#william collins

[lonelylittledot]

rip Mr Collins, you would have loved Patreon

[anghraine]

what happens to charlotte lucas if mr. collins dies early (before he inherits longbourne)?

That is the worst possible scenario for her, basically.

Mr Collins's living with regard to Hunsford only lasts for the duration of his life, so she gets nothing from it. Unless her child (she's implied to be pregnant at the end of P&P) is a son and, iirc, falls within a set number of generations as laid out by the original entailment, she also gets nothing with regard to Longbourn (and if the child is a girl, she now has another dependent to worry about and provide for; I think Mr Bennet's daughters would receive preference over Charlotte's if Mr Collins never inherits and there's no son).

There would have been legal documents accompanying their betrothal that laid out exactly how much property or money Charlotte and her potential children would receive during and after the marriage (this is what is meant by references to pin money and jointure; pin money is what the woman will regularly receive for her private expenses during the marriage, and jointure is what she gets if she survives her husband). There's a straightforward example of this with Mr and Mrs Bennet, for instance.

Mrs Bennet brought a dowry of four thousand pounds to the marriage. Mr Bennet or his family settled an additional one thousand pounds on her at the time (23 years earlier). So there's five thousand pounds attached to Mrs Bennet and her children specifically that is essentially secure—the income from it can only go to her or her children. Since her children are all daughters, however, this pretty much automatically includes her daughters' husbands as well, since women were legally and financially subsumed into their husbands' identities upon marriage and it took some legal shenanigans to protect their resources. Lydia's share of Mrs Bennet's fortune, one thousand pounds, effectively goes to Wickham as part of the marriage arrangements, and it's not clear if Lydia's money is legally secured to her in the same way since it was part of bribing Wickham to marry her at all.

(Tangent: a lot of analysis tends to assume that income from a lump sum of this kind would generate an income of 5% of the principal via low-risk, low-reward government investments. Mr Collins himself explicitly estimates that Elizabeth's portion of Mrs Bennet's settlement would generate an income at a 4% rate, leaving her with a mere 40 pounds a-year. This might seem Mr Collins-style negging, but in reality these kinds of safe government investments could and did drop to rates closer to 3% due to various economic upheavals at the time.)

Returning to Charlotte's situation, eighteenth-century advice urged men (even much less affluent men) to set aside a significant portion of their incomes every year to add to what was settled on their wives/children, so that if they died, their children and widows would have more to live on. The original settlement, as in Mrs Bennet's case, could be pretty small, especially for multiple people to live on. Mr Collins is enough of a rules guy that he might set aside the suggested percentages of his income, especially if Lady Catherine considers it proper. But even if we assume he's setting aside, say, 20% of his income, I doubt that would amount to very much if he dies soon; the Hunsford living is good, but not that good, and he's only 25, so there just hasn't been much time. Charlotte would essentially be a poor cousin by marriage of the Bennets and dependent on her own family (already in straitened circumstances) for anything more than her settlement, which given the circumstances wouldn't amount to much.

People often kill Mr Collins young to given Charlotte a chance at a better life, but in reality, this would likely be a disaster for her.

[phantomstatistician]

Fandom: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Sample Size: 3,122 stories

Source: AO3

[janeeyreofmanderley]

[besotted-with-austen]

Pride & Prejudice or

Caroline Bingley & The Realisation That Her Crush Was Not Joking At All

George Wickham & The How-Tos Of Ruining Everyone's Party (Literally And Not)

William Collins & The Infinite Worship Of Lady Catherine De Bourgh

Mary Bennet & The Unneeded Word Of Wisdom

The Bennets & The Highs and Lows Of Parenthood

[mymindimpaired]

Pride and Prejudice relationship alignment chart

[mysharona1987]

re: Reading Pride and Prejudice. Even Mr Collins knows him and Charlotte are a marriage of convenience. But he’s not a bad guy.

Charlotte acknowledges he treats her well and is never cruel.

Play Mr Collins by someone awkward but hot and we could get a good Jane Austen film here.

[curiousb]

The Steele Family Album: Volume XVII

We're heading over to the other side of town today, to see how the other Steele sister is getting on.

Very well, as it happens!

And we finally get to meet the man behind the llama. I like him! As does Nancy, clearly. He just needs a more becoming hairstyle.

Although Nancy is by nature an independent girl, there's a real spirit of togetherness between these two, even hitting the gym together.

Which is why Nancy decides to invite him to move in, and share the rent.

Meet Steve Hicks, before...

...and after his makeover. (Fun fact: I actually love this Maxis hair, and I'm really glad of an opportunity to use it!)

Steve's stats:

~ Scorpio 5 / 4 / 9 / 3 / 4

~ Mean-spirited / Light Sleeper / Artistic / Daredevil / Clumsy

~ OTH: Sport

~ Favourite Colour(s): Olive Green

~ Aspiration: Fortune / Romance

~ Turn-ons / -off: +Adventurous / +Athletic / -Indoorsy

~ LTW: Become Space Pirate

Loneliness seems to be a thing of the past for Nancy.

Steve needs to pay his way though - Nancy won't tolerate freeloaders - so he signs up as a recruit.

And just in time, as he's about to become a family man!

It's a boy! With his mum's (and grandfather William's) amber eyes.

Steve, meet your new baby son, Andrew.

Yeah, babies tend to do that.

[bo-deuxtons]

@gradexmovies

[lionofchaeronea]

May Day, William Collins, 1811-12

[mametupa]

[ardentlyinlovedarcy]

[anghraine]

lavenderandchai replied to this post:

Now I'm realizing I would be very interested in reading a short story where Elizabeth eventually tells Darcy about Collins's proposal because through the whole novel I don't think he ever learns of it (unless he overheard Merryton gossip due to Mrs Bennet's anger at Elizabeth) which is an interesting angle to think about

IIRC, it comes up in fic reasonably often! I think there are decent odds that he doesn't know; he isn't around when it actually happens, nobody in Kent who knows about has any motivation to talk about it, and by the time Darcy comes back to the Meryton area, it's old news. Of course, it might come up during the engagement period or something, but I like to think Darcy and Elizabeth are both just kind of amused by the time it comes up.

[laufire]

"You are too hasty, sir," she cried. "You forget that I have made no answer. Let me do it without further loss of time. Accept my thanks for the compliment you are paying me. I am very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than to decline them."

"I am not now to learn," replied Mr. Collins, with a formal wave of the hand, "that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favour; and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second, or even a third time. I am therefore by no means discouraged by what you have just said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long."

"Upon my word, sir," cried Elizabeth, "your hope is a rather extraordinary one after my declaration. I do assure you that I am not one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are) who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time. I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who could make you so. Nay, were your friend Lady Catherine to know me, I am persuaded she would find me in every respect ill-qualified for the situation."

"Were it certain that Lady Catherine would think so," said Mr. Collins very gravely—"but I cannot imagine that her ladyship would at all disapprove of you. And you may be certain when I have the honour of seeing her again, I shall speak in the very highest terms of your modesty, economy, and other amiable qualification."

"Indeed, Mr. Collins, all praise of me will be unnecessary. You must give me leave to judge for myself, and pay me the compliment of believing what I say. I wish you very happy and very rich, and by refusing your hand, do all in my power to prevent your being otherwise. In making me the offer, you must have satisfied the delicacy of your feelings with regard to my family, and may take possession of Longbourn estate whenever it falls, without any self-reproach. This matter may be considered, therefore, as finally settled." And rising as she thus spoke, she would have quitted the room, had Mr. Collins not thus addressed her:

"When I do myself the honour of speaking to you next on the subject, I shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than you have now given me; though I am far from accusing you of cruelty at present, because I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application, and perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female character."

"Really, Mr. Collins," cried Elizabeth with some warmth, "you puzzle me exceedingly. If what I have hitherto said can appear to you in the form of encouragement, I know not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one."

"You must give me leave to flatter myself, my dear cousin, that your refusal of my addresses is merely words of course. My reasons for believing it are briefly these: It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy of your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable. My situation in life, my connections with the family of de Bourgh, and my relationship to your own, are circumstances highly in my favour; and you should take it into further consideration, that in spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you. Your portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications. As I must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me, I shall choose to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females."

"I do assure you, sir, that I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart."

"You are uniformly charming!" cried he, with an air of awkward gallantry; "and I am persuaded that when sanctioned by the express authority of both your excellent parents, my proposals will not fail of being acceptable."

To such perseverance in wilful self-deception Elizabeth would make no reply, and immediately and in silence withdrew; determined, if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement, to apply to her father, whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be decisive, and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female.

-Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen.

[janeeyreofmanderley]

I think the purest proof of Jane Austen's genius lies within the fact, that she managed to write a romantic novel where Mr Collins' proposal to Lizzie is not the worst one she receives!

[besotted-with-austen]

William Collins: RIP Lydia Bennet 😔

Elizabeth Bennet: *puzzled* what are you talking about? She is alive-

William Collins: -but we are mourning her nonetheless, after she killed her reputation so carelessly!