Chapter 19 Practice Quiz — Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 19
What does Mr. Collins request from Mrs. Bennet at the beginning of Chapter 19?
A private audience with Elizabeth, asking for Mrs. Bennet's "interest" with her "fair daughter" to secure the meeting.
How does Elizabeth react when she realizes Mr. Collins intends to propose?
She blushes with surprise, begs her mother not to leave, and tries to escape the room. When forced to stay, she sits down and tries to conceal feelings "divided between distress and diversion."
What are Mr. Collins's three stated reasons for wanting to marry?
First, that a clergyman should set the example of matrimony; second, that marriage will add to his happiness; third, that Lady Catherine de Bourgh has specifically advised him to marry.
What specific advice did Lady Catherine give Collins about choosing a wife?
"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."
Why did Collins choose to seek a wife among the Bennet daughters specifically?
Because he is set to inherit Longbourn after Mr. Bennet's death through the entail, he wanted to marry one of the daughters so "the loss to them might be as little as possible."
What does Collins say about Elizabeth's financial prospects in his proposal?
He says he is "perfectly indifferent" to fortune and will make no demands, since her portion is only one thousand pounds in the four per cents, available only after her mother's death. He promises "no ungenerous reproach" about it.
What is Elizabeth's initial response to the proposal?
She thanks him for the compliment but says it is "impossible for me to do otherwise than to decline" his proposals.
How does Collins interpret Elizabeth's refusal?
He believes it is "usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept" and says he is "by no means discouraged."
What does Elizabeth say about Lady Catherine's likely opinion of her?
She says that if Lady Catherine knew her, "she would find me in every respect ill qualified for the situation," attempting to use Collins's own reverence for Lady Catherine against him.
What tactless argument does Collins use to convince Elizabeth she cannot refuse him?
He tells her that "in spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you" because her portion is "unhappily so small."
How does Elizabeth describe herself in her final appeal to Collins?
She asks him not to consider her "an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart."
What is Collins's response to Elizabeth's final, most direct refusal?
"You are uniformly charming!" He says he is persuaded that when sanctioned by both her parents, his proposals "will not fail of being acceptable."
What does the idea of Collins "being run away with by his feelings" cause Elizabeth to do?
It makes her so near laughing that she cannot use the pause to stop him from continuing his speech.
What does Elizabeth resolve to do if Collins continues to treat her refusal as encouragement?
She resolves to apply to her father, "whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be decisive."
What comic irony underlies Collins's entire proposal?
He claims to speak of the "violence of his affection" while delivering a speech that is entirely about practical considerations -- Lady Catherine's advice, the entail, Elizabeth's lack of fortune -- with no genuine feeling at all.
What does Collins mean by "the established custom of your sex"?
He believes it is a fixed rule that women always refuse a proposal at first, even when they intend to accept, as part of feminine "delicacy" and coquetry.