In Mansfield Park, Austen follows the trials
and tribulations of a girl who’s not socially acceptable, subject to many
social pressures, but who ultimately rises above her birth and others’
expectations to find her own happiness. Fanny Price is a sweet-natured girl, one
of a large and impoverished family at Portsmouth.
Her mother was one of three famous beauties, along with her sisters, though they married far better than she
did. Mrs. Norris landed a country
clergyman, and Lady Bertram, a baronet who was the owner of the large estate of
Mansfield Park.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Norris gets Sir Thomas Bertram to take in
their niece, Fanny. It’s not that easy,
however, as Fanny remains an outcast at Mansfield,
condescended to by her cousins Tom, Maria, and Julia. It’s her kind cousin Edmund who protects her
and guides her education, which causes her to love him. Sir Thomas leaves on a long journey to attend
to his plantations in Antigua, leaving the family to get
into several troubles. Mrs. Norris helps
them get into these situations, all the while treating Fanny like a servant and
putting the others up on pedestals.
Maria becomes engaged to Mr. Rushworth, a wealthy neighboring gentleman
of questionable moral and ethical values. When Henry and Mary Crawford,
a fashionable brother and sister, visit their half sister Mrs. Grant,
wife of the local
vicar, all of the Bertrams find them fascinating. When they all visit
Sotherton
Court, the decadent air affects the values of all
but Fanny and Edmund. Henry becomes the
subject of flirtations of both of the sisters, but Edmund becomes
fascinated by
Mary, who’s dismayed that he’ll go into the church somehow.
When Sir Thomas returns, he allows Rushworth to marry Maria, but all other
romances are put on hold. Fanny becomes more noticed by everyone, and Mary
Crawford makes her a confidante. Henry
falls in love with Fanny and persuades his uncle, an admiral, to arrange her
brother William's promotion so he can propose to Fanny. Fanny rejects Henry, who she considers false,
and angers Sir Thomas, who sends her to her parents' home in Portsmouth
to remind her of the life that awaits her if she refuses. Though Henry is
sincere and follows her to her home, Fanny just can’t love him.
When the heir, Tom Bertram, falls seriously ill, Mary
reveals her true character by expressing to Fanny she hopes that he
dies so
Edmund can be the heir instead. Maria, recently married, runs off with
Henry. Mary's inability to see the situation as anything other than
socially damaging pushes
Edmund away from her. When Fanny returns to Mansfield, everyone finds
themselves relieved at her presence. Fanny marries Edmund, in the end,
given she’s
seen as “worth” something. They decide to live in the vicarage of
Thornton Lacey near Mansfield to continue
their support, and are quite happy thereafter.
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