# Collins — Getting Married character guide

> Collins in Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mrs. Bridgenorth Collins, Mr. Collins, Mr. Alderman Collins, William Collins

**First appearance:** 0054-getting-married

## Snapshot

The bishop's chaplain and veteran wedding-breakfast hand, whose easy temper has survived a lifetime of domestic management by a born wife and mother.

## Who they are

Collins has superintended so many wedding breakfasts that he can joke about the General's flight from the cake while quietly revealing his own long accommodation to a marriage that never quite came natural to him. His affectionate, rueful account of a wife who locked the doors and made the engine driver promise to be careful — and of children who ran away from home — gives the play its warmest and most ambivalent testimony. He matters because his genial fatalism shows what the marriage debate looks like from inside a real one.

## Relationships

### [Lesbia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/characters/lesbia)

_professional_

Collins and Lesbia have a servant-employer relationship, with Collins attending to Lesbia's needs.

### [Soames](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/characters/soames)

_professional_

Collins and Soames are fellow servants, working together in the household with a cooperative dynamic.

### [The Bishop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/characters/the_bishop)

_professional_

Collins and The Bishop have a servant-employer relationship, with Collins serving the household under the Bishop's authority.

## In the story

### [Preface to Getting Married](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/chapters/preface-to-getting-married)

Mentioned as a character involved in the marriage debate.

### [Hearth and Home](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/chapters/hearth-and-home)

Referenced indirectly through the critique of domestic life and the typical English paterfamilias, akin to Mr. Pecksniff.

### [Domestic Change of Air](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/chapters/domestic-change-of-air)

Implied as part of the triple household example involving intermarriages.

### [Getting Married](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/chapters/getting-married)

Offers pragmatic perspectives on marriage and society.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/characters/collins
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/getting_married_se/characters