Literal and Metaphoric Slavery in Mansfield Park
From Austenblog:
Mansfield Park can be a difficult novel to enjoy. We find most of the characters unlikable, and the story is perhaps a trifle preachy….while it is not our favorite, we cannot say it (or any other Jane Austen novel for that matter) is not worth reading.
Also we suggest that readers forget Edward Said and look at the single slavery reference in the novel, as well as other themes and images of imprisonment and restriction, in relation to the plight of dependent women in Jane Austen’s society. That might lead you down some interesting paths, especially when you read Emma in the same light.
This is the passage they refer to:
Fanny Price: “Did not you hear me ask him about the slave trade last night?”
Edmund Bertram: “I did–and was in hopes the question would be followed up by others. It would have pleased your uncle to be inquired of farther.”
Fanny Price: “And I longed to do it–but there was such a dead silence!
I’m not sure why the authors at Austenblog discourage Said; they quote him as saying things that struck me as reasonable, sensible, and true.
I do agree that both Emma and Mansfield Park are full of references to female restriction, such as remaining at home during inclement weather. I especially noticed the many references to adding a pleasant shrubbery for walking the property. Irreverently, I was reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. More seriously, though, I felt pain for those women whose pinnacle of freedom and personal time was a brief walk in the yard.
July 27th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Hi,
By “restriction” I meant Fanny being shuttled about against her will, first to MP and then to Portsmouth, and Maria quoting “I can’t get out, said the starling.” Think about how Maria sold herself into “slavery” of a sort in her loveless marriage to Rushworth for position and fortune, and how supposed slave owner Sir Thomas attempted to “sell” Fanny into a similar marriage with Henry Crawford. Maria’s unhappiness is seen; Fanny’s unhappiness in a marriage to Crawford can only be imagined.
In Emma, there is a reference made to slavery by Jane Fairfax, to which Mrs. Elton replies, “Mr. Suckling has always been a friend to the abolition.” Yet Mrs. Elton (whose surname, Hawkins, and hometown, Bristol, can be read as a reference to a slave-ship builder) insisted on selling Jane into service as a governess to one of Mr. Suckling’s rich friends.
The slavery references ARE there in those two novels but I think it’s more interesting to consider them in the light of the situation of women in Jane Austen’s society than as mere commentary on British colonialism.
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Mags, THANK YOU for expanding so well on your comment about restriction. My example of the shrubbery was a weak one. I think it’s interesting to compare Fanny and Jane Fairfax. They are both intelligent women with good family connections but no money, and it is this lack that so limits their possibilities and their agency. And they are interesting to contrast with Maria, who willingly enters into the metaphorical slavery of the marriage to Rushworth, for its social position and money, then can’t stand it, and does get out, rather messily.
August 4th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Maria’s act is really desperate, and Austen even says flat-out that there is a double standard: Henry can go about his life as if nothing happened, but Maria is stuck in the country with Mrs. Norris.
August 27th, 2007 at 8:41 am
To which of Maria’s acts are you referring–her marriage to Rushworth or her affair with Henry? I read her decision to marry as reckless, mercenary, and a “so there” to Crawford that obviously didn’t work. Her affair with HC at the end was a desperate bid to get out of the marriage that she entered into so rashly. Like so many women, in life and literature, she paid a high price for sexually flouting convention. Her exile with Mrs. Norris was the very embodiment of Sartrian hellishness. I thought it was depicted well, and economically, in the 1999 MP film.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:02 am
I meant the elopement with Henry. She gave up great wealth (Rushworth is richer than Mr. Darcy) and social position to run away with him. I don’t think it was because she was in love with him, though she might have thought he would marry her eventually, as Mary hoped he would.
She entered into her engagement voluntarily, because it was a girl’s duty to marry and if possible to marry well. I don’t think she thought it through–and wouldn’t have if there were no Henry Crawford in the case. Though I agree about the “so there” nature of her marriage. Perhaps her father could have talked her out of it if she hadn’t been nursing wounded pride over Henry.
MP is a great novel to discuss, isn’t it?