Mansfield Park
I chose
Mansfield Park (publ. 1814) to be my first taste of Austen’s work primarily due
to the rather uncomplimentary review one discontented reader had related to me, vastly over the ‘infuriating’ and ‘unpitiable’ nature of the ‘heroine’
Fanny Price. Always one to want to challenge an opinion I was intrigued to see whether Austen’s
third novel was really so terrible and I have to say that my first glimpse into
the world of the famed realist author left me with rather mixed feelings.
One of
the main arguments surrounding Jane Austen as a writer in general is whether
the aristocratic, rural lifestyle that predominates all of her writings is
something she wishes to mock or wilfully accept. A rather oblique answer can be
found when looking at Austen’s treatment of both women and the issue of slavery
in Mansfield Park. The most striking character with relation to the former area
is
certainly Lady Bertram, Fanny’s lazy and indecisive aunt who appears to be the definition of subservience. When puzzling over which card game to play at a dinner party she immediately turns to her husband, as seen in ‘which will amuse me most’. Later on she is noted as avoiding the difficulty of making her own decisions again as ‘Sir Thomas [was] at hand’. Furthermore she buys into the common gender norms of the time, believing that a woman only comes to be of any worth to as her complexion improves. Indeed, ‘by [Lady Bertram] convincing herself that Fanny was very pretty…it made her feel a sort of credit in calling her a niece’. The humour generated from such a terrible individual clearly suggests Austen being on the more satirizing side of matters than encouraging such subservience. Equally, it would be easy to assume Austen’s acceptance of male dominance in matters, through Fanny’s practically having no choice but to marry Henry Crawford at some stage or another, in that the male will always succeeding over the female counterpart eventually and also through how marriage is presented in the novel as a must for any young woman who, unable to stand alone, must seek for male protection. However, ultimately the fact that Fanny does not marry Henry Crawford after all, instead at the end fulfilling her dreams by marrying her cousin Edmund, suggests a further challenging of such norms, the will of the woman being fulfilled. Another source of contention among many critics towards the novel is the ever-present fact that the centre place of the novel, Mansfield Park, is predominantly funded by the works of Sir Thomas Bertram in countries such as Antigua in the slave trade. However, this does by no means implicate Austen’s acceptance of such an immoral practice and status quo at the time of publication, she's merely presenting a norm at the time. Equally in the majority of her novels she tends to remain rather politically hushed. Indeed in 1814, the year when Mansfield Park was published, the climax of the Napoleonic Wars was marked, though this is completely emitted from the novel. Thus, as Austen’s criticisms tend to be more socially rather than politically charged, the fact that many of the social norms of the time are obliquely challenged in the novel, supports the case for Austen being this scornful commentator for the aristocratic lifestyle.
certainly Lady Bertram, Fanny’s lazy and indecisive aunt who appears to be the definition of subservience. When puzzling over which card game to play at a dinner party she immediately turns to her husband, as seen in ‘which will amuse me most’. Later on she is noted as avoiding the difficulty of making her own decisions again as ‘Sir Thomas [was] at hand’. Furthermore she buys into the common gender norms of the time, believing that a woman only comes to be of any worth to as her complexion improves. Indeed, ‘by [Lady Bertram] convincing herself that Fanny was very pretty…it made her feel a sort of credit in calling her a niece’. The humour generated from such a terrible individual clearly suggests Austen being on the more satirizing side of matters than encouraging such subservience. Equally, it would be easy to assume Austen’s acceptance of male dominance in matters, through Fanny’s practically having no choice but to marry Henry Crawford at some stage or another, in that the male will always succeeding over the female counterpart eventually and also through how marriage is presented in the novel as a must for any young woman who, unable to stand alone, must seek for male protection. However, ultimately the fact that Fanny does not marry Henry Crawford after all, instead at the end fulfilling her dreams by marrying her cousin Edmund, suggests a further challenging of such norms, the will of the woman being fulfilled. Another source of contention among many critics towards the novel is the ever-present fact that the centre place of the novel, Mansfield Park, is predominantly funded by the works of Sir Thomas Bertram in countries such as Antigua in the slave trade. However, this does by no means implicate Austen’s acceptance of such an immoral practice and status quo at the time of publication, she's merely presenting a norm at the time. Equally in the majority of her novels she tends to remain rather politically hushed. Indeed in 1814, the year when Mansfield Park was published, the climax of the Napoleonic Wars was marked, though this is completely emitted from the novel. Thus, as Austen’s criticisms tend to be more socially rather than politically charged, the fact that many of the social norms of the time are obliquely challenged in the novel, supports the case for Austen being this scornful commentator for the aristocratic lifestyle.
The second
main source of contention I wish to address is the central heroine Fanny Price,
the literary equivalent to marmite. To some critics she is a pitiful and
endearing specimen, whilst to others her shy and timid nature is nothing short
of exasperating. Having read Mansfield Park, I tend to agree with the latter
opinion. The reader is quickly introduced to Fanny as an ‘extremely timid and
shy’ individual who tends to ‘[shrink] from notice’. She is generally abused at
Mansfield Park, the place which at age nine she was suddenly sent to away from the
comforts of her home. The trait of timidity in itself is not necessarily an implication
for a weak heroine, it is the fact that Fanny never seems to really escape and
progress from this weak and shy persona that is infuriating and so makes her a pitiful protagonist. This weakness
is exemplified by Price’s insisting of having at least ‘a sensation of being
honoured’ following the proposal by the corrupt and promiscuous Henry Crawford.
The lack of gravitas in her refusal thus leads to his continued, determined pursuance of
her, causing her much distress that she could have swiftly avoided in the first
place. Bar an internal flash of anger over a letter from the morally corrupt
Mary Crawford, Fanny is too much the quintessentially weak victim to extract
any sympathy, thus suggesting a failure on Austen’s part through failing in her obvious attempt at providing a likeable protagonist. Indeed, when Fanny has the ‘sympathetic’
soliloquy of ‘I must be a brute indeed, if I can be really ungrateful’ when
refusing Crawford’s proposal, I must confess that my heart was so hardened
towards her that I felt little more than a tinge of annoyance. Another way
which Fanny rather irritated me as a character was her continual sticking to all
that was right and good which (admittedly this is taking it to the extreme)
made her rather like a living and breathing set of the Ten Commandments and so rather unrelatable as a protagonist. This
might just be due to the fact that views on morality clearly change with time (nowadays private theatre is not seen as an abominable sin). To those at the
time of publication Fanny might have been praised for this sticking to all that
was good and right whilst nowadays be viewed as boring and judgemental, however,
as literary critic Claire Tomalin notes, it is not just Fanny’s moral
cleanliness but the fact that she will ‘cast aside’ sinners which she has only ‘intolerance’
for, that really creates the dislike.
Morality
is an integral theme of the book, characters such as Mary Crawford (who admits
that "she never has danced
with a clergyman... and she never will") get their comeuppance eventually
whilst characters such as Fanny Price (who looks on in horror at the evil
around her, as seen in ‘Fanny looked on and listened, not unamused to
observe the selfishness which, more or less disguised, seemed to govern them
all’) eventually end up in a state of great happiness. Although the distinctly
differing fates between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ do manage to strictly enforce
the novel’s central theme, allowing for a slightly cathartic feel as a result, the saccharine nature of such an assortment of fate
was rather frustrating for me. The ‘last straw’, as it were, for me was Edmund’s
rather sudden and unrealistic turning away from the love of his life, Miss
Crawford, to Fanny in the last chapter suggesting that ‘her warm and sisterly regard for him would
be the foundation enough for wedded love’. Indeed, I do believe that my overall
opinion of the work would have been somewhat more appraising had the happy
ending been emitted or at least slightly adjusted. I also found Austen’s style rather verbose and wordy at occasions,
especially in the dialogue, however perhaps this in itself reflects the unnecessary
formalities and whims of upper class life which she sets out to satirize.
No comments:
Post a Comment