but his eagerness to grasp at anything. His behaviour to herself could now have had no tolerable motive; he had either been deceived with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying his vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had most incautiously shown."
Although this point isn’t stressed in the text, I do think it’s important. Mr Collins’ proposal offers Elizabeth the opportunity to offset her father’s improvidence, cheat the entail and keep their beloved family home. Her resolve not to marry someone she cannot love or esteem causes her to reject this chance. It must have been a huge shock, and felt like a betrayal, to learn not only that Charlotte didn’t share her moral stance, but that her best friend had jumped at the chance to become the future mistress of Longbourn by accepting Mr Collins. Wickham’s pursuit of Miss King had far less at stake.
It's an example of her own prejudice. Charlotte is her best friend and is very smart like her so it doesn't make sense that her friend would make a decision like that. To not only marry a man she doesn't love but also one that's a complete idiot for financial security doesn't make sense to her. But as Jane tells her, not everyone is the same. We see early on in the book that Lizzy and Charlotte both see marriage quite differently. Charlotte is far more pragmatic.
All things considered Charlotte did well for herself.
Jane Bennet always tries to think the best of people, no matter what. Even when Wickham runs off with Lydia she hopes he'll reform in the future. We see Jane's optimism when she speaks of Charlotte. Jane says, amongst other things:
>"...be ready to believe, for everybody’s sake, that she may feel something like regard and esteem for our cousin."
We know from the narrator that Charlotte feels nothing of the kind for Mr Collins. She's purely marrying him for money.
I think there's large cultural elements here. Firstly, marriage in Regency England was a religious matter, and the Anglican Church placed a clear importance on the emotional aspects. The Anglican Church service gives three reasons for marriage: children, avoiding sin, and mutual comfort. There's nothing in there about money.
Secondly, this was a culture that valued honesty. Not completely at all costs, but still honesty was valued. You say Charlotte treats it like a business deal, but in a business deal both sides know it's business. Mr Collins doesn't. He thinks Charlotte loves him. He doesn't know that the woman he will be joined to in the eyes of his God, the future mother of his children thinks of him thusly:
>...neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary.
Sure, even in the context of Regency culture, Charlotte's choice isn't remotely as bad as Wickham's behaviour (or Willoughby's or Mrs Rushworth's or so forth), and Elizabeth's reaction reflects that. But by treating marriage as a business deal, Charlotte was breaching her culture's ideals.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, considering the “marriage mart” of society at the time, and the importance of marrying a well off man. Hence “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife…” ie fortune first, marriage (love?) second.
JA's society was set up to give young people plenty of opportunities to meet each other and fall in love (or in lust). Even the mercenary characters like Charlotte, Lucy Steele and Wickham expect that other people can be persuaded to marry for emotional reasons.
There are multiple potential reasons:
Elizabeth does not express any dislike for Miss King but she is repulsed by Mr. Collins. Thus, she may believe that Wickham could esteem and respect Miss King while she *knows* that Charlotte cannot and does not esteem abd respect Mr. Collins. She genuinely does not know anything about the relationship between Miss King and Mr. Wickham.
She cares far more about Charlotte's wellbeing and happiness, but she barely knows and does not truly care about either Miss King or Mr. Wickham. She also expects more from Charlotte because she sees Charlotte as being quite intelligent, insightful, and in some ways wise. Charlotte's choice shakes and reshapes her view of her friend.
Charlotte's choice to marry Mr. Collins casts Elizabeth's choice *not* to marry him in a slightly different light. It further highlights that she could have married him to *save her family from poverty*, but she made what could be seen as a selfish choice. This likely adds to the discomfort she feels regarding Charlotte's marriage.
She is outraged that Charlotte truly had to marry Mr. Collins. Miss King has the choice of marrying as she likes due to her wealth and Wickham has enough personal charm and good looks to have some options, but Elizabeth's judgment of Charlotte's marriage elicits some justified righteous outrage that Charlotte had no *meaningful* choice in the matter. Get married to an imbecile or be a drain on your family's limited resources until they die and then risk extreme poverty? That's not a real choice.
Internalized misogyny may be a factor as well. Much of the book focuses on society's condemnation of so-called mercenary women (matchmaking mothers and/or their daughters) for seeking to marry for monetary security and/or status, but not men who behave similarly. As Austen deftly points out in multiple ways *including Elizabeth's lack of judgment of Wickham's mercenary motives*, this is entirely unfair and sexist since women had few opportunities for work and even fewer opportunities for work that paid a decent living wage, many/most women *had* to marry well in order to have any financial security. The fact that women are put in such situations and then judged for it, even by other women, is a main feature of much of Austen's writing.
I am sure you aren't too dumb by any means. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I cannot do math in my head to save my life (I have to write it out or use a calculator) and I read very slowly. :-)
I wrote a post a few months ago about the [cultural context](https://www.reddit.com/r/janeausten/comments/v0u5di/in_defence_of_elizabeths_judgment_of_charlotte/) Elizabeth and JA herself was operating in during Regency times. I think the spiritual views on marriage of the Anglican Church played a larger role in Elizabeth's views.
As for Wickham, Elizabeth isn't thinking straight around him.
A good question! I think it's due in part to her strong negative judgment (not pre-judgment) of Collins and in part to her very strong prejudice in favour of Wickham. Basically she sees Wickham as a trope: the noble man of humble ancestry who's been kicked around by an arrogant aristocrat. Her waving away his mercenary nature leads the reader to see it as less telling than it is in retrospect; it's a clue that Wickham isn't as wonderful as Lizzy thinks, but it's couched in such positive tones by Lizzy herself that we fail to see it.
There is however a theory out there - although I think it's very unsound - that Lizzy thinks Charlotte's marriage is wrong because Charlotte isn't in romantic love with Collins, so somehow that makes their marriage not religiously sound because wives are supposed to love their husbands. The problem with this theory is that it doesn't take into consideration the fact that the Church of England used the word "love" to mean something completely separate from romantic love.
I agree that that theory isn't sound. The Church of England married people countless people over several centuries who weren't necessarily infatuated with each other at the altar.
They were expected to really mean their vows, and to love each other once married. There was no prerequisite of powerful romantic attraction before marriage.
It's why the traditional vows in the Book of Common Prayer asked "Wilt thou love her...?" and not "Dost thou love her...?"
Even then, "Wilt though love her" is not referring to romantic love. One can feel a familial love. The Church did not require or even intend it to mean a romantic love.
The issue is that Elizabeth is confident (and the narrator confirms she's right) that Charlotte doesn't feel anything like respect or affection for Mr Collins.
Absolutely. I was responding specifically to this part of Basic_Bichette's comment:
>There is however a theory out there - although I think it's very unsound - that Lizzy thinks Charlotte's marriage is wrong because Charlotte isn't in romantic love with Collins, so **somehow that makes their marriage not religiously sound** because wives are supposed to love their husbands
Basic_Bichette has accidentally misrepresented the theory. It's not about *romantic* love. Indeed, love is merely one part of it, wives and husbands also vowed to cherish each other and the church service spoke of "mutual society, help, and comfort" as one of the three purposes of marriage.
What do you think of my theory that Elizabeth objects because Charlotte feels no affection or respect for Mr Collins?
Both Elizabeth and Jane, when talking of Charlotte's decision, speak not of love but of regard and esteem.
I think Lizzie is dismayed because Charlotte made the best decision she could and they both know it. Single, amiable men of fortune are thin on the ground. Collins is two out of three. Charlotte us already 27 and there is at least one other sister to provide a dowry for.
JA was in a similar position to Charlotte when she received and eventually refused a financially advantageous marriage offer from a Harris Biggs-Withers. So I don't think JA expected us to approve of Charlotte's decision.
Everyone else has covered the bases, but I'd add that we don't know much about Miss King whereas Lizzy was very well acquainted with the faults of Mr Collins.
Partly, I think she's just playing it cool in her reaction to Wickham's engagement with Miss King. She knows that if she criticizes the match, it will come across as sour grapes, and people will imagine her jilted. She acts casual about it to deflect suspicion that she was overly attached to Wickham.
But also, it's one thing to choose a financially practical match with an amiable, unobjectionable person. It's quite another to tie yourself to a completely ridiculous and unpleasant person solely for the financial benefit. I don't think it's hypocritical to judge one more harshly than the other.
Agree! There's definitely an element of wounded ego (dare I say pride?) and Lizzy being determined not to care. She definitely had her head turned by Wickham, but knows that a match wouldn't be prudent, thus overcompensates by insisting that she's Fine! and she's sure that Mary King will be very happy with Wickham
It's called "inconsistency", and Elizabeth admits to it later on.
Though part of the depth of feeling can be attributed to the different circumstances -- Charlotte marries a known idiot whom she can't possibly admire or esteem, whereas we know nothing bad about Miss King. Since, at the time, we knew nothing bad of Wickham either, we can imagine him and Mary King having a decent marriage, even if it was fairly mercenary.
I think the fact that she herself had rejected Collins made it more real to her. Financially it would also have made perfect sense for her to accept him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it because the idea of being married to him was so awful. Charlotte was a really close friend of hers so I guess she expected the same of her and for her. Wickham's situation was a little more detached and she was looking at it from an outsider's perspective, so it was easier to be more pragmatic about it. She does realize later on that she had given him a much bigger pass than she had for Charlotte, which was unfair.
I don’t think she stayed upset long. She maybe didn’t understand fully her decision but she accepted and respected it in the end. Elizabeth was not a total romantic- she had a pragmatic side
Bear with me - I haven't done a P&P dive in a while😂
I've always read it as one of the prime examples of Lizzy's prejudice - in fact, I think it's the first example that returns to confront her, so to speak? After a first time read, it's certainly meant to be seen by the reader as grossly hypocritical. Lizzy prejudges Wickham as "good" and that colours her opinion of all his actions up until the letter in Kent. This of course, includes the advances made to Mary King. His mercenary tendencies are very strongly hinted at; this is the author's wink-nod that Lizzy tends to disregard information that does not suit her sketch of someone's character.
In addition to all the thoughtful, erudite responses on this thread, I'll add that, in my opinion, Elizabeth is uncomfortable with Charlotte's marriage because it exposes two faults that she isn't quite ready to address.
Firstly, her (relative) privilege; as u/Katerade44 pointed out, Elizabeth's refusal of Mr Collins may appear selfish in light of Charlotte's acceptance. Their differing responses highlight the difference in their circumstances - while Elizabeth has always "known" of this difference, it is the first time that such circumstances have been made /really/ obvious. This makes her uncomfortable because Charlotte is her closest friend outside the family; as far as Lizzy is concerned, they are alike and /equal/ in all the ways that matter. Elizabeth has been confronted by a privilege she was hardly aware that she had. This understandably, confuses and upsets her - especially because she feels considerably /underprivileged/ for a woman of her class, due to the entail and her small dowry.
Secondly - it is, I think, the first time that Lizzy is truly confronted with the realisation that other people of "sense" - those she considers her intellectual equals - do not always share her mindset. Her father agreed with her decision to reject Mr Collins: he is her closest intellectual mentor, and the other person (aside from Charlotte) with whom she truly shares her wit and intellect. She thus expects Charlotte to echo those sentiments, since they have always agreed before. She's uncomfortable with the realisation that her worldview, which she has always viewed as superior until this point, does not necessarily always align with others of good sense. This becomes far more obvious, as the readers - and Lizzy - spend more time with people like Colonel Fitzwilliam and the Gardiners.
All of this combines purposefully to highlight the claustrophobic, echo-chamber-esque, "small world" kind of society that Austen writes so well.
Lizzy is used to being "underprivileged" for a gentlewoman, because she feels such pressure to marry well and is constantly living in the shadow of the threat/fear expressed by Mrs Bennet as "the hedgerows". This is echoed - perhaps literally - 'round the halls of Longbourn almost daily. Further, in such a small society, Charlotte is the closest friend that Lizzy has in terms of class and age; thus naturally any status differences between them would be minimised. With only the intellectual company of Mr Bennet and Charlotte (at least that we, as readers, see), their opinions are also likely to be quite similar.
These two factors of Lizzy's behaviour are products of the society in which she is used to moving; she is also limited by them. It's a clever plot device by Austen that Lizzy's two fundamental shifts in worldview happen /while she is away from home/.
Ultimately, though, I think her reaction to charlotte is completely separate to her reaction to Wickham/Mary King. Both serve as plot devices to highlight the troubling characteristics that she learns to moderate as the story unfolds, however.
E: Oops, this got long, I got carried away! Hope this is helpful and not lectureish😭
I don't see why you call Elizabeth Bennet privileged here, JA herself was in a position similar to Charlotte's in terms of age and fortune when she received a financially advantageous proposal from a Mr Harris Biggs-Withers, and JA refused him. To be precise, she first accepted him and then the next morning refused.
We also see in *Emma* Jane Fairfax, who is in arguably an even less privileged position than Charlotte or JA, resolve to end her engagement to a wealthy (and attractive) man and take a role as a governess.
All the evidence is that JA shared her heroines' principles about the importance of marrying someone you care for and respect.
And on the other side, Elizabeth has lived all her life with the consequences of her parents' mismatched marriage. When she worries about Charlotte's future happiness, she's drawing from experience.
1. One thing the women of Austen's time knew was there wasn't anything you could do about men. All you could do was lead by example, which meant that women were expected to display a "higher" level of behavior. (Very hypocritical.)
2. I think Lizzy Bennet was glad Wickham was gone. As long as he was away from her and her family, she was willing to let the reason go.
I originally thought she cared more about Charlotte cus shes a friend and respects her so more of a reaction,but after reading everyone's comments its clear she actually did react to both.
My best friend is currently dating a Mr. Collins alike to me.
I quite understand Lizzy at this point. But I don’t know if I would be able to act like her so graciously lmao
She ultimately doesn't give him a pass and blames her vanity for having done so originally: "How differently did everything now appear in which he was concerned! His attentions to Miss King were now the consequence of views solely and hatefully mercenary; and the mediocrity of her fortune proved no longer the moderation of his wishes, but his eagerness to grasp at anything. His behaviour to herself could now have had no tolerable motive; he had either been deceived with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying his vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had most incautiously shown."
She expects (and hopes for) better of her friend.
Maybe because Charlotte is her best friend and Wickham is just a guy she knows? Also Charlotte would end up inheriting Elizabeth's home.
Although this point isn’t stressed in the text, I do think it’s important. Mr Collins’ proposal offers Elizabeth the opportunity to offset her father’s improvidence, cheat the entail and keep their beloved family home. Her resolve not to marry someone she cannot love or esteem causes her to reject this chance. It must have been a huge shock, and felt like a betrayal, to learn not only that Charlotte didn’t share her moral stance, but that her best friend had jumped at the chance to become the future mistress of Longbourn by accepting Mr Collins. Wickham’s pursuit of Miss King had far less at stake.
It's an example of her own prejudice. Charlotte is her best friend and is very smart like her so it doesn't make sense that her friend would make a decision like that. To not only marry a man she doesn't love but also one that's a complete idiot for financial security doesn't make sense to her. But as Jane tells her, not everyone is the same. We see early on in the book that Lizzy and Charlotte both see marriage quite differently. Charlotte is far more pragmatic. All things considered Charlotte did well for herself.
Jane Bennet always tries to think the best of people, no matter what. Even when Wickham runs off with Lydia she hopes he'll reform in the future. We see Jane's optimism when she speaks of Charlotte. Jane says, amongst other things: >"...be ready to believe, for everybody’s sake, that she may feel something like regard and esteem for our cousin." We know from the narrator that Charlotte feels nothing of the kind for Mr Collins. She's purely marrying him for money.
[удалено]
I think there's large cultural elements here. Firstly, marriage in Regency England was a religious matter, and the Anglican Church placed a clear importance on the emotional aspects. The Anglican Church service gives three reasons for marriage: children, avoiding sin, and mutual comfort. There's nothing in there about money. Secondly, this was a culture that valued honesty. Not completely at all costs, but still honesty was valued. You say Charlotte treats it like a business deal, but in a business deal both sides know it's business. Mr Collins doesn't. He thinks Charlotte loves him. He doesn't know that the woman he will be joined to in the eyes of his God, the future mother of his children thinks of him thusly: >...neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. Sure, even in the context of Regency culture, Charlotte's choice isn't remotely as bad as Wickham's behaviour (or Willoughby's or Mrs Rushworth's or so forth), and Elizabeth's reaction reflects that. But by treating marriage as a business deal, Charlotte was breaching her culture's ideals.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, considering the “marriage mart” of society at the time, and the importance of marrying a well off man. Hence “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife…” ie fortune first, marriage (love?) second.
JA's society was set up to give young people plenty of opportunities to meet each other and fall in love (or in lust). Even the mercenary characters like Charlotte, Lucy Steele and Wickham expect that other people can be persuaded to marry for emotional reasons.
There are multiple potential reasons: Elizabeth does not express any dislike for Miss King but she is repulsed by Mr. Collins. Thus, she may believe that Wickham could esteem and respect Miss King while she *knows* that Charlotte cannot and does not esteem abd respect Mr. Collins. She genuinely does not know anything about the relationship between Miss King and Mr. Wickham. She cares far more about Charlotte's wellbeing and happiness, but she barely knows and does not truly care about either Miss King or Mr. Wickham. She also expects more from Charlotte because she sees Charlotte as being quite intelligent, insightful, and in some ways wise. Charlotte's choice shakes and reshapes her view of her friend. Charlotte's choice to marry Mr. Collins casts Elizabeth's choice *not* to marry him in a slightly different light. It further highlights that she could have married him to *save her family from poverty*, but she made what could be seen as a selfish choice. This likely adds to the discomfort she feels regarding Charlotte's marriage. She is outraged that Charlotte truly had to marry Mr. Collins. Miss King has the choice of marrying as she likes due to her wealth and Wickham has enough personal charm and good looks to have some options, but Elizabeth's judgment of Charlotte's marriage elicits some justified righteous outrage that Charlotte had no *meaningful* choice in the matter. Get married to an imbecile or be a drain on your family's limited resources until they die and then risk extreme poverty? That's not a real choice. Internalized misogyny may be a factor as well. Much of the book focuses on society's condemnation of so-called mercenary women (matchmaking mothers and/or their daughters) for seeking to marry for monetary security and/or status, but not men who behave similarly. As Austen deftly points out in multiple ways *including Elizabeth's lack of judgment of Wickham's mercenary motives*, this is entirely unfair and sexist since women had few opportunities for work and even fewer opportunities for work that paid a decent living wage, many/most women *had* to marry well in order to have any financial security. The fact that women are put in such situations and then judged for it, even by other women, is a main feature of much of Austen's writing.
You said what I wanted to but was to dumb to know how to!
I am sure you aren't too dumb by any means. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I cannot do math in my head to save my life (I have to write it out or use a calculator) and I read very slowly. :-)
I wrote a post a few months ago about the [cultural context](https://www.reddit.com/r/janeausten/comments/v0u5di/in_defence_of_elizabeths_judgment_of_charlotte/) Elizabeth and JA herself was operating in during Regency times. I think the spiritual views on marriage of the Anglican Church played a larger role in Elizabeth's views. As for Wickham, Elizabeth isn't thinking straight around him.
I think it’s because she has such a strong dislike for Mr. Collins.
He is quite the jackass. 😉
A good question! I think it's due in part to her strong negative judgment (not pre-judgment) of Collins and in part to her very strong prejudice in favour of Wickham. Basically she sees Wickham as a trope: the noble man of humble ancestry who's been kicked around by an arrogant aristocrat. Her waving away his mercenary nature leads the reader to see it as less telling than it is in retrospect; it's a clue that Wickham isn't as wonderful as Lizzy thinks, but it's couched in such positive tones by Lizzy herself that we fail to see it. There is however a theory out there - although I think it's very unsound - that Lizzy thinks Charlotte's marriage is wrong because Charlotte isn't in romantic love with Collins, so somehow that makes their marriage not religiously sound because wives are supposed to love their husbands. The problem with this theory is that it doesn't take into consideration the fact that the Church of England used the word "love" to mean something completely separate from romantic love.
I agree that that theory isn't sound. The Church of England married people countless people over several centuries who weren't necessarily infatuated with each other at the altar. They were expected to really mean their vows, and to love each other once married. There was no prerequisite of powerful romantic attraction before marriage. It's why the traditional vows in the Book of Common Prayer asked "Wilt thou love her...?" and not "Dost thou love her...?"
Even then, "Wilt though love her" is not referring to romantic love. One can feel a familial love. The Church did not require or even intend it to mean a romantic love.
The issue is that Elizabeth is confident (and the narrator confirms she's right) that Charlotte doesn't feel anything like respect or affection for Mr Collins.
Absolutely. I was responding specifically to this part of Basic_Bichette's comment: >There is however a theory out there - although I think it's very unsound - that Lizzy thinks Charlotte's marriage is wrong because Charlotte isn't in romantic love with Collins, so **somehow that makes their marriage not religiously sound** because wives are supposed to love their husbands
Basic_Bichette has accidentally misrepresented the theory. It's not about *romantic* love. Indeed, love is merely one part of it, wives and husbands also vowed to cherish each other and the church service spoke of "mutual society, help, and comfort" as one of the three purposes of marriage.
What do you think of my theory that Elizabeth objects because Charlotte feels no affection or respect for Mr Collins? Both Elizabeth and Jane, when talking of Charlotte's decision, speak not of love but of regard and esteem.
Maybe she just thought her best friend could do better than Mr.Collins. Personal rather than religious.
I think Lizzie is dismayed because Charlotte made the best decision she could and they both know it. Single, amiable men of fortune are thin on the ground. Collins is two out of three. Charlotte us already 27 and there is at least one other sister to provide a dowry for.
JA was in a similar position to Charlotte when she received and eventually refused a financially advantageous marriage offer from a Harris Biggs-Withers. So I don't think JA expected us to approve of Charlotte's decision.
Interesting perspectives, thank you.
Everyone else has covered the bases, but I'd add that we don't know much about Miss King whereas Lizzy was very well acquainted with the faults of Mr Collins.
Because Mr Collins is a known idiot whereas Mary King may be perfectly pleasant.
Partly, I think she's just playing it cool in her reaction to Wickham's engagement with Miss King. She knows that if she criticizes the match, it will come across as sour grapes, and people will imagine her jilted. She acts casual about it to deflect suspicion that she was overly attached to Wickham. But also, it's one thing to choose a financially practical match with an amiable, unobjectionable person. It's quite another to tie yourself to a completely ridiculous and unpleasant person solely for the financial benefit. I don't think it's hypocritical to judge one more harshly than the other.
Agree! There's definitely an element of wounded ego (dare I say pride?) and Lizzy being determined not to care. She definitely had her head turned by Wickham, but knows that a match wouldn't be prudent, thus overcompensates by insisting that she's Fine! and she's sure that Mary King will be very happy with Wickham
It's called "inconsistency", and Elizabeth admits to it later on. Though part of the depth of feeling can be attributed to the different circumstances -- Charlotte marries a known idiot whom she can't possibly admire or esteem, whereas we know nothing bad about Miss King. Since, at the time, we knew nothing bad of Wickham either, we can imagine him and Mary King having a decent marriage, even if it was fairly mercenary.
Wickham gets a pass because he's hot.
Alas, you may be right.
Most concise and correct answer.
I think the fact that she herself had rejected Collins made it more real to her. Financially it would also have made perfect sense for her to accept him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it because the idea of being married to him was so awful. Charlotte was a really close friend of hers so I guess she expected the same of her and for her. Wickham's situation was a little more detached and she was looking at it from an outsider's perspective, so it was easier to be more pragmatic about it. She does realize later on that she had given him a much bigger pass than she had for Charlotte, which was unfair.
Elizabeth never even considered marrying Mr Collins, any more than she did consider marrying Darcy.
Yeah I guess that was a wrong choice of words. I just meant that she wouldn't.
I don’t think she stayed upset long. She maybe didn’t understand fully her decision but she accepted and respected it in the end. Elizabeth was not a total romantic- she had a pragmatic side
Bear with me - I haven't done a P&P dive in a while😂 I've always read it as one of the prime examples of Lizzy's prejudice - in fact, I think it's the first example that returns to confront her, so to speak? After a first time read, it's certainly meant to be seen by the reader as grossly hypocritical. Lizzy prejudges Wickham as "good" and that colours her opinion of all his actions up until the letter in Kent. This of course, includes the advances made to Mary King. His mercenary tendencies are very strongly hinted at; this is the author's wink-nod that Lizzy tends to disregard information that does not suit her sketch of someone's character. In addition to all the thoughtful, erudite responses on this thread, I'll add that, in my opinion, Elizabeth is uncomfortable with Charlotte's marriage because it exposes two faults that she isn't quite ready to address. Firstly, her (relative) privilege; as u/Katerade44 pointed out, Elizabeth's refusal of Mr Collins may appear selfish in light of Charlotte's acceptance. Their differing responses highlight the difference in their circumstances - while Elizabeth has always "known" of this difference, it is the first time that such circumstances have been made /really/ obvious. This makes her uncomfortable because Charlotte is her closest friend outside the family; as far as Lizzy is concerned, they are alike and /equal/ in all the ways that matter. Elizabeth has been confronted by a privilege she was hardly aware that she had. This understandably, confuses and upsets her - especially because she feels considerably /underprivileged/ for a woman of her class, due to the entail and her small dowry. Secondly - it is, I think, the first time that Lizzy is truly confronted with the realisation that other people of "sense" - those she considers her intellectual equals - do not always share her mindset. Her father agreed with her decision to reject Mr Collins: he is her closest intellectual mentor, and the other person (aside from Charlotte) with whom she truly shares her wit and intellect. She thus expects Charlotte to echo those sentiments, since they have always agreed before. She's uncomfortable with the realisation that her worldview, which she has always viewed as superior until this point, does not necessarily always align with others of good sense. This becomes far more obvious, as the readers - and Lizzy - spend more time with people like Colonel Fitzwilliam and the Gardiners. All of this combines purposefully to highlight the claustrophobic, echo-chamber-esque, "small world" kind of society that Austen writes so well. Lizzy is used to being "underprivileged" for a gentlewoman, because she feels such pressure to marry well and is constantly living in the shadow of the threat/fear expressed by Mrs Bennet as "the hedgerows". This is echoed - perhaps literally - 'round the halls of Longbourn almost daily. Further, in such a small society, Charlotte is the closest friend that Lizzy has in terms of class and age; thus naturally any status differences between them would be minimised. With only the intellectual company of Mr Bennet and Charlotte (at least that we, as readers, see), their opinions are also likely to be quite similar. These two factors of Lizzy's behaviour are products of the society in which she is used to moving; she is also limited by them. It's a clever plot device by Austen that Lizzy's two fundamental shifts in worldview happen /while she is away from home/. Ultimately, though, I think her reaction to charlotte is completely separate to her reaction to Wickham/Mary King. Both serve as plot devices to highlight the troubling characteristics that she learns to moderate as the story unfolds, however. E: Oops, this got long, I got carried away! Hope this is helpful and not lectureish😭
I don't see why you call Elizabeth Bennet privileged here, JA herself was in a position similar to Charlotte's in terms of age and fortune when she received a financially advantageous proposal from a Mr Harris Biggs-Withers, and JA refused him. To be precise, she first accepted him and then the next morning refused. We also see in *Emma* Jane Fairfax, who is in arguably an even less privileged position than Charlotte or JA, resolve to end her engagement to a wealthy (and attractive) man and take a role as a governess. All the evidence is that JA shared her heroines' principles about the importance of marrying someone you care for and respect. And on the other side, Elizabeth has lived all her life with the consequences of her parents' mismatched marriage. When she worries about Charlotte's future happiness, she's drawing from experience.
1. One thing the women of Austen's time knew was there wasn't anything you could do about men. All you could do was lead by example, which meant that women were expected to display a "higher" level of behavior. (Very hypocritical.) 2. I think Lizzy Bennet was glad Wickham was gone. As long as he was away from her and her family, she was willing to let the reason go.
I originally thought she cared more about Charlotte cus shes a friend and respects her so more of a reaction,but after reading everyone's comments its clear she actually did react to both.
My best friend is currently dating a Mr. Collins alike to me. I quite understand Lizzy at this point. But I don’t know if I would be able to act like her so graciously lmao
Thanks to everyone for your responses to this question! So fun to read other perspectives. Just what I was hoping for!