Only let me assure you, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that I can from my heart most cordially wish you equal felicity in marriage. My dear Charlotte and I have but one mind and one way of thinking. There is in everything a most remarkable resemblance of character and ideas between us. We seem to have been designed for each other.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 38. Mr. Collins’s bizarre and blatently untrue statement to Elizabeth when she visits his house is a wonderful example of Austen’s use of irony. After proposing to Elizabeth and being instantly rejected, Mr. Collins proposes to her close friend Charlotte Lucas, who decides to marry him out purely for a stable income and home of her own.