Is Collins a nightmare or funny?

 D.W. Harding presents his views toward writer Jane Austen. At the time Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice she includes satire in her novel because judgments were taken very seriously and Austen, being a woman, had to be cautious of how the ideas she portrayed and the characters she created because one could have said that she was too radical. Harding, however, appears to be quite harsh in his analysis of Austen and seems to discredit the presence of satire in Pride and Prejudice. Harding asserts that Austen brings, “ caricatures into direct contact with the real people” (298) and he feels like she makes it blatantly obvious. Mr. Collins then becomes a topic for discussion. Harding seems to argue that Austen, in an attempt to appease herself, portrays characters in an overly dramatic way, like with Mr. Collins in order to create character’s to laugh at and to make obvious the satire behind obnoxious characters like Mr. Collins. However, here is where I would have to disagree with Harding’s degradation of Mr. Collins a character in Pride and Prejudice and his dismal of the presence of satire. Harding says that Mr. Collins is not as funny as he may seem and that Austen is rather inadequate in portraying him as a character that reveals satire because she displays his character so plainly that she presents an amateur approach to satire. I would have to say that Harding has it wrong; I feel like Austen had a deeper meaning in all of Mr. Collins’ funniness and obnoxiousness. I fee like Austen was trying to convey a real world aspect within Mr. Collins aside form his tiresome nature in which sophisticated individuals would be able to associate with. Moreover in my opinion Harding presents himself as the amateur in that he only sees above the surface and fails to dig deeper to connect with Austen’s overall portrayal of Mr. Collins. Deeper down I see that what Austen portrays is much more profound than Harding suggests.