Her refusal of Collins’ pompous proposal is a mirror, which reflects, for the first time, her perception and character, and her attitudes towards love. Elizabeth lived in an acquisitive society, a society which treats a penniless old maid less as a joke than as an exasperating burden upon her family. Elizabeth, if she were not lucky enough to marry a rich man, would have not enough money to support her future life, which she was fully aware. Nevertheless, she turned down Collins’ proposal against her mother’s will. Because no love ever existed between them. Collins foolishness and falseness sickened her. We have already observed the insistent significance of the entail and Collins, who would inherit the estate when Bennet died. In proposing to Elizabeth, the magnanimous Collins said that he knew that she would, after her father’s death, had no more than a thousand pounds in the four percents. Such hieroglyphics, which Collins asked to threaten Elizabeth, but nothing could shake her firmness. Her choice proved to be wise later. Collins then married Charlotte, whose marriage was considered by Elizabeth as unaccountable and ridiculous. She thought that Collins was a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man and that woman who married him, couldn’t have a proper way of thinking.

Then came the proposal of Darcy, yet her prejudices against Darcy ensured the same results. There were three things Elizabeth seriously holds against Darcy: She thought he had spoiled Jane’s chances with Bingley; that he had done this because he despised the social position of the family, and that he had ruined Wickhame’s career without due cause. In spite of deeply-rooted dislike, she could not be insensible to the compliment of such a man’s affection, and though her intentions did not vary for an instant, she was at first sorry for the pain he was to receive. Obviously, Darcy’s proposal was more impressing than that of Collins, as it derived from the true affection. But his haughty words insulted Elizabeth’s self-esteem. She was by no means to sacrifice her self-respect to accept Darcy’s court. She hurled his proposal sharply and decidedly in his face. “ I had not been for a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.” (Jane Austen 154) Ruffled and vexed as he was, he was still impressed by her courage and frankness. As a matter of fact, her harsh refusal of Darcy’s proposal increased his admiration instead of reducing his passions.

Elizabeth, however, was a witty and sensible lady. She tried to find the real character of Darcy through her own observation and understanding. Later, she was invited to visit Pemberley, Darcy’s home. At Pemberley, Elizabeth’s understanding of Darcy deepened. She never took anybody’s words lightly without giving them her proper consideration. Having been informed of Darcy’s great assistance in Wickhame and Lydia’s case and Wickhame’s true character, Elizabeth became more favorably inclined to him than ever before.

Then came the Lady Catherine’s visit. She was Darcy’s aunt, and came to clarify the rumor that Darcy had engaged with Elizabeth. Hoping to marry her own daughter to Darcy, she had charged down with characteristic bad manners to order Elizabeth not to accept his proposal. The spirited girl was not to be intimidated by the bullying Lady Catherine and coolly refused to promise not to marry Darcy. “ If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I should certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss De Bourgh. You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Darcy is neither by honor nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?” (Jane Austen 231)

Finally, Elizabeth married Darcy, a really successful marriage.

Collins and Charlotte seem assured of a more or less indispensable social equilibrium which Wickhame and Lydia lack. Wickhame and Lydia’s marriage based on great sexual satisfaction. The relationship between Bingley and Jane provides the novel with less movement than do Collins- Charlotte and Wickhame – Lydia, but it provides more subtle and perhaps more revealing contrasts to the Darcy – Elizabeth relationship.The contrast between Bingley – Jane and Darcy – Elizabeth enables us to feel poiganant modulations each time we compare one couple with the other. Bingley and Jane possess personal attractiveness and dignity, social graces, and a measure of good sense, but they lack insight, strength, and self-confidence. Jane’s indifference towards Bingley and her quickness to believe that he has lost interest in her show inability to assert personal claims and to resist excessive social claims. Bingley similarly lacks self-confidence, and he yields easily to criticism of Jane’s social position. If we can’t imagine Bingley and Jane acting much differently, we at least are strongly concerned and sympathetic with their weakness; we wish that they had the strength of Darcy and Elizabeth. Unlike Bingley- Jane, Darcy – Elizabeth are deep and strong enough to hope for each other’s continued affection even after circumstances have borne strong evidence against it. Also, they are able to stand up against excessive social claims. Darcy becomes willing to associate himself with the Bennet family ( Lady Catherine’s opposition is a much slighter obstacle). Although the excessive social claims, which Elizabeth must resist might be slighter, they are not negligible. First, she must resist an overbearing verbal storm from Lady Catherine (which surely would crush a Jane), and then she must assert her claim to Darcy despite her realization of her family’s true narture, of lesser importance are her embarrassments in informing her family that she will marry Darcy and her pain in observing Darcy in association with her mother and younger sisters. Contrast between these two couples are reveals dangers that hover near for Darcy and Elizabeth. Elizabeth could not act as do Charlotte and Lydia, but we can imagine her yielding to hopeless passivity. Darcy could not act as Collins or Wickhame do, but we can imagine him permanently stiffening into the inflexible pride he displayed in condemning Elizabeth’s family to her face. Such action would scarcely parallel Bingley’s behavior, but the weakness it would display would have effects like those of Bingley’s weakness. Most important of all, Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s differences from Bingley and Jane suggest to us the power of will which Darcy and Elizabeth develop, the ability to educate themselves which lies at the heart of the novel.

In this novel, Jane Austen, by describing four different marriages, expressed her viewpoint that one�s character reflects his or her marriage and attitudes towards love. At the center stand Darcy and Elizabeth whose struggles lead to a reconciliation of personal and social claims. Far to one side of them stand Collins and Charlotte, who demonstrate a complete yielding to social claims. At the opposite extreme stand Wickhame and Lydia, who represent capitulation to personal claims. Although the Collins � Charlotte and Wickhame � Lydia marriages dramatize the possible fate of a girl in Elizabeth�s social position, their chief purpose is to show by contrast the desirability and integrity of the adjustment between Darcy and Elizabeth. Only Bingley and Jane help to dramatize alternatives which were significantly possible for Darcy and Elizabeth and thus to show the strength represented by their adjustment.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Walton Street: Oxford University Press, 1970
Bush, Douglas. "Mrs. Bennet and the Dark Gods: The truth about Jane Austen," The Sewaneeb Review Autumn, 1956: 591
Marcus, Mordecai. "A Major Thematic Pattern in 'Pride and Prejudice'," Nineteenth-Century Fiction December, 1961: 274-79
Oliphant, Margaret. "Miss Austen and Miss Mitford," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine March, 1870: 290
Saintsbury, Geroge. Prefaces and Essays. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1933.
Schorer, Mark. "Pride Unprejudiced," The Kenyou Review Winter, 1956: 72
Wu, weiren. History and Anthology of English Literature (part 2). BeiJing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1988.