My wife and I watched the 2005 adaption of “Pride and Prejudice” the other night, and even though I still enjoyed Collin Firth’s stuffy portrayal of Darcy from the 1995 BBC series, the chemistry and screen presence of Kiera Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen as Elizabeth and Darcy were fantastic. The movie was far more down to earth and emotional than I expected, and one of the surprises was Tom Hollander as Mr Collins. The character was still pompous, obsequious, boring and preening, but there was an air of quiet terror that Hollander brought to his role that made me stop and think twice about the Rector of Hunsford Parish.
Mr Collins is the most hated character in “Pride and Prejudice.” Ask any Austen fan – it’s ok, I’ll wait. But the question is, WHY is he so hated? Surely, he plays second fiddle to Wickham, whose long line of love affairs, gambling debts and lies are topped off by his attempted seduction of 15 year old Georgiana Darcy – and his successful seduction of 15 year old Lydia Bennett. But most can’t help but fall for a handsome, charismatic, charming villain such as Wickham.
Mr Collins, as awkward and boring as he is, is still despised, even though he tries to patch up his family’s relationship with Mr Bennett, attempts to be polite to the Bennett daughters, even offering to marry one of the girls so that the house they grew up in doesn’t slip away from them when old Mr Bennett dies. His acceptance of Elizabeth’s rejection to his marriage proposal, while a little hurt, has no real hatred or anger to it – if anything, he apologizes for forcing the situation.
The usual complaint about Collins is his attitude in the proposal – as a man who expects a beautiful, intelligent woman to love him because he knows he has a financial advantage, and can simply demand it. But let’s be honest here – isn’t that also at least slightly true of Bingley? And for what it’s worth, Mrs Bennett is as mercenary as it gets.
(Side note: if you get the chance, play the card game “Marrying Mr Darcy,” which is hilarious fun of you get into the gold-digging spirit of Mrs Bennett).
Here is where Hollander’s portrayal of Collins as a quietly nervous man intrigued me. This Collins seemed to be suffering from a life-long Imposter Syndrome, a minor noble who has suddenly gotten a job with the heavyweights of the English gentry and has no idea what to do next. I did some reading into this character’s backstory – the son of an illiterate man, who while attending University was average at best, and appears to have fallen into his role as a Rector without any real passion to his faith. He is a man who is emotionally and intellectually stunted, and makes up for it the only way he can think of – by sucking up to those more powerful and going through the motions of his position (including a respectable marriage) with an almost doleful tenacity. He strikes me as a man who is desperate for approval, because he knows at any moment the intelligent, handsome, wealthy men and women around him could turn and ask “Why the hell are you in the same room as us?”
Now I think we’re getting to the heart of it – and, as always, Good Writing Matters. Austen created a truly timeless story, and part of it rests on a hero who is taciturn, uncaring of other’s feelings, yet commands the room with his presence. Darcy is everything Collins is not, and the plot needs Collins to be this verbose, clinging twerp to make our hero seem mature, to have gravitas when otherwise he might seem cold. Most importantly, Darcy is driven by deep emotions, which only come out at the right plot moment, while Mr Collins is merely a hollow shell trying hide behind a constant stream of compliments.
At the end of the day, we don’t hate Mr Collins because he is a villain. We hate him because he’s not Darcy.
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