Pathos, Logos, Ethos in Pride and Prejudice

Rachael Kerr
AP English 11
September 29,2009

Mr. Collins marriage proposal to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice was completely wrong; his proposal contained inaccurate proportions of Pathos(emotion), Logos(logic), and Ethos (character).
Mr. Collins marriage proposal became more of an argument because of his unneeded amount of Logos. In his speech, he tried to convince Elizabeth to agree to marriage through more logistical thinking than his undying love for her. Although logic is not a bad thing, it just has no place in a marriage proposal, or at least not as the most of the words. In expressing himself, Mr. Collins made it seem as though this were a well-memorized paper, practiced in front of a mirror, not a heart-felt request: “My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman…to set the example of matrimony…Secondly, …it will add greatly to my happiness…and thirdly…it is the particular advice and recommendation of the…patroness” (Austen). In this excerpt, he sounded as though he were convincing her of a business transaction, not a ring on her finger. He imparted way too much logic for such an emotional speech like a marriage proposal, and did not consider his own or his listener’s feelings.
In addition to overrun of Logos, Mr. Collins lacked a large part of a marriage proposal, which was Pathos. In his introduction, while it was weak, Mr. Collins did seem to be going down a better path compared to the rest of his argument. However, he stopped himself, and then inserted logic which became the crux of his monologue: “But before I am run away with my feelings on this subject, perhaps it will be advisable for me to state my reasons for marrying”(Austen). Again, his diction gives off an air of business, rather than affection. This lack of any emotion in his proposal made his speech so bland, and lifeless, that if one were to remove any word that directly denoted marriage (e.g. marry, marriage, bride, the complements), the entire text would be able to be substituted for a business proposal. There are many mistakes that Mr. Collins made in his marriage proposal, but in the end, they all link to inaccurate proportions of pathos, logos, and ethos.
Mr. Collins did not create a very good idea of the kind of person he was; he attempted, when he explained he was clergyman, but nothing else described him or his feelings. To write this better, Mr. Collins would need to get in touch with his feelings more, and less in touch with his brain. In actuality, if I were to rewrite it, I would first need to remove all traces of logos; unfortunately this is the majority of his speech, which would remove most of the text(which is not as bad as it sounds because Mr. Collins is just very long-winded). Then, I would need to impart the largest amount of pathos that I can. Finally, I would need to put in some ethos every here and there because this girl doesn’t really have much of an idea of who I am. After all of that, I would come to realize that I probably would have no trace amounts of Mr. Collins original argument and that I could have just very well written a completely new proposal, but I digress.