Mansfield Park, ch. 2: An Education

We meet Fanny when she’s 10: she’s “small for her age, with no glow of complexion, nor any other striking beauty,” (in other words, not impressive-looking for a kid) and is understandably shy when she meets her older relatives. Mrs. Norris keeps telling Fanny how lucky she is and how she better be darn grateful for being chosen to live with the Bertrams. Sir Thomas has “a most untoward gravity of deportment,” too stiff and stern for a young niece to warm up to. Her cousins mercilessly judge her clothes and her face. So, not the best welcoming party.

Tom and Edmund, being teenage boys, at first have nothing in common with Fanny. Maria and Julia are a couple years older than her, so all three of them will be schoolmates--but her cousins are more sophisticated than Fanny (and boy do they know it). So, overwhelmed with her aunt Norris lecturing her about gratitude and her cousins looking down on her, Fanny starts to cry and has to be taken up to her room. This all happens on the first day.

So of course Mrs. Norris complains about Fanny’s “sulkiness.”

Austen puts in a word about how deeply Fanny feels her emotions and how no one understands this about her. Remember this, dear reader, because it will come back.

Meanwhile, the maids “sneer at her clothes,” the tutor thinks she’s an idiot, Julia and Maria make fun of her size and meekness, and the freaking mansion is so grand that she’s afraid to touch anything. But it’s only a matter of time until a kind soul comes along, and the soul in question is Edmund, who has an “excellent nature” and good listening skills. He asks her questions about her siblings, who she misses the most (William, the eldest), and helps her find paper to write a letter home. Fanny is stunned when she realizes that her uncle Sir Thomas will be the one who’ll foot the bill for the stamp, but Edmund guides her in writing the letter, and she forgets her fear.

Now, this is cute: Edmund signs the letter “with his love to his cousin William,” Fanny’s favorite brother, and Fanny’s “countenance and a few artless words fully conveyed all their gratitude and delight.” Not only is this the seed of Fanny’s crush on Edmund, but this is the first time that she’s able to connect her feeling of gratitude to a positive emotion. In Mansfield Park, Fanny's gratitude is expected from different characters at all times, and she gives it at all times; but no one knows how to read Fanny (except Edmund), and due to their snobbery and/or self-absorption, everybody assumes that she either isn’t capable of gratitude or expresses her gratitude insufficiently. But Edmund takes the time to talk to her and learns that she has “an affectionate heart” and “a strong desire to do right,” and only needs a little positive feedback to ease her fears.

With Edmund by her side, things at Mansfield become more bearable. Her cousins play with her sometimes and Tom, the entitled eldest brother, treats her like one of his mother’s pet pugs. Maria and Julia marvel at Fanny’s lack of geographical and artistic knowledge, and Mrs. Norris is there to assure her nieces that “it is much more desirable that there should be a difference” between their intelligence and Fanny’s.

Mrs. Norris is kind of gross, you guys. And Austen wants us to know it, too. Maria and Julia become “deficient in the less common acquirements of self-knowledge, generosity, and humility” as a direct result of Mrs. Norris’s constant pandering and their father’s stern appearance. Their mother is largely hands-off, “[spending] her days in sitting nicely dressed on a sofa … thinking more of her pug than her children.” Fanny becomes her errand girl and unofficial messenger, because no Cinderella story would be complete without some indentured servitude.

The siblings + 1 cousins all grow up. Tom spends his father’s money, Maria and Julia become attractive and accomplished young women, and Edmund wants to be a clergyman. Sir Thomas continues to pay for Fanny’s brothers’ education and the beloved William gets to visit her before becoming a sailor. But of the Bertrams, only Edmund remains aware of Fanny’s good qualities. Even before she leaves school, he becomes her principle teacher, recommending books for her to read, engaging with her, and shaping her tastes and ideas about the world. Thus, Fanny’s crush starts to solidify.

Next chapter: Tom’s spending habits derail Edmund’s career path, Fanny is almost booted out of Mansfield Park, and a new couple moves into the neighborhood.