Relationships

I'm finding that I to like to concentrate on the depiction of relationships in our readings, so I'm not going to pass up this opportunity. Austen provides us with such an array of relationships that it's fairly difficult to keep track of them all. Whether it's the Jane/Elizabeth (or Bingley/Darcy) relationship, the Mr/Mrs Bennet, Collins/Charlotte, Elizabeth or Jane/Miss Bingley, or even Elizabeth's inner relationship, we are given a wide array of examples of relationships from which we might pick and choose the "proper" model. I have a bunch of questions running through my head, but here are a few as clear as I can get them out. Though clearly not the best option, is the optimism in the Collins' marriage merely a naive perspective/avoidance of the obvious truth, or is it the best way to cope with an unfit marriage/inability to find a better match? Elizabeth seems to flip between correct and incorrect judgements of people, both resulting from [over]thinking about everything. Are we to see this as a "get out of your head" type of advice, or can we find a way to think the right amount about things? And so that I stop for your sake, my final question is about the friendships between Jane and Elizabeth, Bingley and Darcy, and even Elizabeth and Charlotte. Elizabeth and Charlotte's relationship seems to drift apart, while the others stay strong and provide guidance and comfort for each other. Which, then, is more important: the relationship between friends, or the relationship between lovers (by which I mean people who are interested romantically in each other, not the sexual version)? Are they one in the same? Does marriage change the importance of that relationship? Sorry, I guess that wasn't really one question.