In her personal letters, Austen advises friends only to marry for love.
Through the plot of the novel it is clear that Austen wants to show how Elizabeth is able to be happy by refusing to marry for financial purposes and only marrying a man whom she truly loves and esteems.
The same idea is behind the rejection of Collin’s proposal by Elizabeth.
I think Mr Collins is so absurd to show how low a person may sink their standards to gain stability and position through marriage. If Collins had been ordinary, Mrs Bennet's obsession with uniting one of her daughters with him to concrete their future at Longbourne wouldn't have been as horrifying to the reader.
"Oh the clever
Things I should say to you
They got stuck somewhere
Stuck between me and you"
Originally Posted by smiles135
I'm not so sure. What about the narrator's attitude to Charlotte, who actually marries the absurd Mr Collins? Isn't the narrator, and perhaps Jane Austen herself, sympathetic to Charlotte?
I found a little bitter tone in the story that Charlotte was telling to Elizabeth when she comes to visit.
I can't help feeling she deliberately sends Mr Collins away (into the garden, walking to Lady Catherine, into his library...) so that 'sometimes one whole day passes without saying a word' (or something in that sense).
However, I don't think it is absolutely clear that Charlotte is really unhappy. I don't have the impression she is. The only thing that is the case is that she married for comfort, but she didn't have any higher ambition. If she could put up with his annoying ways, then why not? The man is only blessed with someone who is not annoyed by him (unlike Elizabeth would be).
Maybe Austen thought that there were two kinds of people: the ones that marry for comfort and the ones that marry for love. The ones that marry for comfort should do just that because it makes them happy. If they wait for love that will never come 'because they are not romantic,' like Charlotte puts it, they will grow unhappy and never find that comfort. For the ones that marry for love it remains to be seen if they will be really happy. Although, if they choose well enough, they should be able to find their true partner like Elizabeth and Darcy find each other. But, the ones that want to marry for love shouldn't relinquish their happiness for comfort, because it would make them unhappy. I think Austen was aware of those two kinds of people, and she was obviously one of the 'for love'-kind.
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
Hm. I thought Austen wasn't really one who's for a marriage born out of love alone. It's more like a moderation between marrying for love and comfort.
Austen isn't for a marriage for comfort, if so, she would probably have given Charlotte a less sympathetic end. On the other extreme end of the spectrum, we have Lydia and Wickham whose marriage is entirely based on personal desire and youthful vivacity. Quite obviously their marriage didn't turn out well either.
In my opinion, Austen's idea of an ideal marriage is probably one like Darcy's and Elizabeth's; they both love each other, and Darcy is definitely capable of giving them both a good life.
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