Is Charlotte Lucas a Good Friend?

What to make of Pride and Prejudice's most contested character?

Claudie Blakley as Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice (2005)

For this month’s Pride and Prejudice character analysis, I’ve picked Charlotte Lucas, the character readers (myself included) tend to feel the most ambivalent about. I can think of few fictional characters about whom I’ve changed my mind as often as Charlotte. I disliked her when I first read Austen’s novel aged fourteen, I appreciated her once I grew older. Now, having entered the year in which I will turn 27, Charlotte’s age at the beginning of the novel, I once again have conflicting feelings about her. So, this post will be less about giving you my thesis as to why Charlotte is or is not a virtuous person, and more of an open-ended conversation. I’d value your opinions in the comments especially in this case!

I will start with the question that most readers of P&P seem to end up asking themselves: is Charlotte Lucas a good friend to Elizabeth Bennet? She certainly is capable of offering wise - if somewhat cynical - advice. She is the one who points out to Elizabeth that Jane’s shyness may prevent Mr. Bingley from realising her affection for him, advising that Jane should show ‘more affection’ even than she feels. She’s also highly observant, being the first character to notice that Mr. Darcy is paying particular attention to Elizabeth. She doesn’t stand in the way of Elizabeth’s happiness in any way; if Elizabeth had wanted to marry Mr. Collins (a ridiculous scenario, I know, but let’s consider it for the sake of this argument), Charlotte would never have dissuaded her for the sake of marrying Mr. Collins herself.

But then, why are so many of us under the impression that Charlotte is somehow a ‘bad’ friend, or that she betrays Elizabeth? I think this perception chiefly comes from the fact that, when reading P&P, we experience the other characters’ actions from Elizabeth’s point of view. Elizabeth certainly feels betrayed by Charlotte’s decision to marry Mr. Collins, but it’s not because Charlotte is depriving her of something. Rather, Elizabeth seems to think that Charlotte is acting in an unvirtuous way. Her feelings of betrayal come not from personal injury, but from the painful realisation that, to borrow a phrase from Anne of Green Gables, perhaps Charlotte is not as much of a ‘kindred spirit’ as Elizabeth had previously thought. This, in turn, stems from competing understandings of what a ‘good’ marriage is. When Elizabeth first hears the news, she is in utter shock. Charlotte explains to her, ‘I am not romantic, you know. I never was’, but Elizabeth can’t accept this.

[Elizabeth] had always felt that Charlotte’s opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own; but she could not have supposed it possible that, when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte, the wife of Mr. Collins, was a most humiliating picture! And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself, and sunk in her esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen.

Charlotte’s view of marriage is primarily based on convenience, sharing of resources, and the common good. She need a home - Mr. Collins is willing to give her one. She is a financial ‘burden’ to her parents - marrying will benefit both herself and her family. She and Mr. Collins both desire marriage and children - it is therefore sensible for them to build a home together. The other extreme of this would be Marianne Dashwood’s view of marriage for most of Sense & Sensibility. Marianne, unlike Charlotte, is definitely ‘romantic’. She believes that passionate affection is enough to build a life with Mr. Willoughby, learning the hard way that, if a man lacks virtue, marriage will prove either impossible, or unadvisable. As you will know if you’ve read S&S, Willoughby ends up abandoning Marianne for the much richer Miss Grey.

Elizabeth’s view of marriage is somewhat in-between. On the one hand, she has a more passionate side, telling her sister Jane that, ‘only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony’. She rejects Mr. Collins because she cannot love or respect him, even though she is well aware that she may never receive another proposal, and may end up a spinster, losing wealth and social status once her father has died and Longbourne has been inherited by Mr. Collins. But Elizabeth is in some ways also practical, like Charlotte. Although she likes Mr. Wickham, she doesn’t let her feelings rule her behaviour. She doesn’t fall head over heels in love with Wickham like Marianne does with Willoughby. She keeps her heart guarded. As a result, she is not as hurt as Marianne is when she finds out that Wickham is not the man she hoped he was.

The 1995 BBC adaptation of P&P ends with a double wedding scene between Jane & Bingley and Elizabeth & Darcy that includes a section from the Book of Common Prayer’s wedding marriage service, in which the priest lists the reasons why ‘matrimony’ was ordained as an institution by God. The first reason is ‘the procreation of children’; the second is as ‘a remedy against sin’; the third, ‘for the mutual society, help, and comfort’ of the spouses. While Charlotte Lucas, superficially, understands and practices all three in her marriage to Mr. Collins, she is hindered in the third reason by her lack of deep love and respect for her husband. On the other hand, for someone like Marianne, the enjoyment of ‘mutual society’ is enough, and she doesn’t think about reasons one and two. Elizabeth’s view of marriage is the most in keeping with the Book of Common Prayer (the prayer book used by Anglicans during Austen’s times as well as now), because it is the only one that considers both the practicalities of marrying someone who will be reliable and committed to raising a family, and the importance of marrying someone with whom she can enjoy ‘mutual society, help, and comfort’. In Mr. Darcy, she finds an honourable man, willing to share his resources with her, but also an intellectual equal, someone with whom she can enjoy companionship. Mr. Darcy’s own understanding of marriage also comes to resemble Elizabeth, as he cites both ‘love’ and ‘admiration’ as his chief reasons for proposing.

It’s therefore no surprise if Elizabeth feels disappointed that Charlotte has decided to marry Mr. Collins. But does this make her a bad friend? My instinct would be to say no. Charlotte’s friendship to Elizabeth is unwavering. And yet, because Elizabeth’s definition of a virtuous marriage differs from Charlotte’s, it does mean that Elizabeth never quite admires her friend in the same way. From Elizabeth’s point of view, marrying Mr. Collins for stability and the benefit of having her own home - while an understandably attractive prospect - is a failure of courage on Charlotte’s part. While Elizabeth is willing to risk remaining unmarried and sinking into the kind of ‘genteel poverty’ that Miss Bates experiences in Emma, Charlotte is not, and Elizabeth never quite forgives her for that.

So, Charlotte has many qualities, but we could say that she fails to practice the virtue of courage. Is this a fair judgement? Perhaps if we faced the same prospects, we would act just like Charlotte. This, for me, remains a moral conundrum. I like and sympathise with Charlotte, but even so, there is part of me that resists her decision to marry a man she does not respect. What are your thoughts? Am I being fair or harsh on Charlotte?