Hi, and welcome to another episode of Dashie Notes.
Today, we'll be talking about Mr.
Collins.
Yeah. That Mr. Collins
We're all familiar with him with his creepy wave and his penchant
for excellent boiled potatoes.
And how he's going to throw Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters out on the street.
But why?
Have you ever wondered why is Mr.
Collins going to inherit Longbourn?
Nobody even likes this guy.
Who's leaving the house to him?
That is a great question.
And we'll be answering it today for you on Dashie Notes.
My name is Ellie Dashwood and this is where we answer your modern day
questions about classic literature.
So why is Mr.
Collins going to inherit Longbourn?
Well in short, because of inheritance laws and inheritance laws can be
long and complicated, but we're just going to go over two basic terms you
need to know to be able to understand inheritance in Jane Austen novels.
First is primogenitor and second is entailment.
First primogenitor.
Also known as a why being the oldest son is awesome.
Primogenitor is the idea that the oldest son has the right to
inherit most of the estate, money, titles, pretty much everything.
Which is great if you're the oldest son.
Not so great if you're any other member of the family.
Now who originally came up with this idea?
Was it some firstborn son who really didn't like his siblings?
Well, maybe, but it really goes back to the mindset of Regency England.
And for that case, hundreds of years of English history, where it was
more about protecting the family name and legacy in the gentry,
then the individual family members.
If you wanted to make sure that your name and wealth continued on not just
for your generation, but for all the generations to come, what would you do?
Well, the first thing you would do would be fight against subdivision.
Think about this in an example, if there was a rich man and he had
five children and he subdivided his wealth to them by giving them an
equal share of his wealth, then he would have five somewhat rich kids.
Now, if those kids all have five kids and equally divided it, he would have a
bunch of not really rich at all grandkids.
And then really, really poor great-grandkids.
Over time, subdivision takes something large and makes it very small and almost
like fizzles out a landed Gentry family.
However, if a very rich man, he gives all of us well to his firstborn son
and that firstborn son gives it to his firstborn son and so on and so on for
generations, then that family stays relevant and wealthy for years to come.
Now, what about if you're any of the other children in this family?
Well, if you're a daughter, you would try to make a good match.
You'd want to marry someone who's either of your same social standing or higher.
And who would have enough money to support you.
If you're a younger son, you would go into one of the occupations that
was generally acceptable for younger sons of gentlemen to go into such
as the law, the army or the church.
There are several clergymen, younger sons and Jane Austen's works, including
Edmond Bertram in Mansfield Park and Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey.
And of course John Knightley, who's Mr.
Knightley's younger brother in Emma, is a lawyer.
Also, if you're a younger son, you definitely want to make a
good match through marriage.
And also if your older brother just happens to die and you
inherit, all the better.
Especially because the inheritance passes through the male line.
So if you're a younger son, you might also hope to maybe, you know, inherited
if your uncle dies without any sons.
You might inherit that too.
Two entailments.
While the idea of primogenitor was the tradition in England,
it wasn't legally binding.
So technically a family could do whatever they wanted with their own money and land
and give the money to whoever they liked.
Which was great for some people, but for others, it really scared them.
Because imagine you were a rich gentlemen who had acquired a lot of land and
fortune for your family, and you wanted to make sure that your family name
stayed relevant for years to come.
Well, what if you had a greatgrandson who decided to, you know, throw caution
to the wind and equally divide your fortune up among his 10 children.
And he would single handedly undo everything you just built
your whole life to accomplish.
And that's where entailments came in.
They were legally binding documents such as wills or marriage agreements that
made sure that the inheritance of an estate followed the laws of primogenitor.
Which essentially meant that it would pass along the male line and
that it could not be broken up.
So in a way it would preserve it from subdivision, but at the same time,
this could cause some family drama.
For example, the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice.
Mr.
Bennett's estate state is called Longbourn.
Years ago, one of his great, great, great grandfathers decided to put an
entailment on that estate so that no one could break it up later in that it
would have to pass through the male line.
Which is great and works fine until you get down to Elizabeth Bennet's day,
because she doesn't have any brothers.
Now, if you don't have any brothers to inherent to the
estate, what does that mean?
It means your next closest male relative is going to inherit the
estate, which in their case is Mr.
Collins.
Now, if Lizzie had a brother to inherit the estate, she wouldn't really have
to worry because it would be kind of her brother's lifelong responsibility
to provide for her sisters and herself.
However, Mr.
Collins can just throw them all out in the hedge Grove after
quickly trying to marry one of them and then failing epically at it.
Not all estates in Pride and Prejudice are entailed or Jane Austen's other works.
For example, Lady Catherine de Bourgh's daughter Anne is
set to inherit her estate.
And also in Emma, her and her sister will inherit Mr.
Woodhouse's estate.
In conclusion, why is Mr.
Collins going to inherit Longbourn?
Well, because of the legal entailment on Longbourn, based on the principles of
primogenitor that makes him next in line.
Which is kind of great for him, kind of not great for anybody else.
But at least he'll be enjoying excellent boiled potatoes there for years to come.
My name is Ellie Dashwood and this has been another episode of Dashie Notes.
I hope you've enjoyed watching this modern day question about
classic literature be answered.
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Thank you so much again.
I hope you have a great day.