Potentially, but it is much simpler to say that that he is simply a person with X Y Z tendencies, behaviours, background etc. than try profile the fictional character and box them up, unnecessarily.

It serves no purpose and adds another potential caricature to the list of portrayals of people on the autism spectrum.

The guy is presented as a snobbish creep in both the film and the BBC series.

Everytime I read “Pride and Prejudice” I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

• Mark Twain

It's a favored quote

I always considered him very insecure with a need to impress those in a higher social order.

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I think he’s just supposed to come off as pompous, obsequious, and a little bit silly.

Perhaps… But I think Jane’s intention was to make him a satire of multiple things, like arrogance and the desire to prove how high in society he is, not as a representative of an autistic person.

He’s an ambulatory statement on how ridiculous people look when they become too obsessed with relative social hierarchies and correct social behavior.

Sometimes it's fun to speculate beyond what an author's conscious intent may be but his characteristics are simply that of a socially inept individual. For the story, that's enough. I don't think it adds anything to connect his behavior with that of an autistic person.

I re-read this a few weeks ago. To me, he comes off as a man desperate to check all of the right boxes and earn success as best he can within the confines of his station. FWIW, he accurately identified the person in his life with real power, and categorized others accordingly.

So no, I wouldn't call him autistic.

I think this is it. Jane intended for him to be commentary on a certain type of person. He's not really meant to be sympathetic or even fully-fleshed out. He's a stand-in for a type...I think if Mr Collins weren't so clearly meant to be striving for money and position in society, things like practicing a compliment could be read differently. But as is, I think he's just simply meant to be a man reaching for a grandeur his position and personality do not allow for.

As a person with autism, I don't really know why people who don't have autism are so interested in labeling characters as autistic. Especially as it is almost always villains or characters who get held up for mockery that get labeled as autistic. Rarely someone admirable or good.

And all the traits that you are associating with autism and Mr. Collins are negative.

Some of us on the autistic spectrum can pick up on social cues to varying degrees. Some people who are not on the autistic spectrum are also terrible at picking up social cues. Especially the arrogant male which is what Mr. Collins came off to me as. A pompous and arrogant male.

Some autistic people will practice compliments and other set phrases to try to be polite and better blend into society. Some other people will practice compliments and set phrases because they are ambitious and want to be seen as charming or to get ahead in society. Autistic people like myself are usually just trying to avoid getting mocked for everything we do.

Some autistic people would do well in a university setting. Some wouldn't. Same as people who are not autistic.

Autistic people can make friends and connections.

Autistic people may develop special interests. Those special interests are more likely to involve inanimate objects (trains are a common one, especially with males) or matters of academic/intellectual interest. It is rare for an autistic person to be obsessed with someone who is super rich just because they are super rich as we are rarely that shallow. Also it's kind of insulting to associate our special interests with something you describe as "absurd."

The only character in Austen who displays what I consider ASD traits is Anne Steele from Sense & Sensibility. While many characters can't read a room, Anne tries several times to do things that are grossly rude, she has strange obsessions (the costs of Marianne's clothes and washing) and she never understands when people are lying. I'm no psychologist, but I do have a master's in cognitive neuroscience, so this isn't a complete layman's perspective.

Mr. Collins is just full of himself. He was also super lucky to get a living from Lady Catherine (livings could be sold for three times their yearly income) and is probably trying to flatter his way into another living (he could hold more than one).

Also, he is right, realistically, that Elizabeth cannot expect a better offer than his.

I think you're trying to be kind to him, to see some redeeming feature. I'm afraid the author didn't have the same sympathy. I think he has more in common with an incel.

Spoiler.

I think he's drawn as selfish and when it comesto wanting to marry Elizabeth, more than a little entitled. It's a sign of Elizabeth's strength that she is able to say no, and you could say that, for her day and age she was spoilt by her father accepting her refusal and thus throwing away their home . It has to come across how desperate Charlotte had to be to choose him.

No, just a paradoxical mix of arrogance and servility.

I don't associate arrogance + toadyism with autism, no. Yikes, no.

THIS is such an underrated comment. OP, idk why you think autism makes shitty and awkward people..

Thank you!