Mr.Collins, however, is probably the silliest clergyman in English literature. Self-important, pompous and boring, he is obseqious to the snobbish aristocrat, Lady Catherine de Burgh, his patroness. Some of his actions are quite unchristian - he is triumphant about the Bennet family's disgrace when Lydia elopes, for example. Vain and proud, he cannot accept it when the intelligent Elizabeth refuses him, making it clear that she may never get another offer, and attempting to make her regret her decision by showing her how happy he thinks his marriage to Charlotte is.
Clergymen in the eighteenth century and the Regency had less Parish duties to fulfill than they do now. Mr.Collins, in spite of his laziness - he attaches more importance to the collecting of tithes than to writing sermons -fulfills his duties to the letter. Stupid and ill-bred, this mercenary man is forever concerned about how much things cost, and counting his money.
Mr.Grant in Mansfield Park is similar. Although brighter than Mr.Collins and more happily married, he is also lazy as Mary Crawford points out. His main concern is eating well, and he in fact kills himself by over-eating. It is clergyman like these that makes Mary so condescending towards the profession. She complains that the clergy is not distinguished or fashionable, wanting Edmund to enter the Navy or the Law.
However, as Jane Austen makes clear, the clergy is the profession perfectly suited to Edmund, the only truly moral member of the Bertram family. Edmund is kind and a genuinely good person unlike his profligate, careless elder brother or his mercenary sisters. He is also well-educated, a gentleman, and likes reading, always a recommendation in a Jane Austen novel. His only fault is that he falls for the amoral Mary, blinded by her charm and liveliness, when he should love the honorable Fanny.
Go To Page: 1
