Mr. Collins use of Logos/Ethos/Pathos

When Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth he does a very poor job of presenting his argument. But he does indeed include all of the necessary aspects of making a good argument. Those aspects are logos/logic, ethos/credibility, and pathos/emotion.

Mr. Collins' best use of the rhetorical proofs is definitely logos. He has some very logical arguments. The first thing he says is that it is the "right thing for every clergyman to set the example of matrimony in his parish". This means that it is his duty to marry because of his job. The second aspect of logic that he uses is that he is going to inherit all estate after her father dies. He is going to get all of the family land and money when there father dies and she has sisters and her mom to provide for, so logically it makes sense to marry the guy that will receive all the money to help her family. The last logos reason he uses is that there will probably never be another offer of marriage to elizabeth. So logically she should marry while she has the chance.

The next thing Mr. Collins attempts to use is ethos or credibility. The first thing he tries to establish himself by is the recommendation of marriage by lady Catherine de Bourgh. By this almost royal person he tries to establish himself as a credible person. The next thing he uses to establish credibility is the charity card. He reminds her that her family has very little money but he lets her know that he would never bring that up once they were married. The final example of ethos is he really wants to pick a daughter in her family.  This brings credibility because he wants to help the family and he ties in the personal aspect of her family which is a credible source.

Lastly he uses pathos, this is by far the funniest of all the ways he tries to convince elizabeth to marry him. First he says "it will add greatly to my happiness". So he uses his happiness as an argument with pathos. Second he expresses "in the most animated language, of the violence of (his) affection". So he tries to emotionally appeal to her by telling her how much he cares about her. As a last resort to not lose her he compliments her and says "you are uniformly charming" so again he tries to emotionally appeal to her by complimenting her.