Why Charlotte Lucas made the RIGHT choice!

hello everyone welcome back to Naomi's bookshelf we are here today to discuss something that maybe is a little controversial but I feel has been super underrated or super over-exaggerated shall we say in many Jane Austen circles and that would be the marriage of Sharda Lucas to mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice [Music] so the marriage between Charlotte Lucas and mr. Collins is something that everyone seems to think is a bad idea I personally disagree for many reasons and on my reread I took little sticky notes every time something was mentioned in relation to Charlotte's position getting better or why she should have married mr. Collins so we're gonna talk about these in just a second but first I want to say that I do not think Lizzy should have married mr. Collins now I know this might come off as mr. Collins is a good catch and he is toothed Charlotte but I don't think he's a good catch for Lizzy and I think they just would have hated each other so I'm not suggesting that Lizzy made the wrong decision in this case but I am gonna suggest why Charlotte I believe made the right one so we're gonna first of all look at the facts of each person in this romantic duo so we have first of all if Charlotte Lucas Scherr Lucas is 27 years old she is considered on the shelf she is an old maid by everyone's standards she is not beautiful by anyone's assessment not even her own mother and she is feeling like a leech on her family's finances so she is in a pickle her father did work in trade and he earned his fortune that way but he is still in trade he became Sir William Lucas when I believe the books that when he was a mayor and that is why he has a title but he started off in trade which is important about their family class status because of this class status where he earned his way up their family has very little fortune the book calls it tolerable fortune so that could be anything below what the Bennett's I would assume are making as they are Gentry the next thing of note is that Charlotte Lucas has several siblings she has multiple sisters and multiple brothers and this is not a rich family as I have just established next we're going to look at mr. Collins now mr. Collins is a young man he is bumbling he doesn't understand social cues I've actually heard that he might have a form of autism which as of reread I could totally see it and under and it now he is also someone who grew up in a very unfortunate home where his father was not very loving and he did not have his mother around so he grew up in a very unfortunate situation his college life was not any better and he is now in a position where he is working for Lady Catherine de Bourg and he only met her through a small connection and she obviously likes how he flatters her but he is not someone who has a lot of power or a lot of say in a lot of situations there are several good points to mr. Collins in spite of what you might think first and foremost if you're looking at marriage as a job he is a very good job offer he is in line to inherit a decent estate that is worth 2,000 a year not bad another thing what mr. Collins is that he is easily influenced into a different opinion so the first and foremost of this is when he is with Lady Catherine de Burke and he says things comments and she says no that's not right and he says of course you're right and I feel like this is applicable to many women in his life or many people in his life he also does this with the Bennett's during their first dinner at Longbourn when he compliments the potatoes and asks which of his cousins did it and mrs. Bennett corrects him and he says of course I was wrong so he is very easily influenced and manipulated in some ways with certain people so now that we've looked at the two characters in this romantic story if you want to call it a romance or this marriage shall we say we're going to look at what marriage is itself at least in my opinion marriage is interesting compared to now back then marriage was a career choice for a woman she didn't have any many choices she could either be a governess or she can be married or she could be living at home bouncing around from family to family this is obvious in several Jane Austen's novels we have Anne Elliot who is not married and yet she is going from sister to sister or family to family and helping out and with different things in the household so she is not her own person she is just being bounced around as she is a spinster according to the family then you also have Jane Fairfax that's an example who she is a governess or she is applying to be governess because there's literally no other choice for her to be making money and you have her aunt Miss Bates who was a spinster who never got married and is financially suffering for it then you have an Weston who I think is an interesting career change if you want to call it that she starts off as a governess at the beginning of the book and literally I think the first chapter of Emma I'd sort of well since I've read it she gets married and so she changes from governess to married woman and that gives her a lot more stability in the world's view the what houses did give her stability as their governess but she had a lot more long-term stability and she had a lot more long-term connections and support from her family so another side of this spinsterhood aspect is the lack of a male supporter so a lack of a male leader or family head if you will her father once he passes away that would duty would fall to one of her brothers and we have seen in Jane Austen's work a brother who did not take care of his sisters after the death of their father and that would be the Dashwood's and sense sensibility so you have this possible awful setup that you have yes the Lucas brothers could have taken very good care of Charlotte but there is still that potential where she could be really out on her own after the death of her father so she has all of these things with spinsterhood attached to it something else to consider about this marital Society is that many of the men were often more or were being killed in the Napoleonic war this is something that isn't really talked about in Jane Austen's work as a big problem but we do have the militia and in persuasion we have the Navy through Frederick Wentworth so we have several army references if you will and that also impacts the amount of men who are available to get married to them to the women around and Charlotte Lucas in the specific instance so Charlotte was facing a very difficult choice she had very few options ahead of her and none of those options were really working out in her favour now they're her family clearly had struggles and had issues with her being single as I will talk about in a bit but before we want to talk about marriage her marriage specifically I'd like to talk about her thoughts on marriage and what she actually says to Lizzie about her thoughts on marriage so in Chapter six Lizzie and Charlotte are discussing Jane's potential marriage to Bingley and this is where Charlotte makes some very startling and very steadfast views on marriage known and Lizzy doesn't necessarily agree with them she says in nine cases out of ten a woman had better show more attention than she feels Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly but he may never do more to like her if she does not help him on and that is very reflective of Charlotte in the courtship of by mr. Collins then they keep discussing it Lindsay doesn't agree and then Charlotte says when she is secure of him there will be leisure and falling as love as much as she chooses now this is something that is interesting because then right after that Lizzy comments on Charlotte's perspective and she does not agree with this perspective she says your plan is a good one replied Elizabeth where nothing is in question except for desire to be well married but if I determined to get a rich husband or any husband I dare say I should adopt it so this is something where Charlotte has recognized that being married in good marriage is something that you have to actually work for and you have to show more affection for and you might not love them but you can fell in love after the fact this comes heavily into play with her twice of marrying mr. Collins I believe she decides that when Lizzie turns him down this is a good option she jumps on that she's there that day that Lizzie turns him down to support the family and she supports them by taking mr. Collins out and by supporting him and encouraging him and she definitely fosters that development of a relationship very fast she has previously talked to him and she's always been very kind and courteous so she has not bashed him in any way or made fun of him and she recognizes that this is a man who she could marry he is looking for a wife and yet no one wants him but she can see the value in him she can see that he is someone who she can easily work with she can easily control in many ways he has an estate coming to him he has a good career and he has a good patroness who was willing to pay his way there are several great options in this and after their proposal is announced her family are very happy it says that her sisters are super excited because now that can go up in society as later we find out from lizzie situation that the younger sisters do not go out in public go out in society for husbands and littell the older ones married and so her sisters have been waiting for that marriage opportunity because Charlotte has not been married next you also find out that her brothers are very happy that they don't have to support her down the line they know that she is gonna be supported by a husband and her father also was very excited for the possible connections that he will bring mr. Cohen's will bring to the table with this family and that mr. Collins is not expecting a lot of money from him as a payment of marriage so there are several things that are very exciting for them and they all can appreciate the value the material value and the social value of marrying mr. Collins he is may not be the best individual person but you look at the details he's really a wonderfully possible candidate for marriage at least for Charlotte in her opinion I have made several comments about why Charlotte benefits from marrying mr. Collins and not just Charlotte but her whole family and I would like to talk about how mr. Collins benefits from marrying Charlotte now mr. Collins is looking for a woman he'll be clearly estates is good with the money she is amiable she is well soft-spoken she is someone who he can really work with in the community as a clergyman which is something very important to him and I think Charlotte fits that bill she always thinks before she speaks she's always very careful of how she does things but even more than that you can tell later that when they're in their home she has really got the system worked out as we can see from when Charlotte is showing Lizzy around her home she has things set up in a way that benefits her she has mr. Collins working in the garden a lot of the time or in the front of the house and her place is the back of the house she has a little parlor set up just for her and I think that really speaks to how she has set this up I do think she'd have a very difficult time with Lady Catherine always breathing down her neck about what things she should be doing in her life but I think that's something that is overly that she can overlook and she can see down the future that that is something that they can change they can change their location of the job and right now if you just look at Lady Catherine as her there as his boss that's all that it really is now something else of note is that at the end of the book mr. Collins writes to mr. Bennet and says that they are pregnant he does not say pregnant but he does talk about the fact that they are having an extension to their family if you will and I think it's very important to notice this because that definitely says that Charlotte has a future locked down at the very least she has a family and because this estate is entailed Longbourn is entailed to mr. Collins mr. Collins has a son then Charlotte will never have to leave Longbourn ever after they move in and I believe with a 50% chance of that baby being a boy she has already guaranteed some sort of future now in regards to love and romance I think it's possible that they fall in love I don't know if they they would but I think it's possible Charlotte went into that marriage eyes wide open she knew what she was getting into and I think that's something that's very important to recognize that she was not a romantic person actually tells Lizzie after she talks about the proposal she would did not go in there looking for romance she went in with her eyes wide open to a stable home where she does no longer a burden to her family I think it speaks volumes to Charlotte's forethought and ability to plan ahead especially when she knows that one day her family will have her as a burden to financially support if she does not find a husband soon also I think it's something interesting of note is that she is 2 years older than mr. Collins and I think that that is interesting because that's not very common at though in those days it's something that was not frequently looked on but because Charlotte is so cunning and I think that's a great term for her and I'm saying it in a total complimentary way she's so cunning she was able to get this man who was looking for a young pretty wife as he had clearly stated before to fall in love with Charlotte Lucas who is not young by those standards and she's not pretty by those standards I I really admire her for her bravery and ever since I first read Pride and Prejudice I felt this way so I don't understand people bash Charlotte Lucas for making the choice to marry mr. Collins so this is my defense of Charlotte Lucas please leave a comment down below if you disagree or if you agree with me and why I'd love to hear from you in there about Jane Austen's world and Charlotte Lucas in particular she is definitely someone who I think is underestimated I will see you next time with another video bye for now

Channel: Naomi’s Bookshelf

Views: 35,971

Keywords: jane austin, elizabeth bennet, mr darcy, sense and sensibility, emma, persuasion, northanger abbey, mansfield park, pride and prejudice

Id: ROla_reosQc

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 16 2020