Pride and Prejudice Blog 2

In the next part of Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth meets a man named Wickham. She seems to like Wickham and becomes pretty good acquaintances with him. Many people, including Jane, do not like Wickham and warn Elizabeth to stay away from him: "Mr. Wickham is by no means a respectable young man. I am afraid he has been very imprudent, and he has deserved to lose Mr. Darcy's regard." (pg. 109). Later on, Mr. Collins asks Elizabeth to marry him! It's kind of strange to me that back in this era people would get married so fast without dating much or anything, they just talk a few times and dance at balls or whatever and get married in a flash. Elizabeth tries to turn him down in the best way possible but he just doesn't seem to get the hint: "I am not now to learn 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." (pg. 122). This guy seems to be completely full of himself! He obviously thinks he is too great to be rejected by anyone and is too big-headed to realize he's not wanted. I feel bad for Elizabeth! All these strange men wanting to marry her and other guys talking bad about her and then wanting her (Mr. Darcy). Mrs. Bennet finds out that Elizabeth rejected the proposal and becomes furious. She tells Mr. Bennet and expects him to fix the problem, but Elizabeth ends up with an ultimatum: She either marries Collins and never sees her father again or does not marry Collins and never sees her mother again.
A few days later, news comes in that Mr. Collins has proposed to Elizabeth's friend Charlotte and she has accepted. Elizabeth is shocked by this: "The strangeness of Mr. Collins's making two offers of marriage within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted." (pg. 144). This line was a little funny because it's saying that Collins's ability to actually get accepted is extremely strange and surprising. Not only is all this drama going on for Elizabeth, but Jane is having some of her own. Bingley's evil sister keeps writing the Bennets letters about how her brother is going to marry Miss Darcy and how wonderful Miss Darcy is. In my opinion Miss Bingley is like the horrible, mean, popular girl in high school and it's her main mission to make the Bennet sisters miserable. I don't know why she has all this hate for the sisters besides the fact that Mr. Darcy has an interest in Lizzy, but really, who cares? She has the same opportunity as Elizabeth to get with Darcy and it's obvious he doesn't like her. Maybe if she was nicer and not all about herself Darcy would pay attention to her.
So far this book is pretty drama-filled and intense. I'm pretty eager to see what happens between Elizabeth and Wickham and if Bingley actually marries Miss Darcy, although I think this is one of those books where everything ends happily. I guess I'll have to wait and see!