Before I proceed with my opinion, I must give credit to my erudite Tweeter in England, Himadri Chatterjee, for choosing to re-read all of Jane Austen's works and mentioning Mansfield Park (1814). Look out for his analysis via Twitter in the coming weeks.
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read Mansfield Park, CONTINUE READING to see what you've missed.
Years have passed since I've read Mansfield Park, but I disagree with naysayers who state that Fanny Price's character is unlikeable. Critics or readers often describe Fanny as too passive or an unworthy heroine. I see her as an observer who, like Austen, watches events as a reporter with sometimes detached objectivity, though she may be experiencing oppression or neglect. That separateness also keeps Fanny from being noticed romantically by her friend and cousin, Edmund Bertram. Also, her lower class status makes her an unfit member of the household as she is reminded again and again by Edmund's siblings. And even the widow, Mrs. Norris, one of Fanny's aunts reluctantly agrees with her sister Lady Bertram, to bring the young girl in and raise her. Mrs. Norris would be labeled today as lower middle class at best. Still, she considers herself above Fanny in social status. Whereas the younger Fanny is affected by her relatives slights, the adult has resigned herself to the outside looking in.
Fanny Price learns to subtly manipulate. Her eventual financial (albeit humble) success is given to her through marriage with Edmund when he recognizes his mistakes. Nonetheless, Fanny brings her younger sister to live at Mansfield Park and sees that her family benefits from her new-found circumstances. She survives. Like her character, Fanny, Jane Austen doesn't judge her protagonist's behavior or fate. Instead she lets her readers decide. I have. Fanny Price has wealthy relations, who for better or worse, brought her to a place where Fanny would have the opportunity to better herself. For much of the story Austen holds us in suspense as to whether Fanny will overcome class boundaries.
Mansfield Park, as well as Austen's other opuses, continue to stir impassioned reactions. I chose the plural of opus because its plural form can also be written as "opera." Mansfield Park has the ingredients of grand opera: abject poverty, greed, class conflict, death, treachery, jealousy, well you get the idea. However, don't let the allusion to "opera" dissuade you. Jane Austen's deceptive simplicity grasps your attention and the more you read or re-read her works the multiple layers elicit details missed.
Other characters among the throng include Henry and Mary Crawford representing the calculating ambitious social climbers, scraping the edges of the upper class. Being deluded, however, their schemes are uncovered; they are banished as is Mrs. Norris in the climax. When taking an nonjudgmental analysis, the power and freedom the Crawford's long for are squelched by those who have the real control: Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram.
How brilliant Jane Austen is for she captures the crux of social inequity: the inside's inability to look outwards. Sir Thomas Bertram is one of the worst offenders, not only with Fanny, but his plantation in Antigua run by slaves, his empowerment of Lady Bertram's divisiveness which he shares, and his inability to see his son's, Tom's, gambling and drinking as vehicles to escape the stifling Bertram family and Tom's lack of purpose. Sir Thomas initially sacrifices his other son's, Edmund's, aspiration, that is to become a minister (in those days parishes were purchased), because of his older brother's debts. Only when Sir Thomas's crafted world becomes threatened, however, does he bring Tom with him to Antigua. A shrewd move by Jane Austen as it gives Fanny the chance to question Sir Thomas' using slaves, and in my mind, plants a seed of morality in Sir Thomas' closed thinking.
What reads as a picture of the English class system at its worst also underscores the economics of a nation not far from the beginnings of the industrial revolution. Slaves would be replaced by the already existing and increasing child labor force. The working poor would also continue to be suppressed.
So, how does Austen's book, Mansfield Park, reflect Americans, in today's society? The correlation, like Austen herself, is deceptively simple. Having observed the ins and outs in our so-called modern society, I will state: we are quickly becoming a world Austen would recognize. We are a nation with a working poor or suppressed poor without prospects. Our country's populous,all races, creeds, ethnicities is losing momentum. We have a stifled middle class that has become split between those who are resigned to their fate, i.e. no future opportunities to move up the ladder, and those who will do anything to break the one percent barrier.
Why such a bleak, retrograde picture of a once promising American Dream? Because the one percent, who are richer than any of the wealthiest strata in the world, have shuttered their minds, and like Sir Thomas Bertram, will only be stirred when their foundation, the struggling working force, erodes to the point of collapse.
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