Mansfield Park


Mansfield Park is the third published novel by the English author Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews until 1821.
The novel tells the story of Fanny Price, starting when her overburdened family sends her at the age of ten to live in the household of her wealthy aunt and uncle and following her development into early adulthood. From early on critical interpretation has been diverse, differing particularly over the character of the heroine, Austen's views about theatrical performance and the centrality or otherwise of ordination and religion, and on the question of slavery. Some of these problems have been highlighted in the several later adaptations of the story for stage and screen.

Plot summary

Ten-year-old Fanny Price is sent from her impoverished home in Portsmouth to live with the family at Mansfield Park. Lady Bertram is Fanny’s aunt and her four children – Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia – are older than Fanny. All but Edmund mistreat her, and her other aunt, Mrs Norris, wife of the clergyman at the Mansfield parsonage, makes herself particularly unpleasant.
When Fanny is fifteen, Aunt Norris is widowed and her visits to Mansfield Park increase, as does her mistreatment of Fanny. A year later, Sir Thomas leaves to deal with problems on his sugar plantation in Antigua, taking with him his spendthrift eldest son Tom. Mrs Norris, looking for a husband for Maria, finds the rich but weak-willed Mr Rushworth, whose proposal Maria accepts but only for his money.
Henry Crawford and his sister Mary arrive at the parsonage to stay with their half-sister, the wife of the new incumbent, Dr Grant. With their fashionable London ways, they enliven the great house. Edmund and Mary then start to show interest in one another.
On a visit to Mr Rushworth's estate, Henry flirts with both Maria and Julia. Maria believes Henry is in love with her and so treats Mr Rushworth dismissively, provoking his jealousy, while Julia struggles with jealousy and resentment towards her sister. Mary is disappointed to learn that Edmund will be a clergyman and tries to undermine his vocation.
After Tom returns to Mansfield Park ahead of his father, he encourages the young people to begin rehearsals for an amateur performance of Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lovers' Vows. Edmund objects, believing Sir Thomas would disapprove and feeling that the subject matter is inappropriate but, after much pressure, he agrees to take on the role of the lover of the character played by Mary. The play also provides further opportunity for Henry and Maria to flirt. When Sir Thomas arrives home unexpectedly, he is furious to find the play still in rehearsal and it is cancelled. Henry departs without explanation and in reaction Maria, who had mistakenly believed Henry to love her, goes ahead with marriage to Mr Rushworth. The couple then settle in London, taking Julia with them. Sir Thomas sees many improvements in Fanny and Mary Crawford initiates a closer relationship with her.
When Henry returns to Mansfield Park, he decides to entertain himself by making Fanny fall in love with him. Fanny's brother William visits, and Sir Thomas holds what is effectively a coming-out ball for her. Although Mary dances with Edmund, she tells him it will be the last time, as she will never dance with a clergyman. Edmund drops his plan to propose and leaves the next day, as do Henry and William.
When Henry next returns, he announces to Mary his intention to marry Fanny. To assist his plan, he has used his family's naval connections to help William achieve promotion. However, when Henry proposes marriage, Fanny rejects him, disapproving of his past treatment of women. Sir Thomas is astonished by her continuing refusal, but she does not explain, afraid of compromising Maria.
To help Fanny appreciate Henry's offer, Sir Thomas sends her to visit her parents in Portsmouth, where she is taken aback by the contrast between their chaotic household and the harmonious environment at Mansfield. Henry visits, but although she still refuses him, she begins to appreciate his good features.
Later, Fanny learns that Henry and Maria have had an affair which is reported in the newspapers. Mr Rushworth sues Maria for divorce and the Bertram family is devastated. Tom meanwhile falls gravely ill. Edmund takes Fanny back to Mansfield Park, where she is a healing influence. Sir Thomas realises that Fanny was right to reject Henry's proposal and now regards her as a daughter.
During a meeting with Mary Crawford, Edmund discovers that Mary's regret is only that Henry's adultery was discovered. Devastated, he breaks off the relationship and returns to Mansfield Park, where he confides in Fanny. Eventually the two marry and move to Mansfield parsonage following Dr Grant's departure. Meanwhile, those left at Mansfield Park have learned from their mistakes and life becomes pleasanter there.

Characters

  • Fanny Price, the niece of the family at Mansfield Park, with the status of a dependent poor relation.
  • Maria, Lady Bertram, Fanny's aunt. Married to the wealthy Sir Thomas Bertram, she is the middle one of three sisters of the Ward family, the others being Mrs Norris and Fanny's mother, Mrs Price.
  • Mrs Norris, elder sister of Lady Bertram, whose husband was the local parson until his death.
  • Sir Thomas Bertram, baronet and husband of Fanny's aunt, owner of the Mansfield Park estate and one in Antigua.
  • Thomas Bertram, elder son of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, seven years older than Fanny.
  • Edmund Bertram, younger son of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, who plans to become a clergyman, six years older than Fanny.
  • Maria Bertram, elder daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, three years older than Fanny.
  • Julia Bertram, younger daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, two years older than Fanny.
  • Dr Grant, incumbent of the Mansfield Park living after Mr Norris dies.
  • Mrs Grant, wife of Dr Grant, and half-sister of Henry and Mary Crawford.
  • Henry Crawford, brother of Miss Crawford and half-brother of Mrs Grant.
  • Mary Crawford, sister of Mr Crawford and half-sister of Mrs Grant.
  • Mr. James Rushworth, Maria Bertram's fiancé, then husband.
  • The Hon. John Yates, friend of Tom Bertram.
  • William Price, Fanny's older brother, a midshipman and then lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
  • Mr Price, Fanny's father, a retired officer in the Marines who lives in Portsmouth.
  • Mrs Price, born Frances Ward, Fanny's mother.
  • Susan Price, Fanny's younger sister.
  • Lady Stornoway, a society woman, complicit in Mr Crawford and Maria's flirtation in London.
  • Mrs Rushworth, Mr Rushworth's mother and Maria's mother-in-law.
  • Baddeley, the butler at Mansfield Park.
  • Mr Harding, a friend of Sir Thomas' in London.

    Literary reception

Although Mansfield Park was initially ignored by reviewers, it was a great success with the public. The first printing in 1814 sold out within six months. The second in 1816 also sold out. The first critical review in 1821 by Richard Whately was positive.
At first, critics praised the novel's wholesome morality. The Victorian consensus treated Austen's novels as social comedy. In 1911, A. C. Bradley restored the moral perspective, praising Mansfield Park for being artistic while having "deeply at heart the importance of certain truths about conduct". The influential Lionel Trilling, and later Thomas Tanner, maintained emphasis on the novel's deep moral strength. Thomas Edwards argued that there were more shades of grey in Mansfield Park than in her other novels, and that those who craved a simple dualist worldview might find this off-putting. In the 1970s, Alistair Duckworth and Marilyn Butler laid the foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of the novel's historical allusions and context.
By the 1970s, Mansfield Park was considered Austen's most controversial novel. In 1974, the American literary critic Joel Weinsheimer described Mansfield Park as perhaps the most profound of her novels and certainly the most complicated.
The American scholar John Halperin was particularly negative, describing Mansfield Park as the "most eccentric" of Austen's novels and her greatest failure. He attacked the novel for what he saw as its inane heroine, its pompous hero, a ponderous plot, and "viperish satire". He described the Bertram family as appalling characters, full of self-righteousness, debauchery and greed, financial advantage being their only interest. He complained that the scenes set in Portsmouth were far more interesting than those in Mansfield Park, and that having consistently portrayed the Bertram family as greedy, selfish and materialistic, Austen, in the last chapters, presented life at Mansfield Park in idealised terms.
The latter part of the twentieth century saw the development of diverse readings, including feminist and post-colonial criticism, the most influential of the latter being Edward Said's Jane Austen and Empire. While some continued to attack, and others to praise the novel's conservative morality, yet others saw it as ultimately challenging formal conservative values in favour of compassion and a deeper morality, and posing a challenge to subsequent generations. Isobel Armstrong argued for an open understanding of the text, that it should be seen as an exploration of problems rather than a statement of conclusions.
To Susan Morgan, Mansfield Park was the most difficult of Austen's novels, featuring the weakest of all her heroines yet one who ends up the most beloved member of her family.
Readings by the beginning of the 21st century commonly took for granted Mansfield Park as Austen's most historically searching novel. Most engaged with her highly sophisticated renderings of the characters' psychological lives and with historical formations such as Evangelicalism and the consolidation of British imperial power.
Colleen Sheehan said,
In 2014, celebrating the passing of 200 years since the novel's publication, Paula Byrne wrote, "Ignore its uptight reputation, Mansfield Park ... seethes with sex and explores England's murkiest corners". She called it pioneering for being about meritocracy. In 2017, Corinne Fowler revisited Said's thesis, reviewing its significance in the light of more recent critical developments in imperial history.