In the latest Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine there is an interesting article (by Paul A Bethel) on the similarities between Emma and Mansfield Park.

Here’s a small excerpt:

Rather, she [Austen] simply began with the premise: “What if a character much like Mary Crawford should have grown up in a small village outside London? What kind of life would she have lead?” Few novelists have been more acutely aware of the twin influences of nature and nurture upon individual character; and this is the key difference between Mary and Emma.  Having similar natures’ their upbringing could not be more different. And that is why, ultimately, Emma is capable of reformation and redemption, while Mary is not.

He then goes on to highlight the similarities in their opinions. He then compares other characters; Fanny and Jane Fairfax, Henry Crawford and Frank Churchill, Edmund and Mr Knightley, Lady Bertram and Mr Woodhouse.

None of this had ever occurred to me; as Emma is my favourite novel and Mansfield Park my least favourite I was surprised to find areas in common.

As part of my Mansfield Park re-read, I’ve read the Mansfield Park chapter of The Improvement of the Estate by Alistair M Duckworth. It is very accessible I recommend it to anyone interested in Austen’s novels.

To my mind his chapter on Mansfield Park is really a defense of it and to prove that is has the same themes as her more popular novels, i.e. Austen is trying to define a proper relationship between an individual and society.

Duckworth believes people dislike Mansfield Park for two reasons; first it follows directly after Pride and Prejudice both in publication date and people’s reading experience and secondly we hope for a double marriage at the end (like Pride and Prejudice) and this is ‘wrenched’ from us with the marriage of Fanny and Edmund. The issues at stake in Mansfield Park are not different from her other novels, however, the representatives of individuals (i.e. the Crawfords) are corrupt and those that represent society (the Bertrams) are deficient.

As we know, estates in Austen can be used as indexes to the owner’s character and social responsibilities thus Pemberley is well-situated, has fine timber and has not been unsympathetically improved. Whereas the renting of Kellynch Hall shows Sir Walter’s dereliction of his responsibilities.

Improving estates figures prominently in Mansfield Park. Mr Rushworth wants to improves Sotherton, Mrs Norris did a ‘vast deal’ to the parsonage, Henry Crawford has improved Everingham and Mary Crawford likes improvements once they are completed.

Austen is concerned with the negative social implications of a certain type of improvement. Drastic alterations to the landscape, for example, moving entire villages. Such changes create dangerous consequences to the continuity of a culture. To ‘improve’ was to treat the deficient or corrupt parts of an established order with the character of the whole in mind (good); to ‘innovate’ or ‘alter’ on the other hand was to destroy all that had been built up by the ‘collected wisdom of the ages’ (bad). Hence Mrs Norris’s ‘vast improvements’ and the fact that ‘it was quite a different place from what it was when we first had it’ is a bad thing and a mark against her character.

Sotherton has begun to atrophy and is in need of improvement. Rushworth is aware of the aesthetic short comings but nothing else. He improves the road to Sotherton but does nothing to fix the ‘disgraceful’ cottages. Maria’s pride in the handsome spire shows a love of display equal to her future husband’s plus she is happy with the distance the church is from the house. Which implies that the physical gap might become a spiritual gap.

Crawford’s plans for Thornton Lacy are radical; the farmyard must be removed, the principal rooms rotated, the church yard shut out, etc. He wants to change the nature of the place make it into something it’s not (bad). Edmund states that very little of this will happen and that it does need a bit of improving, but very little to make it a comfortable gentleman’s residence.

This idea of excessive change being dangerous to an estate highlights the problems with the theatre – the actors are trying to turn Mansfield Park into a theatre (i.e. a whole culture is at stake). All of the characters are revealed by their conduct in the play, Mr Yates plays a seducer an ultimately he will seduce Julia, Maria plays a fallen women which she comes by leaving her husband for Mr Crawford, etc. Henry Crawford the best actor of them all continues to play roles; even in his courtship of Fanny he enjoys the public display of it.

After having read this chapter on Mansfield Park I feel like I understand it more and I have a greater respect for Austen’s skills as an author. Not an incident is wasted they all highlight character and lead to the inevitable conclusion (even the game of Speculation – Mary plays had and wins the game but it’s not worth the cost, Fanny wants to cheat herself but can’t and Henry Crawford tries to manipulate them all).

In the past I have thought Mary very similar to Elizabeth Bennet, but after my last reading I have decided she is too worldly and materialistic.

‘Matrimony was her object, provided she could marry well, and having seen Mr Bertram in town, she knew that objection could no more be made to his person than to his situation in life.’

and

‘Tom Bertram must have been thought pleasant, indeed at any rate; he was the sort of young man to be generally liked, his agreeableness was of the kind to be oftener found agreeable than some endowments of a higher stamp, for he had easy manners, excellent spirits, a large acquaintance, and a great deal to say; and the reversion of Mansfield Park, and a baronetcy, did no harm to all this. Miss Crawford soon felt, that he and his situation might do. She looked about her with due consideration, and found almost everything in his favour, a park, a real park five miles round, a spacious modern-built house so well placed and well screened as to deserve to be in any collection of engravings of gentleman’s seats in the kingdom, and wanting only to be completely new furnished – pleasant sisters, a quiet mother and an agreeable man himself – with the advantage of being tied up from much gaming at present, by a promise to his father, and of being Sir Thomas hereafter. It might do very well; she believed she should accept him; …

and

‘I shall understand all of your ways in time; but coming down with the true London maxim, that everything is to be got with money, I was a little embarrassed at first by the sturdy independence of your country customs.’

and

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

Edmund is completely blinded by her charms – he even deludes himself about her true nature.

‘The right of a lively mind, Fanny, seizing whatever might contribute to its own amusement or that of others; perfectly allowable, when untinctured by ill humour or roughness; and there is not a shadow of either in the countenance or manner of Miss Crawford, nothing sharp or loud or coarse. She is perfectly feminine, except in the instances we have been speaking of. There she cannot be justified. I am glad you saw it all as I did.’

It is clear she dislikes the idea of marrying a clergyman.

‘A clergyman is nothing.’

She determines never to dance with him after his ordination and she writes to Fanny about Tom’s illness …

It was a foolish precipitation last Christmas (Edmund’s ordination), but the evil of a few days may be blotted out in part. Varnish and gilding hide many stains.

I’ve been reading Mansfield Park - I’ve changed my mind about Mary. In the past I thought her witty and interesting, but this time I’ve noticed her selfishness and worldly views.

I’ll try to write more on this in another post.

This is a six part adaptation that is very faithful to the novel. It first aired in the UK in 1983. Check out the IMDb site.

To a modern audience familiar with the beautiful recent Austen adaptations, such as Sense and Sensibility, this seems dated and dull. And very quiet – there is no music in the background. It definitely lacks sparkle and prettiness (we need Andrew Davies involved).

Having said that, the acting is brilliant and as the screenplay follows the novel closely, it’s our only choice if we want to watch a faithful adaptation.

Here are some screen shots …

Opening Screen

Young Fanny and Edmund

Fanny Price

Miss Crawford, Edmund and Fanny

Miss Bertram and Mr Crawford

Fanny and Edmund

The Wedding!

Here are some more reviews…

From the Jane Austen Centre

http://www.janeausten.co.uk/magazine/index.ihtml?pid=104&step=4

From Screen Online

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1182461/index.html

 

I’m still here. At the moment I’m working my way through Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster (and I’m up to Stage Three). I’ve also watched Mansfield Park and shall write some comments later.

Mansfield Park is my least favourite Austen novel. I’ve always secretly preferred Mary Crawford, didn’t think the theatricals was that bad and hoped that Fanny and Henry Crawford would get married. I thought the Everything Austen Challenge was a great opportunity to read it again.

It contains some fabulous Austen quotes – such as …

But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.

and

A large income is the best recipe of happiness I ever heard of

and

 Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

What I really noticed this time was how isolated and powerless Fanny Price was – nobody, apart from Edmund, seems to think about her at all (and Mrs Norris is simply evil).

She has amazing strength of character to hold out when everyone (including Edmund) wants her to marry Henry Crawford – I’m not sure how I would go in similar circumstances.

Mary and Henry Crawford are witty and engaging, but it’s all on the surface. They are both selfish and vain thinking only of themselves. Austen seems to making a point (a bit like Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice) that surface appearances can be misleading. The theatricals to a modern mind don’t seem too bad, but it’s more about the intimacy generated by repeated rehearsals – just think of all of those Hollywood actors who fall in love with their co-stars.

And one final thought, did Austen provide Fanny with more strength than she herself had (when accepting and the rejecting Harris Bigg Wither’s proposal)?

I shall think highly of Mansfield Park from now on … Fanny might even be my favourite heroine.

Next up Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster – look I’ve almost caught up now I just need to get Lost in Austen finished by the end of september.