Nathan Harland
Mrs. Schroeder
English IV Honors
8 March 2018
Throughout history, humans have written letters in varying languages and times. Because of this widespread and extensive form of communication for much of history, a sort of art form was created in which people would place a piece of them self in their letters. Jane Austen does a great job individualizing each and every single character in her novel through the use of letter writing. The art of letter writing reveals much about the personalities of characters in Pride and Prejudice, notably Mr. Darcy and Mr. Collins.
Jane Austen does a great job portraying Mr. Darcy’s honest and prideful character using his written letters to exemplify these traits. His sincerity, the acknowledgement
…show more content…
Collins. Throughout the book, Mr. Collins is seen as the most obtuse, arrogant, egotistical, shallow, self-centered suitor to ever visit Longbourn. Mr. Collins’ personality is best revealed by his superfluous verbiage, pretentious flattery, and extreme self-pride. An example of his excessive verbiage is in his initial letter to Mr. Bennet where he states “I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her ladyship, and be ever ready to perform those rites and ceremonies which are instituted by the Church of England.” Mr. Collins is also quite pompous, and in the same letter to Mr Bennet he states “I propose myself the satisfaction of waiting on you and your family, Monday, November 18th, by four o'clock, and shall probably trespass on your hospitality till the Saturday se'ennight following, which I can do without any inconvenience, as Lady Catherine is far from objecting to my occasional absence on a Sunday” The wording and phrasing of this passage is unlike any other character in the book, and denotes great self worth, and importance of himself and his