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...make Mary Crawford such an appealing character yet not the heroine of Mansfield Park? Why does Austen give Mary a voice remarkably like her own?
To illustrate that latter point, let me give you a quiz. Which of the following quotations does Mary Crawford say in Mansfield Park, and which does Jane Austen write in her own letters?
1. "What a difference a vowel makes!--if his rents were but equal to his rants!"
2. "[I]t is a Vile World, we are all for Self & I expected no better from any of us.--But though Better is not to be expected, Butter may, at least from Mrs Clement's Cow."
3. "Expect a most agreable Letter; for not being overburdened with subject--(having nothing at all to say)--I shall have no check to my Genius from beginning to end."
4. "[I]t is impossible to put an hundredth part of my great mind on paper."
5. "[W]here an opinion is general, it is usually correct."
6. "[S]o everybody says, & therefore it must be right for me to say it too."
7. "Be honest and poor, by all means--but I shall not envy you; I do not much think I shall even respect you. I have a much greater respect for those that are honest and rich."
8. "I was rich--& the Rich are always respectable."
9. "I always take care to provide such things as please my own appetite."
10. "It is every body's duty to do as well for themselves as they can."
11. "I am very strong."
12. "I ... would not flinch for the World.'"
So close is the voice of Mary Crawford the character to Jane Austen the author that I had to doublecheck the accuracy of the answers before printing the key in my first footnote to this article. I hope you, too, have had enough difficulty with my quiz to agree that Jane Austen chose to give Mary Crawford the breezy tone and sharp bite of her own letters.
Throughout Mansfield Park, Mary Crawford stands as a foil to the sweet, pious, and delicate heroine. Although some early readers praised Fanny's quiet, modest, unwaveringly loyal, and firmly moral nature, others were disappointed with her passivity. Jane Austen's own mother "Thought Fanny insipid," and Austen's lively niece Anna "could not bear Fanny" (MW 432). Yet Fanny is our heroine, and Edmund must switch (after hundreds of pages!) from admiring the lively, witty Mary Crawford to loving the subdued, definitely un-witty Fanny Price before the novel can reach its obligatory happy ending.
Jane Austen seems deliberately to construct scenes forcing a comparison of the two young women. While Fanny quivers even to hear talk of horses, Mary proves herself a bold horsewoman: "Miss Crawford's enjoyment of riding was such, that she did not know how to leave off. Active and fearless, and, though rather small, strongly made, she seemed formed for a horsewoman" (66). Boasting "'I am very strong,'"...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal
Addressing readerly unease: discovering the gothic in Mansfield Park., January 01, 2006
Jane Austen's relics and the treasures of the East Room.(Essay), January 01, 2006
Jane Austen and birthdays.(Miscellany), January 01, 2006
"The three Sisters": a "little bit of ivory".(Miscellany)(Critical ess..., January 01, 2006
Dancing through Austen's plots: a pedagogy of the body.(Miscellany), January 01, 2006
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