Does Elizabeth in Austen's Pride and Prejudice choose rationally in her refusal to marry Mr. Collins?

The answer to whether Elizabeth made a rational decision
in refusing Mr. Collins in Austen's Pride and Prejudice all depends
upon from whose perspective you are asking. From Mrs. Bennet's perspective, Elizabeth's
decision was not a rational one. Though she is rightly criticized for her foolish
behavior, Mrs. Bennet does express some sound reasoning of her own, which is confirmed
by Charlotte Lucas's choice and her explanation to
Elizabeth.

Mrs. Bennet is anxious her daughters to marry,
and marry well, because she rightly holds that a young woman without wealth of her own
has no hope for a home of her own, other than her father's home, unless she marries; and
she can have no hope for social privilege or the independence of a comfortable life
unless she marries a man of wealth. These are precisely the reasons that level-headed,
unromantic Charlotte chose to marry Collins herself:

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marriage had always been [Charlotte's]  object;
it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and ... must
be their pleasantest preservative from want.
"I ask only a comfortable home;
and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, and situation in life, I am
convinced that my chance of happiness with him
...."

From Elizabeth's
perspective--which was shared by Jane--Elizabeth's decision was absolutely rational. For
Elizabeth, marriage was inseparable from respect, esteem, amiability, and love. To even
think of marrying without these, especially without love, was impossible. After hearing
of Charlotte's loveless engagement ("Mr. Collins ... was neither sensible nor agreeable;
his society was irksome, and his attachment ... must be imaginary."), Elizabeth could
only understand it in the most mercenary terms, those of sacrificing love for material
gain:

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[Elizabeth] had not supposed it to be possible
that, when called into action, [Charlotte] would have sacrificed every better feeling to
worldly advantage. ... it [must be] impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy
....

Mr. Collins was not only
unloved, he was, in Elizabeth's eyes, impossible to love and, worse yet, impossible to
esteem and respect because he was not a sensible or wise person--he was as foolish as
Mrs. Bennet--and had no great beauty to make up for it! For Elizabeth, it was completely
rational to choose to refuse Mr. Collins's offer of marriage, indeed, it would have
impossible to do otherwise. Jane understood this as completely as Elizabeth failed to
understand Charlotte's choice to marry him.