Mansfield Park, ch. 36: On Wednesdays They Wear Pink

Credit to Anna Severynovska. Mary plays on
Fanny's emotions almost as well as she does on
her favorite instrument.

First of all, thank you to everyone who has been leaving comments! I have tried responding, but Blogspot is preventing me somehow. I do love reading them, so please keep them coming.

Good news/bad news time: Ed has persuaded his father not to bug Fanny, but now Fanny is dreading the “inevitable” meeting between her and Mary. “Her displeasure, her penetration, and her happiness were all fearful [for Fanny] to encounter”—that middle consideration, “penetration,” would be Mary figuring out why Fanny turned Henry down (other than her strong dislike). Fanny, assuming the worst, believes that Mary has enough cleverness and insight to know that Fanny is totes in love with Ed. Does she?

Ha. No. No, she doesn’t.

The reasons why Fanny agrees to talk to Mary are a) she is used to doing what others ask of her, b) she feels she owes it to Mary, and possibly c) she thinks this is part of her punishment for being so devoted to Ed that she disappoints everyone she loves by refusing Henry. Just my guess. Anyway, no sooner has Mary stepped into the East Room when she is swept away by happy memories of rehearsing for Lovers’ Vows. Wow, Fanny was right. And then … somehow Mary becomes almost another person. She’s honest in a way she hasn’t been lately. And though her honesty is a double-edged sword, for a while there, we see the best part of Mary: Mary the humble half-sister, Mary the respectful neighbor, Mary the loving and attentive friend. The Mary that makes us understand why Ed thinks she has such a good heart.

Damn it, Austen!

Is it any wonder that Fanny, who has anticipated nothing but sharp remarks and her deepest secret out in the open (possibly exploited to boot), begins to cry? The text gives one reason, but I suspect that her tears are tears of relief as well. Maybe that’s why, when Mary says that they’ll be BFFs, Fanny does a U-turn and points out that Mary has other friends to entertain and love.

Which brings us to the Regina George portion of this chapter. I know I’ve previously compared Maria to everybody’s most loved and despised queen bee, but Mary takes the cake. (I think this means Maria is the Gretchen Wieners of Mansfield Park, which would make Julia the Karen Smith.) Though her sentiments about Mrs. Grant, the Bertrams, and Fanny are lovely, contrast them with her heartless gossip about her London friends. She revels in telling Fanny about all the women who have tried to catch Henry—women who she calls her intimate friends and who she’s known for years. This reminded me of a previous chapter in which Mary disdains the women who have tried to snag Henry as a husband. I came to the halfhearted conclusion that she was expressing some internal misogyny, and now I’m more convinced than before of this conclusion. She’s laughing at these women for playing essentially the same game that Henry plays.

Far from guessing Fanny’s secret, Mary is easily convinced that Fanny is in love with Henry and just doesn’t realize it. She cites Fanny’s reaction at the ball as proof, spilling the beans that she happily went along with Henry’s gross necklace trick. Fanny explains why she couldn’t have been expected to take Henry’s courting seriously: “I was quiet, but I was not blind. I could not but see that Mr. Crawford allowed himself in gallantries which did mean nothing.” Finally, Fanny can speak with the only character who will happily admit that Henry is a careless flirt.

Mary responds as she always does: by arguing. “[Having] the glory of fixing one who has been shot at by so many; of having it in one’s power to pay off the debts of one’s sex! Oh! I am sure it is not in woman’s nature to refuse such a triumph.” All of Mary’s worst instincts, her worst characteristics, can be summarized by this one speech. The way she perceives the dynamic of men and women as being a zero-sum game. How she links selfishness with pride. Her winner-take-all attitude toward life. She even twists the theme of gratitude, one of Fanny’s major tenets, to fit her monetary world view: Fanny owes it to her fellow women to accept Henry’s hand in marriage. On top of this, Mary makes “a sure push at Fanny’s feelings” by reminding her of Henry’s favor to her brother right before she leaves, ensuring that Fanny’s last impression of their conversation will be one of gratitude towards Henry. Oh, yeah. Patented queen bee move.

Seeing a sorrowful Henry before he leaves also softens Fanny’s feelings, but she’s still “hoping she might never see him again till he were the husband of some other woman.”

Weeellll … good news/bad news time …

Coming soon: Sir Thomas gets an idea. An awful idea. Sir Thomas gets a wonderful, awful idea.