| How Mr. Collins proposed to Elizabeth Bennet: | | | | anxiety, but his countenance expressed real security." |
| Not long ago, Mary Patricia and I saw a movie based | | | | When Elizabeth rebuffs him with a scathing speech of |
| on the Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. The | | | | which the most memorable line is "...and I had not |
| scenes in which Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy proposed to | | | | known you a month before I felt that you were the |
| Elizabeth Bennet made us cringe with disgust. | | | | last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed |
| This is what Mr. Collins says in a boorish preamble: | | | | to married," Mr. Darcy instead of making a graceful |
| "Almost as soon as I entered the house I singled you | | | | exit, insists by remarking on his superiority of status, |
| out as the companion of my future life. But before I | | | | his superiority of connections, and by the vulgarity of |
| am run away with by my feelings on this subject, | | | | Elizabeth's family members. |
| perhaps it will advisable for me to state my reasons | | | | Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy's proposal were insults and |
| for marrying-and moreover for coming into | | | | affronts rather than honor and homage to the |
| Hertfordshire with the design of selecting a wife, as I | | | | beloved. |
| certainly did." | | | | Nothing in their speech projects love but coldness |
| Next he offers his reasons: | | | | and arrogance. |
| "My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a | | | | Although I was not quite eighteen years of age |
| right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances | | | | when I proposed, I instinctively knew that it is the |
| (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his | | | | man's role to woo the beloved and win her hand in a |
| parish. Secondly, that I am convinced it will add very | | | | way that is warm and loving. The man's speech |
| greatly to my happiness; and thirdly-which perhaps I | | | | (proposal) I was sure would have to be clear and |
| ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the | | | | filled with 'you' and not with 'me' or 'I.' |
| particular advice and recommendation of the very | | | | How I proposed to Mary Patricia: |
| noble lady whom I have the honour or calling | | | | When we were in between classes Mary Patricia and |
| patroness." | | | | I would meet either at the sun dial or by the |
| One can understand that Mr. Collins is a ridiculous | | | | sycamore tree in front of Lewisohn Hall. Without any |
| character whose actions and speech are deliberately | | | | experience in amorous proposals, and fearful that my |
| inserted in the novel to bring about the much needed | | | | nervousness would botch up what could be the most |
| comic relief. But Mr. Collins isn't joking-he is quite | | | | momentous occasion of my life, one afternoon sitting |
| serious! | | | | under the old tree I scribbled a few notes on an |
| And speaking of seriousness, we find that the most | | | | index card. |
| serious character of the entire cast, Mr. Fitzwilliam | | | | Then as if under the spell of a guiding force, as we |
| Darcy, uses the same boorish and unromantic | | | | stood under the sycamore tree, this is what I read |
| marriage proposal; a proposal even more despicable | | | | to her: |
| than that of the loathsome Mr. Collins. | | | | "Since we met, you've made me a better student, a |
| How Mr. Darcy proposed to Elizabeth Bennet | | | | better person: kinder and nobler. And I now have a |
| Again, a boorish preamble: | | | | burning desire to succeed in life; not because of me, |
| "In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will | | | | not because of my family, but because I want you |
| not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how | | | | to think of me as a worthy person. |
| ardently I admire you." | | | | "If I always feel compelled to hold your hand and to |
| Next he offers his reasons. The exact words may | | | | put my arms around you, it is because I want to |
| have been too painful for the readership of the | | | | make sure you are human, that you aren't an angel |
| times; and in good sense the author has the narrator | | | | or a goddess. I cannot imagine the rest of my life |
| to intimate them only. Instead the narrator tells us | | | | without you by my side, for you and your music are |
| about Darcy's expectations: | | | | everything to me now: when I'm awake I think of |
| "He [Mr. Darcy] concluded with representing to her | | | | you, when I sleep I dream of you, and in my dreams |
| the strength of that attachment which, in spite of all | | | | you are my hypnosis, my delirium, and my peace. |
| his endeavors, he had found impossible to conquer; | | | | Having read my scribbling, and as I got down on one |
| and with expressing his hope that it would now be | | | | knee, I asked Mary Patricia: |
| rewarded by her acceptance of his hand. As he said | | | | "Will you marry me-will you marry this poor boy from |
| this, she could easily see that he had no doubt of a | | | | the Andes who was born to love you forever? |
| favourable answer. He spoke of apprehension and | | | | |