_Mr. Collins's guide for proposing to a lady._ *Step 1.* Solemnly state your reasons for marrying. *Step 2.* Tell her how you chose her as an act of charity and good-will among families, and compassion for her state of penury. *Step 3.* Assure her in the most animated language of the violence of your affections. ( _Note:_ Do not be disconcerted by a negative reply. She secretly means to accept you, and is merely trying to increase your love by suspense according to the usual practice of elegant females.) _Mr. Darcy's guide for proposing to a lady._ *Step 1.* Break off her sister's engagement with your friend, if applicable. *Step 2.* Walk around the room in agitation and stare at her. *Step 3.* Take her by surprise by an abrupt confession of the violence of your affections. *Step 4.* Fortify your suit by pointing out the inferiority of her connections, the degradation you must suffer on account of it, and the noble sacrifice you make by condescending to marry her against the wishes of your friends, your family and your own better judgement. ( _Note:_ If you are rejected, act surprised and demand reasons of her rejection.)

“The violence of my affections” I lost it at that. 😂

“No means yes!” these guys have existed throughout all of time.

He wouldn’t encounter all of this if he just asked Mary LMAO

ALMOST as soon as I entered the house I singled you out as the companion ... (2nd choice).

All other actors are surely destined to live in the shadow of David Bamber's pitch-perfect rendition of Mr Collins...

I'm wondering how the actors got through the scene without bursting out laughing🤣🤣🤣

Brilliant scene. The pot plant has more self awareness that Mr Collins😂

I see here a healthy peppering of those delicate compliments that must surely be agreeable to the ladies. He's clearly done some prior study, but taken care to give them the air of spontaneity, his Mr Collins techniques are on clear display.

Some people just can't take a hint that no means no.

The actor playing Mr. Collins rightly speaks in an older English accent that you see in Queen Elizabeth and King Charles. That would have been the accent spoken at the time. Maybe even slightly different but definitely closer to compared to the more modern British accent.

I really appreciate the comic relief Jane Austen provided in this story through Mr. Collins; what a character he is. 😅

What really kills me is that Mary really liked him and she could have married Mr. Collins and kept her family's house if only he weren't so vain and thought her boring and ugly. Poor Mary never got her happy ending.

Creepy guy

I love Mr Collins! He's the real insufferable.

The fact the Mary actually really likes him is so fucking hilarious shows how great a writer Austin is. 😂

Her eyes at 3:21 say EVERYTHING.

_Mr. Collins made his declaration in form... On finding Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth, and one of the younger girls together, soon after breakfast, he addressed the mother in these words:_ _“May I hope, madam, for your interest with your fair daughter Elizabeth, when I solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the course of this morning?”_ _Before Elizabeth had time for anything but a blush of surprise, Mrs. Bennet answered instantly, “Oh dear! - yes - certainly. I am sure Lizzy will be very happy - I am sure she can have no objection. Come, Kitty, I want you upstairs.” And, gathering her work together, she was hastening away, when Elizabeth called out:_ _“Dear madam, do not go. I beg you will not go. Mr. Collins must excuse me. He can have nothing to say to me that anybody need not hear. I am going away myself.”_ _“No, no, nonsense, Lizzy. I desire you to stay where you are.” And upon Elizabeth’s seeming really, with vexed and embarrassed looks, about to escape, she added: “Lizzy, I insist upon your staying and hearing Mr. Collins.”_ _Elizabeth would not oppose such an injunction - and a moment’s consideration making her also sensible that it would be wisest to get it over as soon and as quietly as possible, she sat down again..._ _“Believe me, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that your modesty, so far from doing you any disservice, rather adds to your other perfections. You would have been less amiable in my eyes had there not been this little unwillingness; but allow me to assure you, that I have your respected mother’s permission for this address. You can hardly doubt the purport of my discourse, however your natural delicacy may lead you to dissemble; my attentions have been too marked to be mistaken. Almost as soon as I entered the house, I singled you out as the companion of my future life. But before I am run away with by my feelings on this subject, perhaps it would be advisable for me to state my reasons for marrying - and, moreover, for coming into Hertfordshire with the design of selecting a wife, as I certainly did.”_ _The idea of Mr. Collins, with all his solemn composure, being run away with by his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing, that she could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him further, and he continued:_ _“My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish; secondly, that I am convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly - which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness. Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too!) on this subject... she said, ‘Mr. Collins, you must marry. A clergyman like you must marry. Choose properly, choose a gentlewoman for my sake; and for your own, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high, but able to make a small income go a good way. This is my advice. Find such a woman as soon as you can, bring her to Hunsford, and I will visit her.’ Allow me, by the way, to observe, my fair cousin, that I do not reckon the notice and kindness of Lady Catherine de Bourgh as among the least of the advantages in my power to offer. You will find her manners beyond anything I can describe; and your wit and vivacity, I think, must be acceptable to her, especially when tempered with the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite. Thus much for my general intention in favour of matrimony; it remains to be told why my views were directed towards Longbourn instead of my own neighbourhood, where I can assure you there are many amiable young women. But the fact is, that being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured father (who, however, may live many years longer), I could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as little as possible, when the melancholy event takes place... And now nothing remains but for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection. To fortune I am perfectly indifferent, and shall make no demand of that nature on your father, since I am well aware that it could not be complied with; and that one thousand pounds in the four per cents, which will not be yours till after your mother’s decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to. On that head, therefore, I shall be uniformly silent; and you may assure yourself that no ungenerous reproach shall ever pass my lips when we are married.”_ _It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now._ _“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 you 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 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 behavior at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female._ *_Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 19_*

Aww the Mr. Collins mullets

Badly done, Mr. Collins! 😏

Mr. Collins is a legend haha

Mr. Collins looks like the German actor Lars Eidinger…

Wallpaper

Mr Collins is daddy

Aside from the comedy of it, this could also be considered the one morally ambigous act by Lizzy in the story. Should she have got over her personal dislike of Mr Collins and accepted him for the greater good of her family? Sure, she would have to live with a pompous idiot for the rest of her life, but she could also ensure that her mother and his sisters would have a roof over their heads in the event of her father's death. The crisis that the family would have faced if Mr Bennet were to die suddenly was very real. Mr Collins can take over Longbourne and Mrs Bennett and her five daughters would have been compelled to leave and live with limited means by the charity of the Gardiners. Mr Collins was effectively throwing to the Bennett family a life-line of social and economic security through his marriage proposal. Though we tend to criticize Mrs Bennett and defend Lizzy in the Collins affair based on our modern sensibilities, scholars have opined that the actions of the two would have been judged very differently by the readers of the Regency Era. What could be said in Lizzy's defense was that at the time Collins made his proposal she was expecting the marriage between Bingley and Jane to happen soon enough. So she didn't _have to_ accept Collins, or so she must have thought. Or maybe Jane Austen was putting her own thoughts on 'marriages of convenience' through Lizzy here, having herself accepted, and then rejected, a similar 'advantageous' proposal in her life even when she faced a similar predicament to Lizzy.