|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For other uses, see Mansfield Park.
Mansfield Park is a novel by Jane Austen. It was written between 1812 and 1814 at Chawton Cottage, and published in July 1814 by the Mr. Egerton who had given to the world its two predecessors. When the novel reached a second edition, its publication was taken over by John Murray, who was also responsible for bringing out its successor, Emma. It is, perhaps, the most sombre and disturbing of Austen's works.
Plot summarySpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The main character, Fanny Price (see "Characters", below), is sent at an early age from her poor family to live with her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her four cousins, Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia, but is always treated as inferior to them; only Edmund shows her real kindness. Despite often being unhappy during her childhood, Fanny grows up with a strong sense of propriety and virtue, and remains closely attached to her brother William (possibly based on Jane Austen's brother Frank), who has begun a career in the Royal Navy. Over time, Fanny's gratitude for Edmund's kindness secretly grows into love.
The bulk of the action of the book takes place while Sir Thomas is away for two years in Antigua, dealing with problems on his plantation there. The romantic entanglements begin after the arrival of two siblings, Mr and Miss Crawford (Henry and Mary), to visit their sister Mrs Grant, who is the wife of the inhabitant of Mansfield Park parsonage. The real reason they have left, however, is that the relative they were living with, a retired Admiral, has taken a mistress into the house, which is detrimental to Mary's status as an unmarried woman. Mary Crawford and Edmund begin to form an attachment, though Edmund often worries that she displays a lack of correct manners and worryingly irreverent opinions, particularly towards his chosen vocation of clergyman. She feels that that is not a grand enough profession for him, and that clergymen are dull. She wishes he would go into a new profession, and shows a subtle desire that his older brother Tom be out of the way so that Edmund could inherit Mansfield Park. All is phrased in such a light, joking tone, that these comments of hers cannot be taken seriously, and Mary herself is so engaging and charming, particularly because she goes out of her way to befriend Fanny, that the family's overall impression of her is positive. The growing affection between Mary and Edmund grieves Fanny, who not only fears to lose him but feels that love is blinding Edmund to deep flaws in Miss Crawford's character. Mr Crawford, meanwhile, sports with the affections of both Bertram sisters, despite the fact that Maria is already engaged to the rather dull, but very rich, Mr Rushworth. While Sir Thomas is gone, the young people hatch a scheme to put on Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lovers' Vows. Plays are considered an inappropriate activity for gently born women to participate in, and Sir Thomas had explicitly forbidden it in his home, which in and of itself should have been sufficient to stifle the plan. But the production is ultimately opposed only by Fanny. In particular, the play provides a pretext for Mr. Crawford and Maria to act in ways towards each other that skirt the edges of propriety. Sir Thomas arrives in the midst of a rehearsal, to everyone's dismay and Sir Thomas' anger. The arrival of Sir Thomas causes the play to be aborted. Mr Crawford leaves, and Maria is crushed. Her marriage to Mr Rushworth goes ahead, despite the jealousy that had been engendered in him by her flirtatious behaviour with Mr Crawford, and they leave on honeymoon, taking Julia with them. In the wake of the incident of the play, Fanny's uncle notices how she has been slighted and he begins to pay more attention to her care, ensuring she is treated properly, and showing her much greater affection than previously.
Sir Thomas contrives a plan to send Fanny back to her family's shabby home for a few months, so that she might realise that a rich husband is a very useful thing to have. Her family is indeed in wretched circumstances, with a large number of children and very improper, profligate behavior. Her father is a disabled Royal Marine officer on half pay, and her mother is disorganized and overwhelmed. She does little to check the improper behavior of the children, and Fanny tries to do what she can to help her younger sister, Susan, who is ill-treated. Mr. Crawford comes to visit her there, to demonstrate that he has changed his ways and is now worthy of her affections (partly by using his influence with his Admiral relative to secure a promotion for Fanny's brother William), and this strategy begins to soften Fanny's attitude, though she is still far from accepting him. However, shortly after he leaves for London, Fanny begins to hear rumours of a scandal involving him and Maria; it shortly emerges that on resuming their acquaintance in London, Crawford and Maria began an affair that, when discovered, ends in an elopement and subsequent scandalous divorce. Because of this, an illness suffered by Tom (due to long periods of dissolute behavior involving drinking and gambling), and the elopement of Julia and Mr. Yates in the wake of Maria's affair being discovered, the situation at Mansfield Park is dire, and Fanny is recalled to be of both use and comfort to her aunt and uncle. Edmund becomes dismayed at Miss Crawford's laissez-faire attitude to Maria and her brother's improper behavior, as well as her lack of concern about Tom's illness (if he dies, Edmund becomes heir, and Mary has trouble concealing her eagerness for that to occur) and he breaks off relations with her, eventually coming to return Fanny's affections, and they marry. Austen points out that if only Crawford had persisted in his kindly treatment of Fanny, and not become entangled in an affair with Maria, she would eventually have come to love him, and they would have been happy, and Edmund and Mary would have married and been happy. Characters in "Mansfield Park"
Literary significance & criticismMansfield Park is the most controversial and perhaps the least popular of Austen's major novels. Regency critics praised the novel's wholesome morality, but many modern readers find Fanny's timidity and disapproval of the theatricals difficult to sympathise with and reject the idea (made explicit in the final chapter) that she is a better person for the relative privations of her childhood. Jane Austen's own mother thought Fanny "insipid,"[1] and many other readers have found her priggish and unlikeable.[2] Other critics point out that she is a complex personality, perceptive yet given to wishful thinking, and that she shows courage and grows in self-esteem during the latter part of the story. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin, who is generally rather critical of Fanny, argues that "it is in rejecting obedience in favour of the higher dictate of remaining true to her own conscience that Fanny rises to her moment of heroism."[3] But Tomalin reflects the ambivalence that many readers feel towards Fanny when she also writes: "More is made of Fanny Price's faith, which gives her the courage to resist what she thinks is wrong; it also makes her intolerant of sinners, whom she is ready to cast aside, just as Mr. Collins recommends that the Bennets should cast aside the sinful Lydia and Wickham."[4] The story contains much social satire, particularly at the expense of the two aunts. It is perhaps the most socially realistic Austen novel, with Fanny's family of origin, the Prices, coming from a much lower echelon of society than most Austen characters. Edward Said attempted to implicate the novel in western culture's careless attitude towards slavery. Other critics, such as Gabrielle White, have argued against Said's condemnation of Jane Austen and western culture, maintaining that Austen and other writers, including Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke, opposed slavery and helped make its eventual abolition possible. Claire Tomalin, following literary critic Brian Southam, claims that Fanny, usually so timid, questions her uncle about the slave trade and receives no answer, suggesting that her vision of the trade's immorality is clearer than his.[5] However, author Ellen Moody has challenged Southam's interpretation, arguing that Fanny's uncle would not have been "pleased" (as the text suggests) to be questioned on the subject if Southam's reading of the scene were correct.[6] Film, TV or theatrical adaptationsMansfield Park has been the subject of a number of adaptations:
TriviaIn the Harry Potter series of novels, Argus Filch is the caretaker at Hogwarts School. His prying cat (loathed by all the students) is named "Mrs Norris", for the busybody character in Mansfield Park. The value of the novel as literature was a subject of contention between the two main characters in Whit Stillman's film Metropolitan, one of the characters being devoted to the work of Jane Austen, the other having read only an essay critical of the book by Lionel Trilling. The film is also an updated retelling of Mansfield Park with New York City as the backdrop. It is widely believed that Cottesbrooke Hall and Village, Northamptonshire, famed for its exquisite architecture and home to the magnificent Woolavington Collection, is the pattern for Mansfield Park and its associated village. Footnotes
|
Sites |
Searched sites for "Mansfield Park (novel)" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
