Marriage is a lifelong commitment between two people. Most marriages are based on love, but people get married for many other reasons, including money. Before marriage, there needs to be a proposal where one person asks another for their hand in marriage. Jane Austen and Charles Dickens both depict marriage proposals in their novels. Although the suitors in both novels seek matrimony from their proposals, the probable effects on the women being addressed will differ greatly due to the different arguments, assumptions, and attitudes each man uses. .
In Austens" novel, the suitor, Mr. Collins, will be unsuccessful in his proposal to Elizabeth Bennett. First of all, Collins has bad reasons for proposing. Collins's first reason for his proposal is that a clergyman like himself must get married "to set the example of matrimony in his parish." Collins is worried about his own reputation, because he wants to be normal, and to marry like other clergymen. He does want to set a good example for his parishioners, by getting married. However, Collins should not get married for the sake of other people. He should only marry if it is his desire to do so, as marriage is a very serious and lifelong commitment. Next, Collins states that he is proposing to Bennett because "it will add very greatly to [his] happiness." Here, Collins's reason is better than the first because he mentions that he is proposing in order to make himself happy, but this is selfish of him. Collins, only mentioning his happiness and not Bennett's, shows that he only thinks about himself and not for them both, in his proposal. Collins then says "and thirdly-which perhaps I should have mentioned earlier", and declares that the main reason for his proposal is "the particular advice and recommendation" of his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Collins's proposal is now condescending. His reasons are going from bad to worse.
