MEJE BOOKS Knowledge Library

MEJE PROCESS · Pride and Prejudice Worldbuilding Data (74 chapters)

Mr. Collins / Rev. William Collins

MEJE Works · Chapter 59

Mr. Collins / Rev. William Collins

Basic Information

  • Original names: Mr. Collins, Rev. William Collins
  • Korean rendering: Pastor Collins / Mr. Collins
  • Age: 25
  • Position: Clergyman; rector of Hunsford parish in Kent, under the patronage of Lady Catherine de Bourgh
  • Family: Mr. Bennet’s cousin, though closer to a nephew in age; heir to Longbourn under the entail
  • Residence: Hunsford Parsonage, near Rosings Park
  • First appearance: chunk_07 (Chapter 13)

Character Profile

The most thoroughly comic figure in the novel. He is tall and heavyset, with a solemn and courteous manner whose substance is hollow. Flattery and vanity form the two axes of his personality: servile reverence for Lady Catherine combines strangely with an inflated view of his own station. Though educated, he is a man whose “natural stupidity had not been corrected by education.” The narrator explains that his father’s strict upbringing instead helped form his obsequious character.

Collins serves several narrative functions. First, he embodies the absurdity of the entail. Second, he is the first test of Elizabeth’s principles concerning marriage. Third, he acts as a mirror that reveals Charlotte Lucas’s pragmatic view of marriage. Finally, as the link to Lady Catherine, he makes the entire Hunsford–Rosings episode structurally possible.

Development by Event

Act I: The Visit to Longbourn (Chapters 13–15)

  • EVT-011 He visits the Bennet family by way of making amends for the entail. He arrives intending to relieve his guilt by marrying one of the daughters. He first selects Jane, but immediately shifts his attention to Elizabeth when told of Jane’s apparent understanding with Bingley.
  • EVT-012 He pours out endless praise of Lady Catherine, in a feast of flattery that extends to the number of windows at Rosings Park and the cost of its chimney-pieces.

Act II: Proposal and Marriage (Chapters 18–22)

  • EVT-015 At the Netherfield ball, he embarrasses himself by forcing an introduction to Darcy. He approaches Darcy on the strength of the latter’s connection to Lady Catherine, only to receive a cold response.
  • EVT-016 He asks Elizabeth for the first two dances at the ball—effectively declaring his courtship.
  • EVT-017 He proposes to Elizabeth and lists three reasons: to set an example as a clergyman, to secure his own happiness, and to follow Lady Catherine’s recommendation. He interprets Elizabeth’s refusal, repeated at least five times, as a lady’s conventional coyness and refuses to withdraw.
  • EVT-018 Mrs. Bennet tries to persuade Elizabeth, but Mr. Bennet takes Elizabeth’s side. Collins recovers his dignity within two days.
  • EVT-020 He redirects his attentions to Charlotte Lucas, proposes, and is accepted—a reversal completed only three days after Elizabeth’s refusal.

Core Relationships

  • Lady Catherine: His patroness and object of worship; the reference point for every action. He is always grateful for “her advice and recommendation.”
  • Elizabeth: Rejects his proposal; he later continues to send her admonitory letters, both after Lydia’s elopement and upon hearing of her engagement to Darcy
  • Charlotte (wife): A practical marriage and a companionship without affection; Charlotte manages Collins while securing a space of her own
  • The Bennet family: His guilt and sense of superiority coexist because he is heir under the entail
  • Darcy: Collins introduces himself uninvited and is ignored; he obsesses over Darcy’s connection to Lady Catherine

Translation Notes

  • Collins’s speeches are long, verbose, and repetitive. The translation must deliberately preserve their tedium and emptiness; they must not be edited for concision.
  • His list of “reasons for marrying” in the proposal scene (Chapter 19) is the comic climax, so its tone must be reproduced precisely.
  • Translate Collins’s characteristic, exaggerated language of humility consistently, including “humble abode,” “condescension” (a favor graciously bestowed by a superior), and “patroness.”
  • Preserve the narrator’s cool, judicial tone in “Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society.”