“That is as formidable an image as you could present, Harriet; and if I thought I should ever be like Miss Bates! so silly – so satisfied – so smiling – so prosing – so undistinguishing and unfastidious – and so apt to tell every thing relative to every body about me, I would marry tomorrow. But between us, I am convinced there never can be any likeness, except in being unmarried.”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 10. When Harriet frets that Emma will end up an old maid like Miss Bates, Emma makes this scornful response. She pulls no punches as she makes clear how awful a fate this could be. Her dislike of the over-talkative and silly middle-aged spinster is so strong she says she would marry rather than become like Miss Bates.