Comments | pen_ink: Mansfield Park: Mrs. Norris and the rest of the useless adults

plumapen in pen_ink

Mansfield Park: Mrs. Norris and the rest of the useless adults

May 01, 2008 15:59

There's a reason JK Rowling named Filch's cat after Mrs. Norris. What is it about this woman that makes her so .... loathe-worthy? Or maybe you think she's great. No doubt, she's one of the best written characters in literature. What about the rest of the adults here: Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, Mr. and Mrs. Price, Dr. and Mrs. Grant, Admiral ( Read more... )

ral::mansfield, ral

Comments 5

mauvaise_etoile May 2 2008, 00:35:43 UTC

Aha! I wondered as soon as I first saw Mrs Norris mentioned if she was the other Mrs N's namesake. I absolutely cannot STAND her. I'm intrigued to read her more of her though because she's so...I dunno...dogmatic? It makes for very entertaining reading.

canutius May 21 2008, 13:07:46 UTC

Mrs. Norris? Loath the woman. The only good thing about her is that she gets herself cut down a couple of times; the first time when Sir Thomas returned from his journey to find them scheming to put on the play and the last when she permanently loses Sit Thomas’ esteem is shut up with Maria in the country. At least they figured her out in the end and realized what a stupid woman she was. Perfect for Maria, but not for anyone else.

OK, one other good thing is that she is the reason Fanny came to live, and remained, at Mansfield Park in the first place. She had Fanny brought on the assumption that she would eventually help raise her, but, to everyone’s advantage, managed to put it off. Edmund finally got a good wife and Sir Thomas a daughter who was worth something.

I hadn’t made the HP connection until now, but BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Perfect!

mauvaise_etoile June 28 2008, 01:02:52 UTC

I'm not sure I know enough about this particular time period to comment either, but at least from what I gather historically speaking, children weren't necessarily less cared about than they are now, but people had a much more blase attitude towards their children. I suspect this has to do with several things: 1. mortality rates - children died, at all ages, much more frequently than they do now, and certainly much more often before their parents than now. 2. people had huge quantities of children, especially compared to today. I'm not saying because you have 10 children vs. 1 means you care any less about any of those 10 children, but...well, it was less love lost, I reckon. 3. Making the most out of advantageous situations for your children; Fanny was given a pretty damn fine opportunity, and perhaps her mother (and her father, though I'm much less sympathetic toward him) detached herself from Fanny further than her other kids because the hope of Fanny doing better than the rest of them was great enough to allow that detachment. ( ... )

plumapen June 30 2008, 19:27:14 UTC

Was there some particular aspect of their characters you were thinking we should comment on?:D No. I was just throwing topics out there trying to start conversation. :p ( ... )

plumapen June 30 2008, 19:31:40 UTC

Now Mrs. Norris. Holy cow. The woman was quite emotionally and mentally abusive, wasn't she? I was really struck by Fanny's (and William's!) dread and fear of her tirades this time through. I don't think Filch's cat was ever as bad. Sheesh.