Mansfield Park, ch. 4: Fools Rush In

Credit to Charles Edmund Brock, the king of old-timey
illustrations! Brock's drawings are such a good match
for Austen. They evoke an energy and sense of humor
that complement Austen's prose.

Want to read along? I hope you do!

So even though Mrs. Norris is anticipating the worst news from Antigua (like Sir Thomas's untimely death) and is busy rehearsing how she might break it to the rest of the family, it turns out that Sir Thomas and Tom Bertram haven’t run into any problems. Edmund is fully capable of making sure things run smoothly at Mansfield, carving the meat at dinner and managing the servants when necessary. And the Bertram sisters become the “belles of the neighborhood,” meaning that they’re conventionally attractive, have a few accomplishments under their belts (singing, playing a few instruments, horseback-riding), and wealthy. Of course, Mrs. Norris has “secured and brought round” enough of these praises to “strengthen [the sisters] into believing that they had no faults.”

Off to a lovely start, then.

With Maria and Julia going to balls and parties every night and Mrs. Norris chauffeuring them, Lady Bertram is happy to stay at home and be anti-social. Fanny is even more happy to stay at home alongside her, relieved to be with an aunt who doesn’t criticize her all the time. She gets to hear her cousins’ stories about attending balls and going dancing, although she thinks “too lowly of her own situation to imagine she should ever” get to go to a ball herself.

As winter passes into spring, she is deprived of the gray pony to go horseback riding and her cousins don’t loan her their own horses, even though it is semi-expected of them to, you know, be nice to her. It’d be the ladylike thing to do, “carrying their obliging manners to the sacrifice of any real pleasure,” but funny thing about that—no one has ever taught Maria or Julia that showing a little bit of generosity is part of being a gentlewoman. This theme of choosing pleasure over personal responsibility will come back sooner than later.

Neither Mrs. Norris nor Lady Bertram think it’s important that Fanny has a horse to use (not even a horse of her own, just a horse to borrow). The sluggish Lady Bertram doesn’t think anybody needs exercise, and Mrs. Norris doesn’t want Fanny to be happy. Why encourage that sort of thing in the poor? Once again, it falls on Edmund to take care of Fanny—in this case, he’s making sure that she gets a healthy amount of exercise. After he trades one of his horses for a gentle mare, Fanny is more grateful to him than ever.

Fall arrives, along with Tom Bertram from Antigua—without Sir Thomas. But there is good news elsewhere: Maria is being courted by the wealthy and … well, um, he’s definitely wealthy, Mr. Rushworth. Maria knows that such a match “would give her the enjoyment of a larger income than her father’s” and therefore considers it “her evident duty to marry Mr. Rushworth.” Guided by Mrs. Norris’s enthusiastic matchmaking (she even gets Lady Bertram to visit the guy’s mother), the courtship blossoms into an unofficial engagement. Sir Thomas eventually gives his consent via letter, but it’ll be several more months until he can journey back home.

Edmund has Mr. Rushworth’s number, though. “If this man had not twelve thousand a year,” he muses, “he would be a very stupid fellow.”

While the Bertrams minus one are all fawning over Mr. Rushworth, the readers are introduced to the Crawford siblings. Fresh from London, where they stayed with their uncle the admiral until he invited his mistress to live under his roof, Henry and Mary Crawford are happy to visit Mrs. and Dr. Grant, Mrs. Grant being their half-sibling. (Talk about your gangly family trees.) Mary needs a home whereas Henry just wants to visit (he hates having “a permanence of abode or limitation of society”) and has a wider range of options, being a land-owning male.

Mrs. Grant is aware that their home life was maybe not the greatest environment for two young, rich, impressionable Londoners. She tells them that she hopes they’ll both find marriage partners out here in the country, and mentions Julia Bertram as the most logical choice for Henry. Mary breaks it to her sister that that’s a no-go.

“If you can persuade Henry to marry, you must have the address of a Frenchwoman. All that English abilities can do has been tried already. I have three very particular friends who have been all dying for him in their turn; and the pains which they, their mothers (very clever women), as well as my dear aunt and myself, have taken to reason, coax, or trick him into marrying, is inconceivable! He is the most horrible flirt that can be imagined. If your Miss Bertrams do not like to have their hearts broke, let them avoid Henry.”

This is a long quote, but since it’s among the first pieces of dialogue Mary is given, I think it’s worth it to look closely at what she’s saying. First we have her invoking the rivalry between French culture and English culture, which I believe marks Mary as an anomaly. Austen doesn’t usually employ such a cliche in her novels (and I’d argue it is a cliche at this point in English literature). Secondly, Mary focuses on marriage as being the result of a “trick” due to cleverness on behalf of the young woman, or even the woman’s mother. Not only does she appear to be impressed by these women’s failures, but it’s the women’s fault that Henry won’t fall for them. Mary doesn’t chastise him for his “horrible” flirting. Finally, she suggests that Maria and Julia must “avoid” Henry—not the other way around. Mary seems to be invoking a kind of internalized misogyny here and even if I’m reading with modern eyes, I think Austen knew what she was doing when she created this character.

Mary adds that she’s all for marriage—the sooner, the better. Henry defends his anti-marriage stance by claiming the his “cautious temper” means that he’s “unwilling to risk [his] happiness in a hurry.” I wish I could make these words sparkle on the screen like Edward Cullen stepping into the sunlight, because you’re going to want to remember them.  

Next time: the Crawfords meet the Bertrams, Mrs. Grant promises to reform Henry, and the complexities of coming out in Regency England.