Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Collins's apologies

He begs her pardon. She softens and says she is not offended at all. He goes on saying sorry anyway, for a long while.

It happens again and again. He leaves a room repeating his apologies, and is told they were not needed. At a ball he says sorry so much he forgets to dance properly.

At cards with his rich patron, he says sorry for winning too many hands.

This page reads that as the Apology Loop. The Apology Loop means saying sorry to smooth things over, often for things that are not yours.

The apologies do the opposite of what he wants. They make every room more awkward, not less.

His dance partner at the ball is Elizabeth Bennet. She is miserable the whole time, and glad when the dances end.

Readers laugh at him, and the book invites it. But the loop is sad under the joke. He never trusts that he is welcome.

The book gives him a clear moment. Mrs. Bennet says she is not offended. That is where the sorry could stop.

The body signal, a flush or a tight throat, keeps pushing the next sorry out.

Behavioral Interception is the practice of catching an automatic pattern as it begins, intercepting its usual response, and practicing a different action until it becomes more natural.

Here, catching it means hearing her answer and noticing the urge to say sorry again. The usual response is one more apology. A different action is to say thank you, and talk about something else.

Why do Mr. Collins's apologies make people like him less, not more?

Find two scenes where he apologizes. Who is he trying to please in each one?

Rewrite the dinner scene so he says sorry once, then moves on.