Why did Charlotte Lucas marry Mr. Collins?

For economic survival, not love. Charlotte is twenty-seven and from a family whose daughters won't inherit; marriage was, as Austen puts it, the only honorable profession for women of small fortune. She marries with eyes open, undeceived about Mr. Collins, to avoid being a financial burden and to help her sisters.

What does Charlotte's marriage reveal about Elizabeth Bennet?

Stein reads Elizabeth's instant refusal of Mr. Collins as a sign of how sheltered she is, indulged by a selfish father. Charlotte's choice forces Elizabeth to see that her mother's despised pragmatism can be intelligent and responsible.

Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Was Charlotte Lucas Right to Marry Mr. Collins?

Q: Was Charlotte Lucas right to marry Mr. Collins?

Sadie Stein argues that by the standards of Austen's actual world she was — her choice is clear-eyed, defensible, even admirable. By the standards of romance she settles, but Elizabeth's freedom to refuse depended on rare luck, making Charlotte's arithmetic the more representative truth.

By Andrew Wessels

with commentary by Sadie Stein

Three days after Elizabeth Bennet refuses the ridiculous Mr. Collins, her best friend Charlotte Lucas accepts him. It is one of the small shocks of Pride and Prejudice, and in her Rebind Classics reading, Sadie Stein treats it as the moment the novel's romantic worldview cracks open. The question is not really whether Elizabeth was right to refuse him. It is whether Charlotte, marrying the same absurd man for reasons that have nothing to do with love, might be the one telling the truth about how this world actually works. Stein's answer is that, judged by the rules that actually governed women's lives in Jane Austen's England, Charlotte was right: her choice is clear-eyed, defensible, even admirable, and it is Elizabeth's freedom to refuse, not Charlotte's arithmetic, that is the rare exception.

Read the rest with a free account

I Couldn't Have Given You Up to Anyone Less

Sadie Stein weeps at Mr. Bennet's half-sentence goodbye. Garth Greenwell reads a whole novel about a father who can't say it, so the daughter must.

Go deeper →

Why Darcy Falls for Elizabeth in Spite of Himself

Darcy falls for Elizabeth because she alone does not perform for him, Stein argues — her wit is character, not strategy, and he falls in spite of himself.

Go deeper →

Marriage, Money, and the Village Religion of Pride and Prejudice

Stein argues the romance sits on hard economics: a village credo of marriage, too few men, and a good match as the difference between security and ruin.

Go deeper →

Founding rate · open through October 31

We just opened the doors.
Come in as a Founding Reader.

A library like this exists only if readers decide it should: a place where the greatest books ever written are explored, argued with, and kept alive. The people who join now make it possible. Your membership funds the next books, the next guides, the next conversations.

$60 for the year, the lowest price we will ever offer, held for as long as you remain a member.

Every audio series, every film, every essay, and every book we add
Your price never rises while you’re a member
Cancel any time, with a 7-day money-back guarantee

$60 / year

Every episode of every audio series
All films and all essays
Each new book the day it’s published
The founding price, for as long as you stay

Become a Founding Reader

Not ready? Join free for the introductions, essays and Listen In clips.

I Couldn't Have Given You Up to Anyone Less

Why Darcy Falls for Elizabeth in Spite of Himself

Marriage, Money, and the Village Religion of Pride and Prejudice

We just opened the doors.Come in as a Founding Reader.

We just opened the doors.
Come in as a Founding Reader.