Mansfield Park: A Tolerable Comfort

[harmony_bites]

As some of you might know, silburygirl is a serious Austen scholar; she's doing a paper on Mansfield Park and urged me to reread it when I told her it was the one Austen novel I loathed and gave me instructions on what to look for. I did and posted a review on LibraryThing and Goodreads. Sil urged me to post the review on LJ, because she wants to see what

Comments

[silburygirl]

Serious Austen scholar? Pfft. Aspiring, perhaps, if we're feeling generous. (Given the current state of my thesis... we aren't. *sobs and tears out hair*)

Considering I'm writing a thesis on this novel, I could ramble on forever and ever in response to this. I will try to be succinct, though!

For me, the most unsettling part of the last chapter (and the entire novel, really) are Sir Thomas's musings about child-rearing, and his sense that he deserves the comfort that Fanny brings him. Given that most of the book is devoted to Fanny's unhappiness, it seems too dismissive to be sanctioned by the narrator.

You mentioned the issue of slavery at one point... I can direct you to some decent articles on the subject, if you like. There's a lot (and a lot of it is useless, which led to me spending a lot of last summer experiencing serious RAGE at the lack of critical ingenuity in the world), but the obvious place to start is Said's chapter on MP in Culture and Imperialism, which is a poorly argued but nevertheless necessary piece of writing

[harmony_bites]

Serious Austen scholar? Pfft. Aspiring, perhaps, if we're feeling generous. (Given the current state of my thesis... we aren't. *sobs and tears out hair*)

Well, I don't know that we can call you a pro yet (well have to wait to you publish! And teach classes on it!) but compared to those of us who gush about Colin Firth in a wet shirt?

For me, the most unsettling part of the last chapter (and the entire novel, really) are Sir Thomas's musings about child-rearing, and his sense that he deserves the comfort that Fanny brings him.Huh. I'll have to reread that part then, that aspect went past me. What I got out of it was more the regret over how he reared his own daughters, in particular how being harsh with them caused him to lose their confidence. But then maybe that was more Austen's take? It can be hard at time separating a character's musings from the narrators. Which is a problem with Fanny a lot I think. First time I thought we were supposed to dislike Mary Crawford--full stop. Now I'm not so sure, because I was more aware this

[silburygirl]

But I have a really cool PhD project idea that maybe someone will pay me money to do

[harmony_bites]

I found the film interesting as a response to the critical threads surrounding the novel, which is a legitimate form of adaptation, I think. Which isn't to say I liked it, particularly, but I respect how it engages with Austen's critical tradition. And it experimented with narrative techniques (not always effectively, but I like that it tried).I did kind of like that aspect, and probably as I said would have liked it more if they hadn't completely warped Fanny's characters to do it. I think a lot of the point of MP is how given how Fanny is oppressed as the poor relation who has to know her (low) place, and that her only friend is this religious prig, her only way of coping is to hide, and be this prig in turn who never makes a false step. Who, as Mary notes, is in much fear of notice as others are of being ignored. Its her entire keynote as a character. So to then try to inject a lot of Jane Austen in Fanny--to make her this spirited thing who ignores propriety and writes these clever works of fiction. Arrrrrgggggggh. You lose the

[imhilien]

Mansfield Park isn't one of my favourite Austen books as Fanny reminds me of a wet blanket. Meh.

However, I have found some fanfiction that makes me think of the story in a kinder light in the end...

A Stitch in Time : An alternate ending to the story, as seen through Edmund’s eyes.
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2010/works/141634

Not What Was Expected
A similar alternate ending, as seen through Fanny’s eyes.
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2010/works/140972

Happy reading. :)

[harmony_bites]

Thanks for the links! I enjoyed both (both are very short) and particularly liked the first and this picture of Fanny as Mrs Crawford:

The first time Edmund sees the new Mrs Henry Crawford, it comes as quite a shock. Her hair has been cut and fashionably dressed and her clothes are quietly expensive and in a style and colour that suit her. There’s colour in her cheeks and her eyes are bright and active. The really alarming thing is that now he’s seen her like this he can’t remember how she used to look: the old Fanny fades like a ghost, merging with the fall of a curtain or the pattern of the wallpaper.

When I said MP tempts me to fanfic, I mean things like this--ones that flesh out the might-have-beens. Because I do get what you mean about Fanny--she does seem so passive and inert. Second time around I was more aware though of how her circumstances constrain her so much--and silburygirl pointed me to her bitterness--and seeing it on reread it made her more interesting. She's not this too good to be true sweet thing. But I admit there were

[imhilien]

I'm glad you like the links. :) There seems to be a trend in MP fanfic that if Mary and Edmund marry, it's a Bad Thing...

On another note, I remember seeing a TV version of Mansfield Park where Billie Piper(!) from Dr Who was Fanny. She did her best, but I think it was a bad case of Casting Fail.

[harmony_bites]

I confess I rather love Mary Crawford still--my favorite character in the book. I think her comments about Tom dying in the letter could be taken as one of her jokes, and frankly my first reaction about Maria and Henry wasn't that far from hers--not so much, how evil, but how stupid. If Mary and Edmund being married is a bad thing, I confess I feel more its bad for poor Mary. Just so did not like Edmund.

On another note, I remember seeing a TV version of Mansfield Park where Billie Piper(!) from Dr Who was Fanny. She did her best, but I think it was a bad case of Casting Fail.

Had to be better than the feature film. That one badly mangled Fanny's character I'm afraid.

[hereticalvision]

MP is my least favourite also - though it's better written than Northanger Abbey it doesn't have the same charm IMO. I must thank you for posting this though - I read the fics and am now working my way through the gender-swap versions of P&P with interest :)

[harmony_bites]

Yes, MP does seem to miss the lightness and charm of the other books--but then it's also arguably the darkest. I missed that on first read, but Silburygirl telling me to look for it, it did make the book--and Fanny--more interesting to me.

Silburygirl also thinks that there's reason especially in that last chapter to think Austen deliberately was trying to create a sense of dissatisfaction in the reader--with Fanny's Mrs Norris-like satisfaction in others' sorrow and it making her useful, in giving short shrift to Fanny and Edmund's courtship, with Sir Thomas'self-satisfaction, and with the extended section bring to mind the what-if of Fanny and Crawford.

Well, of course a lack of satisfaction is exactly what is grist for the fanfic mill! I'm happy your enjoying the fanfic!

[drmm]

Humm. Mansfield Park has never been one of my favorite Austen novels (although I like it more than I do Northanger Abbey). However, I have always felt that it was her best work in terms of social criticism. That is why, when I read it for a lit class in college, I realized that I no longer disliked Fanny the way I once did. Why? I eventually decided that the reason why Fanny had no personality was a way for Austen to expose the flaws and hypocrisy of other characters in the novel. If Fanny had been more like other Austen heroines, we might have seen the flaws but they wouldn't have been as obvious or they would have been more comedic in nature (just look at Mr. Collins). (I got a really great grade on the paper I wrote with this thesis).

You just have to go into Mansfield Park with a different mindset. It's not a romance -- it's a critique and if you do, it's much easier to appreciate. That doesn't mean you're ever going to enjoy it as much (because I still love other Austen novels more) but it does make it easier to read.

[harmony_bites]

Why? I eventually decided that the reason why Fanny had no personality was a way for Austen to expose the flaws and hypocrisy of other characters in the novel.

I think she does have a personality though--but it's an unlikable one--but I agree with you its in the service of social criticism. On reread I came to see Fanny as a damaged character. Edmund is the only one who cares about her, so she models herself after him, and he obviously finds pride in that, in shaping her. And she has the horror of being noticed Mary Crawford notices, because all the attention she gets is negative attention. She's constantly told she doesn't matter, that she's inferior, and so she wants to disappear. And when Henry Crawford continues to pursue her, expecting her to be flattered by the challenge, the narrator notes that given the constant opposition Fanny deals with, she finds no charm in challenge. IOWs, yes, she's passive, meek, quiet--because the social structure she's been reared in shapes her that way.

You just have to go into Mansfield Park

[e_danae]

I like Mansfield Park a lot, and your review makes me think why exactly. One reason might be that the book is so very different from the others - which only proves that Austen is a great author, able to write in many different ways. Fanny is a real challenge as a heroine, actually she is almost an anti-heroine material. But Austen takes her as she is, member of a disfunctional family, very introverted, last and lost in her new home, and follows her to the end in a manner which is actually quite accurate in a psychological way - no big changes, no big revelations, just a slow day-by-day growth within believable limits. There is also a strong social theme in the book, hardly seen in any other (perhaps in Persuasion in Mrs. Smith character and fate?). There is no sugar-coating in the scenes from Fanny's old home in Portsmouth. I agree that anyone expecting the second P&P must be disappointed. But the book itself is a complex piece of art. Maybe if the author was unknown and therefore no ground for comparison, readers would like it better

[harmony_bites]

It's true--when you think about it, that actually the fact that MP is so different is a sign of Austen's strength. I think though, that it's so very different than the others in tone you think, what the hell? Kingsley Amis, the acclaimed British author and critic asked of Mansfield Park "Where is Jane Austen?" and calls Fanny "a monster of complacency and pride who, under a cloak of cringing self-abasement, dominates and gives meaning to the novel." Fanny is so different from the usual Austen heroine, and the novel so different in tone, you feel as if you're reading an entirely different author, and if you're not prepared for it... You might be right, if we didn't know it as an Austen novel, maybe we'd like it better?

But you know, of all her novels, it's the one that most made me think and I find I could discuss endlessly. Much more than say my favorite Persuasion where you'd have to get me to stop sighing over Captain Wentworth's letter first!