Bella Makes a Choice - University of Lynchburg
Charlotte Makes a Choice
Introduction: It’s often said that Charlotte Lucas had “no choice” but to marry Mr. Collins. After all, Charlotte, a sensible and intelligent woman, was not young, pretty or rich. It may be because she is so sensible and intelligent that she agrees to marry a man who is neither. Did Charlotte make the right decision in marrying Mr. Collins? Why did she make the decision? What was she giving up? What was she getting in return? Would you have made the same decision?
Time Allocation: 30-35 minutes
Materials:
• Visual #1 –Charlotte Makes a Choice
• Visual #2 –Charlotte Makes a Choice
• Activity Sheet- Decision Making Grid
• Writing tools
• Copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for student reference
Objectives:
• Students will be introduced to a decision making grid and the procedure required to use it effectively as a tool in choice making.
• The students will discuss the choices made by a fictional character.
Virginia Standards of Learning- Social Studies
3.9 The student will identify examples of making an economic choice and will explain the idea of opportunity cost (what is given up when making a choice).
CE.11(a)The student will demonstrate knowledge of how economic decisions are made in the marketplace by applying the concepts of scarcity, resources, choice, opportunity cost, price, incentives, supply and demand, production, and consumption.
Economic Concepts
• Choice - takes place whenever someone makes a personal decision to use limited resources.
• Opportunity cost – that which is given up when a choice is made. When deciding how to spend a resource it is one’s second best alternative; the alternative given up.
• Scarcity – the condition of limited resources. Because resources are limited, people must make choices.
• Cost/benefit analysis – takes place whenever the cost is weighed in regards to the benefit received.
Procedure:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that people make choices all the time. When a decision is made people choose the alternative that seems to be in their best interest because it involves the least cost and the greatest benefit.
2. Ask the students if anyone is familiar with the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Hopefully, at least half the class will have either read the book or seen the movie. If not, there will be a scarcity of students who have enough background knowledge to help complete the decision making grid.
3. Tell the students that some of the main themes of Pride and Prejudice include love, marriage, wealth, and social connections. It is the characters’ desire for better social connections that interfere with love and marriage. Jane Austen also addresses the idea that the women in this era belong purely to a domestic sphere by demonstrating that they continually appraise their suitors on economic, business-like grounds.
4. Share with the students that from our 21st century perspective, the concerns of Pride and Prejudice may seem silly. Why is it important that a woman gets married? However, in the 19th century marriage was the only option for respectable young women. She could only move from her parents’ house to her husbands. There was no living on her own, no career, and once married, no divorce. Marriage was the most important decision in a woman’s life.
5. Display Visual #1. Review the provided background information about Charlotte Lucas with the students.
6. Display Visual # 2. Fill in the grid using suggestions from the students. Encourage discussion as there can be different interpretations as to if an action is negative or positive.
7. Possible solution for the visual:
|Criteria |Having a home |Not being a burden to |As a married woman she |Being able to pursue |Total |
|(What’s important to |of her own |her parents |would have a higher |own | |
|Charlotte?) | | |social standing |interests | |
|Alternatives | | | | | |
|(Choices) | | | | | |
|Reject Mr. Collins and |0 |0 |0 |+1 |+1 |
|hope to meet someone else | | | | | |
|to marry | | | | | |
|Reject Mr. Collins and |-1 |-1 |-1 |+1 |-2 |
|remain unmarried with no | | | | | |
|home or income. | | | | | |
|Reject Mr. Collins and try|-1 |+1 |-1 |-1 |-2 |
|to get a job as a | | | | | |
|governess or lady’s | | | | | |
|companion | | | | | |
8. Discuss the outcome of the grid. Did Charlotte make the right decision in marrying Mr. Collins?
9. Tell the students they will now create a decision making grid of their own. They are to use the concept of choosing a wife or husband. They are to use fictional characters. Some examples include: Jane Bennet/Charles Bingley, Lydia Bennet/George Wickham (Pride and Prejudice), Jane Eyre/Edward Rochester, Jane Eyre/St. John Rivers, Blanche Ingram/Edward Rochester (Jane Eyre), Melanie Hamilton/George Ashley Wilks, Scarlet O’Hara/Rhett Butler (Gone With the Wind), Elinor Dashwood/Edward Ferrars, Marianne Dashwood/Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility).
10. Distribute the activity sheets and writing tools. Students may work in pairs or small groups
11. Inform the students to select a fictional couple and write the problem one of them may be having concerning a possible marriage. They are then to fill out the grid listing the criteria they may have concerning the marriage and the alternatives available to them. They are then the complete the grid by placing values in each of the boxes.
12. Encourage students to discuss their decision making grids with the class.
Visual #1
Charlotte Makes a Choice
Charlotte Lucas is Elizabeth Bennet's best friend. She is a "sensible, intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven.” This is not a good thing because a single woman past twenty-five who is neither pretty nor rich is likely to become a spinster, dependent on others for her well-being.
Charlotte’s response to Elizabeth’s reaction upon learning of her engagement to Mr. Collins:
“When you have had time to think it over, I hope you will be satisfied with what I have done. I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.”
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
[pic]
William Collins is Elizabeth Bennet’s cousin and heir to the Bennet estate. He is a clergyman whose parish is in the estate of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. He is conceited, snobbish, and lacks common sense.
Visual #2
Decision Making Grid
Charlotte Makes a Choice
(What is the problem? (Rank the criteria.
(What are the alternatives? (Evaluate the alternatives.
(What are the criteria? (Make a decision.
|What is the problem? |Should sensible Charlotte Lucas marry silly Mr. Collins? She is twenty-seven and neither rich or |
| |pretty and is concerned about her future well-being. |
|Criteria |Having a home |Not being a burden to |As a married woman she |Being able to pursue |Total |
|(What’s important to |of her own |her parents |would higher social |own | |
|Charlotte?) | | |standing |interests | |
|Alternatives | | | | | |
|(Choices) | | | | | |
|Reject Mr. Collins and | | | | | |
|hope to meet someone else | | | | | |
|to marry | | | | | |
|Reject Mr. Collins and | | | | | |
|remain unmarried with no | | | | | |
|home or income. | | | | | |
|Reject Mr. Collins and try| | | | | |
|to get a job as a | | | | | |
|governess or lady’s | | | | | |
|companion | | | | | |
Directions: Fill in each square with +1 if the answer to the alternative is yes,-1 if the answer is no, and O is it is neutral. For example, if you think it would be to Charlotte’s benefit to marry Mr. Collins and have a home of her own put a +1 in the first space on the grid. If you think it would not be beneficial, put a -1. And if it does not matter one way or another, put in a zero. Complete the grid. Total your score and be prepared to discuss your choices.
Decision Making Grid
Fictional Characters Make a Decision
(What is the problem? (Rank the criteria.
(What are the alternatives? (Evaluate the alternatives.
(What are the criteria? (Make a decision.
|What is the problem? | |
| | |
| | |
|Criteria | | | |Total |
|(What’s important to the | | | | |
|character?) | | | | |
|Alternatives | | | | |
|(Choices) | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
Directions:
Fill in each square with +1 if the answer to the alternative is yes,-1 if the answer is no, and O is it is neutral. Total your score and be prepared to discuss your choices.
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