nat's blog

THE SNOW in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.

I imagine a young Lizzie watching Charlotte get dressed in fancy dresses and do her hair and go to balls and having such love for her as to imagine she must be a catch for any of the boys!! And to be so excited to hear all the second-hand gossip and the drama and think Charlotte’s prospects should always work out if she wants them to! And any time a match doesn’t work out for Charlotte, she wants to hide her own pain or embarrassment, or she doesn’t want to stop Lizzie being excited to enter society, so she tells Lizzie they weren’t in love or he was vain, and she’s still searching for the right guy.

And Lizzie loves her so much she couldn’t possibly think there’s more than what Charlotte’s telling her, and by the time she’s joined her in being out, Lizzie just believes Charlotte’s put herself above these options and she’s still waiting for someone new, and better, and why not? She deserves it. Lizzie’s not blind to how people speak of Charlotte in society, but it’s because they’re rude, or pompous, or perhaps it’s a coping mechanism from the time Charlotte rejected them, and she cannot for a minute believe it’s been what anyone halfway decent has always thought of her.

Then when Charlotte picks Mr. Collins, it makes absolutely no sense! He isn’t any better than some of the options that have always been around, and hasn’t Charlotte been the one to place herself above those boys? Haven’t they always been after her for her charming personality and quick mind? Hasn’t she been able to choose any of them at any point but has decided not to?