Virtue Provides the Stable Life - "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen

As I was first reading Mansfield Park I thought this was some type of high-brow soap opera meant to tickle certain aspects of the feminine psyche. But ... having persevered I found the work to be much deeper in nature. Having now finished the novel, I would say that Mansfield Park is something of a story about the constancy and stability that living a virtuous life provides, as opposed to a life which is being drawn here and there by fleeting desires and whims. 

Setting the Stage

The thrust of the drama centers around a wealthy estate called "Mansfield Park," hence the name of the novel. There lives the family consisting of Sir Thomas Bertram, Lady Bertram, Miss Norris, Julia Bertram, Mariah Bertram, Tom Bertram, and Edmund Bertram. They adopt a poor relative whose parents have too many children to properly take care of. She is around 10 years old, and her name is Fanny Price. She comes to live at Mansfield and is treated somewhat poorly, though she acquires all the advantages of wealth and education. The real drama of the novel takes place when she is around 18 years old, with the others being in their early 20's. 

Rising Tension

During a time of hosting visitors at the local Parsonage, a brother and sister named Mary and Henry Crawford, there is somewhat of a to-do, centering on the young people being enticed by a visitor named Yates to act out a play together. After much arguing they settle on a scandalous play called "Lover's Vows", which they seemingly can get away with because their father, Sir Thomas, is away on business. The play is indeed ended when Sir Thomas suddenly arrives back in town, but it stirs up something of an interest among the young people of who likes and who, and who will get married to who, and so on. 

Mariah Bertram is set to marry a somewhat buffoonish pastor named Rushworth. In practicing for her part in the play, though, she begins to flirt with the visitor, Henry Crawford, and almost breaks off her engagement before realizing that Crawford is something more of a roguish flirt than a serious suitor. She disdainfully returns to marry Rushworth and leaves Mansfield for another town, taking her sister Julia in tow. 

The visitor, Mary Crawford, is the natural set-up for Edmund Bertram, but being a somewhat worldly woman who has expectations of luxury she looks down upon Edmund for wanting to be a pastor. Edmund, on the other hand, as much as he wants to truly love Mary Crawford cannot quite get past her worldliness, being a virtuous and authentically spiritual man himself. He tries hard to bring himself around to this, though, and even feels belittled by Mary at points, which leads Edmund to work to win her over. 

Fanny Price, the young niece, has very strong morals and refuses to get dragged into the drama of the others. She genuinely loves her brother William, and has always had a deep affection for Edmund since her time at Mansfield because Edmund has always looked out for her and shares a similar virtuous nature.

Henry Crawford, after showing himself to be a incautious flirt, wants to corrupt Fanny and tells his sister that he wants to get Fanny to fall in love with him simply for his own amusement. This does not happen though, and he ends up falling madly in love with her. He continually petitions her to marry him, something that everyone at Mansfield Park is either jealous of, or thinks Fanny a fool for not accepting because of the status and money that comes with it. Fanny, though, despises Crawford and tries to repulse him in the strongest manner that she can conjure. 

Crawford makes many moves and promises for reform of life to entice Fanny. Sir Thomas even sends Fanny back to Portsmouth to stay with her real family in their poverty as a underhanded way of showing her how important it is to marry wealthy. 

Climax

A serious of events takes place over these three months away which leads to the climax and conclusion of the novel. Tom Bertram falls ill during his nights of partying and must be taken back to Mansfield to recover, though they are not sure he will recover. 

Edmund is about to give into marrying Mary Crawford when a scandal occurs between Henry Crawford and Mariah. Henry Crawford had inserted himself back into Mariah's life and had gotten her to run away with him from her new husband, Rushworth. Julia Bertram, seeing this taking place, absents herself and elopes with Yates. Mary Crawford is secretly happy that Tom is ill because if he dies then Edmund would get more of the inheritance, and she is very concerned with Edmund having enough money to provide for her luxuries. Mary is also more concerned with hiding the scandal of her brother than actually being upset with him. Her vapid nature really shines forth from behind the basic veneer of civility. 

Resolution

Edmund finally breaks the spell that Mary had over him and he turns her away for good. Moriah and Henry's relationship breaks up because it was based on the fleeting passion of an affair. They end up divorcing and hating one another. Moriah, and the insufferable aunt, Miss Norris, end up moving north away from the family because of the scandal. Julia repents, returns home, and her marriage is ratified. Mary Crawford moves on from Mansfield Park into other company but never feels satisfied. Tom recovers and repents of his old ways and becomes a more mature young man after his illness. Edmund and Fanny return to Mansfield, both being justified in their parent's eyes, who now see the honor in their virtuous characters, especially in comparison to the scandal of the other children. 

Fanny has secretly been in love with Edmund, and Edmund eventually realizes that Fanny was all he ever wanted. They are married in what seems to be the ideal and stable marriage, and Edmund is able to continue his ministry as a local pastor.

Critiquing High Society

It crossed my mind that, in a subtle way, Austen may be critiquing parts of high society at the time. To me, it seems that she is pointing out some disorder in the amount of aimless time some of them have. It's unclear, besides for Edmund who wants to become a pastor, if the other young people have jobs. Tom seems to go abroad helping his father (is Sir Thomas' wealth somehow connected with slavery??), but then nothing at home. Henry seems to own and run some type of estate, but it's not really a job that takes up much of his time. There is just a lot of time the young people are sitting around looking for ways to amuse themselves; whether that's talking about renovating gardens and estates, playing card games in the evenings, going on walks, or the men going hunting. This boredom, of course, leads to the desire for the scandalous play, which is a major source of excitement for them. 

This leads into another critique I perceived, that there is a certain addiction to bodily comforts. To somehow not marry into money and have life's comforts provided for seems like a key concern for the women. Indeed, the middle aged women who have spent their life mainly concerned with such things seem utterly unbearable. 

At one point William returns from his adventures around the world as a mid-shipman and is telling everyone about all the wild experiences he had in his travels. This stirs up something in Sir Thomas to say that he wishes he lived a life of adventure and travel ... but then quickly talks himself out of such notions because that would mean he would not be wealthy as his is and he wouldn't enjoy the luxuries he has become accustomed to. 

Recapturing Genuine Friendship Between the Sexes
Okay ... let's say it. Edmund and Fanny marrying is a bit odd to modern sensibilities. Austen even begins the novel with a line about how if they take Fanny in at her young age then her boys will only ever see her as a sister. But maybe the point is that marriage is essentially a friendship in which two minds are shared together in their joined life. This type of shared mind is something that can only happen when love is deeper than shallow attraction. This is exactly what unites Edmund and Fanny, they have a depth of soul in common which allows them to see the world the same way. They are both concerned with living a humble and morally virtuous life, and this provides their stability. 

It is a reminder that in a world which has eroded the interaction of the sexes because of a widespread pornographic mentality that any lasting relationship is one that requires friendship as the foundation for attraction, not attraction that is the foundation for friendship. 

And because the pleasures of love are not rushed, we see how Fanny is able to take the greatest pleasure from what seem to be the simplest interactions to the contemporary mind: receiving a letter, going for a walk and having a conversation with a trusted friend, sharing a dance at the ball, receiving a gift, and so on. This reminds me of an article written by Anthony Esolen on a similar topic (which can be found here). 

Fanny the Heroine

Finally, the genius of the book, in my opinion, is that Fanny is the heroine of the story. This is not because she has some amazing set of natural gifts as a person, but because she chooses to have a moral standard. All the others could do likewise, but because of their talents or status they do not. For example, Henry Crawford is the life of the party, rich, well educated, and always without serious worries… and yet those gifts are his downfall. He may be able to navigate high society but he cannot master himself. Fanny is master of herself and holds the standard of virtue.