Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

The Wrong Man in the Right Place
Mr. Collins takes the place of the son Mr. Bennet
never had. He will inherit Longbourn. In Mr. Collins,
Austen shows the full irony of strict settlement.
Without a Bennet male heir, Longbourn, long held by the
Bennet family, and therefore, the landed gentry, will
pass to the son of an "illegitimate and miserly man," the
complete opposite of Mr. Bennet.
Mr. Bennet was the beneficiary and victim of strict
settlement. Mr. Collins fell into his inheritance and
living by what Austen describes as "unexpected
prosperity" (61) . The greater affront to Mr. Bennet
comes when Mr. Collins seeks to marry one of the Bennet
girls in order to "assure [Mr. Bennet] of my readiness to
make them every possible amends . . ." (55). Ivor Morris
observes that marrying into the family will have little
effect on Mr. Collins's standing. Unfazed and "without
social standing himself, he displays undiscriminating
respect for degree and those who possess it" (56) . Mr.
Collins was not born a gentleman, so neither Longbourn
nor his living will be able to raise his intrinsic value.
His birth will always betray him. His "undiscriminating