Themes in the novel Mansfield Park , The novel Mansfield Park considered the author's most ambitious novel, was published anonymously, as were all of Jane Austen's novels, in 1814. While Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice are considered, as one critic remarks "the gay offsprings of her youth," Mansfield Park is a far more mature, darker novel, written by a woman who had by then experienced more of the world. As Adolphus Alfred Jack remarked in his 1897 Essay on the Novel, Mansfield Park is "more finished," "more subtle," and "quieter than her earlier works." As Austen grew older, he continues, "her powers grew and deepened...while Pride and Prejudice is gay, Mansfield Park is sombre." Themes in the novel Mansfield Park Indeed, it is of interest to note that it is Mary Crawford - witty, active, and unable to stand still - who is cast in the mold of other Austen heroines such as the effervescent Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and the silly, meddling Emma Woodhouse in Emma, while it is the weak, mild-mannered, motionless, often ill Fanny Price who remains the novel's central character...and a highly likeable one at that. Unlike the other heroines, who have a myriad of lessons to learn, Fanny possesses the innate sensibility expected of a Regency lady of this era.
Themes in the novel Mansfield Park
These
traditional values were of particular importance when the novel was written, in
the aftermath of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and amid the
tumultuous beginnings of industrialism, which drained the farm workers from the
countryside and enticed them toward the overcrowded city of London. Themes in
the novel Mansfield Park In this regard,
the novel can be viewed as an expression of a political agenda: traditional
values are represented by the bucolic country estate, Mansfield Park, while the
young characters, Fanny Price withstanding, are seduced by the invading evil
influences that are represented by the bustling city of London. After all,
Fanny Price, unlike most of Austen's other heroines, never does go to London,
and all of the characters who do travel to the city are "infected" by
a loosening of their better judgments and morals. As literary critic Amanda
Claybaugh insists on her introduction to the novel, "Mansfield Park stands
as Austen's most profound treatment of politics, her richest response to the
wars and revolutions of the times." Simply put, Austen was an artist who
utilized her art to effect social change.
According to
William Dean Howells in his 1895 My Literary Passions, "Austen is the most
artistic of the British novelists." In his estimation, "she was the
first and last British novelist to treat material with entire
truthfulness," and it remains of some interest to note how critics and
scholars have viewed the novel. Avrom Fleishman's study of the novel, for example,
suggests that "the structure of that part of the plot which has to do with
Sir Thomas Bertram's choice of a new daughter" resembles King Lear's
attempt to choose "one daughter among three." And indeed, near the
end, Fanny seems much like Sir Bertram's third daughter, "the daughter
that he wanted." Furthermore, Sir Thomas is the very picture of the
traditional patriarch who treats Fanny like a daughter, especially when he
punishes her by sending her to Portsmouth to make her come to her senses and
accept Henry's proposal of marriage. Another critic, David Kaufmann, insists
that Austen cleverly drew a parallel between the novel's original three
sisters: Lady Bertram, who married exceptionally well and moved up socially,
Mrs. Norris, who married a pastor and remained on her original rung of the
social ladder, and Mrs. Price, who married a lowly, drunken sailor. To achieve
symmetry, the novel needed three daughters: Maria, who more or less remains on
the same social level until she disgraces herself and her entire family by
(despite her marriage to Mr. Rushworth) running away with Henry Crawford,
Julia, who marries down by eloping with the stage manager and friend of her
brother Tom, Mr. Yates, and Fanny, the pseudo-daughter who marries up when she
becomes the wife of Edmund Bertram. Fanny, at this point, becomes a fully
realized family member, standing next in line to be lady of the country estate.
Social Mobility
Scholars
suggest that social mobility is that the primary theme altogether of Austen's
novels; this concept seems especially apparent in Mansfield Park. The opening
chapter, during which the three Ward sisters marry men of very different social
categories (high, middle and low), fixes this construct because the novel's
primary theme. Maria Ward moves above her designated social status by marrying
the baronet, Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park; the center sister, Mrs.
Norris, marries at a more socially appropriate (middle) station; the youngest
sister marries a standard sailor, Mr. Price, who will in time become an
unemployed drunkard. Austen utilizes this triad for instance that prime morals
don't necessarily accompany high social standing, which people born into lower
social ranks should tend the chance to maneuver up through their moral
behavior.
Lady Bertram has four children with the baronet, but her oldest son, Tom Bertram, moves to London, where he finds himself corrupted by city life. A gambler, he drinks to excess and causes his father such a lot financial hardship that he's forced to travel to Antigua to oversee his financial investments within the island's plantations. Lady Bertram's daughters are spoiled, selfish, and act immorally, the married Maria going thus far on run away with Henry Crawford. Her youngest son Edmund, although a minister, is so distracted by his concupiscence for Mary Crawford that he forgets his upbringing and his own moral imperative of impeccable social behavior. Thankfully, Mrs. Norris has no children, but she is implicated within the fate of the Bertram children because she had great influence over them once they were young.
It is Fanny
Price, one among the nine children fathered by the drunken sailor, who proves
to be the character within the novel with the very best moral standards. From
early within the novel, Fanny is portrayed as shy, retiring, and helpful to all
or any . Patient to a fault, she never complains, has the power to ascertain
through people, and possesses an innate capability to work out right from
wrong. In time, everyone involves admire her. nobody objects to her marrying
her social superior, Henry Crawford, but Fanny refuses although she knows her
life would be far easier if she agreed. keep with Austen's theme of social
mobility for the deserving, it's hardly surprising that Fanny finishes up the
daughter-in-law of a baronet who could, in time, even come to exchange Lady
Bertram because the mistress of Mansfield Park.
The Evils of Primogeniture
The British
aristocratic social organization embraces the concept of primogeniture, the
proper of the first-born child (usually the eldest son) to inherit the parents'
entire estate. In her novels, Austen examines and criticizes this aristocratic
class system. Since the privileged oldest son inherited the whole estate under
primogeniture, the younger sons were forced to "do something" for
themselves, and typically enlisted within the army or the navy, or sought
careers within the law or the clergy. Girls were viewed as financial assets
once they "married to advantage," and as heiresses only that they had
no brothers. because the oldest Bertram, the profligate Tom Bertram, who drinks
and gambles an excessive amount of in London, will become subsequent Sir
Thomas, while his younger brother Edmund is slated for the clergy. nobody ever
considers the likelihood that Tom won't inherit the estate, despite the very
fact that his unconscionable behavior causes the family great financial
hardship and necessitates his father's trip to Antigua to oversee his financial
investments within the Island's plantations. Clearly, Edmund would make a far
better baronet and lord of the manor, but there's nothing he can do but wish
for his brother's death - something the upright Edmund would never dream of
doing, although the highly doubtful Mary Crawford wishes this afterward within
the novel. Daughters are expected to marry within (or, ideally, above) their
own social strata, and Maria Bertram scores high social points during this
regard for marrying the insipid and boring Mr. Rushworth, one among the richest
men within the county.
Austen uses
the character of Tom Bertram to bring the inherent problems of the
primogeniture system to light. Sir Thomas's forced departure to manage his
investments leaves his children with none real supervision and ultimately leads
to grievous events that deeply affect his daughters' lives. Also, as a results
of Tom's profligacy, Sir Thomas cannot afford to carry the parsonage position
for Edmund, who isn't yet an ordained minister. Instead, he's forced out of
monetary necessity to let the position attend Dr. Grant, an action which allows
for the introduction of Mrs. Grant's younger siblings, the highly immoral Mary
Crawford and Henry Crawford, who in time come to "infect" Mansfield.
Edmund must remove himself from Mansfield to require a lesser job at a poorer
parsonage. Clearly, the incorrect brother has the facility , while the more
deserving Edmund is helpless to try to to anything about it. Edmund's only other
options are to hitch the Navy as a politician or to enter the legal or medical
community - jobs that Edmund would hardly find suitable or rewarding.
Town and Country
Although everything changes at the bucolic Mansfield Park after Henry and Mary Crawford arrive from London, the meeting between the Country Bertrams and therefore the Town Crawfords is way quite a plot device intended to accentuate the novel's action. Indeed, the introduction of the new arrivals demonstrates the continued tension between modernity and traditional values. for instance , Mary demonstrates how out of touch she is with the agricultural need of the farmers to reap the hay by selfishly insisting upon obtaining a wagon merely to move her harp. Time is of the essence, and every one vehicles are necessary for this vital project. She believes that given enough money she will have her way, but fails to understand that if the hay isn't brought in while the weather is true , people won't eat for the whole winter. Edmund, like Fanny, is postpone by her selfish attitude, but his better judgment is discard by his sexual attraction to the stunning lady.
Furthermore,
although Mary's brother Henry is heir to a rustic estate, he's continually
absent. Henry would are abhorred by early nineteenth-century readers as an
absentee landlord who spends the proceeds from his farm estates to measure the
high lifetime of fun and frolic while his tenants and property are neglected.
Henry is thus also unaware of the requirements of rural life.
Rags to Riches
In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price is transformed from a poor, bedraggled nine-year-old to the "daughter" of Mansfield Park and therefore the wife of the Mansfield "prince," Edmund Bertram. Simply put, Mansfield Park is that the classic Cinderella tale revisited. Fanny arrives at Mansfield as a disheveled, impoverished relation, and is formed to feel unwelcome by her cousins (with the exception of Edmund). Although she doesn't need to literally clean out the ashes from the fireside because the fairy-tale Cinderella did, Fanny nevertheless must be at the beck and call of her relatives and supply constant look after Lady Bertram. With the exception of the trip to the Sotherton estate, Fanny isn't allowed to go away , and thus might be viewed as a prisoner at Mansfield: in any case , Lady Bertram "cannot do without Fanny." Since Mrs. Norris is liable for the day-to-day running of Mansfield, she takes on the evil stepmother role, treats Fanny as a servant, and usually makes the young girl's life miserable. The Bertram girls, who represent the fairy-tale evil stepsisters, denigrate young Fanny because she doesn't have fashionable clothes and are favored by the evil Mrs. Norris thanks to their higher social station .
Unlike
Cinderella, Fanny doesn't seem to possess a fairy godmother. She must develop
her own skills to seek out her way within the world, and shortly becomes an
idealized daughter figure to Lady Bertram and Sir Thomas, whose own two
daughters fail to form sensible decisions - especially concerning men. After
Maria and Julia leave for London, Fanny attends her first ball, an affair
thrown in her honor by Sir Thomas. When she leads the dance, all eyes are cast
upon her, because everyone realizes that over time Fanny has come to seem more
and more sort of a beautiful princess. Fanny is so captivating that a prince
with a fortune and an estate, Henry Crawford, falls crazy together with her and
asks her to wed. Fanny sees through him, unlike Sir Thomas, who locks her up in
Portsmouth until she "comes to her senses" and accepts Henry's offer
of marriage. Over time, truth prince Edmund involves rescue Fanny and takes her
faraway from Portsmouth during a carriage. She returns to Mansfield together
with her lady-in-waiting, Susan, and is happily received by Sir Thomas and
woman Bertram, who have come to look at Fanny as a loyal daughter of Mansfield.
By the top of the novel, Fanny has married the young "prince",
Edmund, while the evil Maria and Julia are cast out into the dark world. Aunt
Norris leaves also , and every one left at Mansfield Park live happily every
after.
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