Charlotte Lucas

Charlotte Lucas is the name of a supporting character in Jane Austen's famous novel Pride and Prejudice.

In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet meets, and dislikes, Mr Darcy, the man she ends up falling in love with, and marrying. Charlotte and her sister Jane are Elizabeth's two closest friends, even though Charlotte is seven years older than her.

Charlotte serves as a foil for Elizabeth. Elizabeth rejects the first proposal she receives, from her cousin, the Reverend William Collins. Due to a complication called an entailment, Collins will inherit her family home, when her father dies, which her mother thinks makes him a good choice of husband. But he is pompous, dim-witted, and shows ridiculous adoration for the local rich lady, whose estate his parish lies on. Elizabeth is shocked to learn that, just a few days after she rejected him, her usually intelligent and sensible friend Charlotte agrees to marry him.

Austen uses Charlotte to remind readers of the fate that awaits women who fail to find a husband, at a time when women can't compete in the job market. Charlotte points out that his proposal is really her only chance to leave home, have a home of her own, and not turn out to be a sad ongoing financial burden to her family.