I am finding that this book is actually an easier read than The Victim of Prejudice. When Fanny first comes to Mansfield Park, she is shy and backward. Her aunts are actually not really excited about Fanny coming to live with them. Mrs. Norris doesn’t help anything, she actually scares Fanny more. I really haven’t figured out why she even suggested it, because Mrs. Norris had no intention of supporting her. When “Sir Thomas expected his sister-in-law to claim her share in their niece” ( p.34) after five years, Mrs. Norris begins to reveal her intentions, not so much in words, but in the excuses she comes up with against Fanny moving in with her. Mrs. Norris seems to like to use other peoples money, and does not hesitate to make suggestions and inferences on where they should spend it. She is not as high-class as she would like to be.
It would actually seem as if no one except maybe Edmund really cares about Fanny. She is in much the same boat as Mary Raymond was in. Her father was low-class and only had enough money to buy alcohol for himself. She was considered low class and because of that , a marriage to someone of high ‘quality’ would be unthinkable, and everyone figures she is stupid on top of it. She was not lucky enough to have an education, like her cousins. Mrs. Norris decides to take a hand in getting her nieces married to well-to-do gentlemen, but the last niece she thinks about (in a secondhand manner) is Fanny.
The class system is very much in appearance in this book. Fanny doesn’t want a lot of attention, that might be why she stays with Mrs. Bertram when everyone goes out. Maybe part of the reason for this is that her birth was considered not of quality. So everyone she has to deal with at Mansfield Park looks down their nose at her and do not expect much from her. I don’t really understand what Miss Crawford was referring to asking, “Pray, is she out, or is she not?” (p. 76). Perhaps she was referring to Fanny’s social class status? At this point in the book, the social class girls all think of marrying well and making themselves and their immediate environments attractive. I tend to call that conceited and short-sited. What will they do if their intended husbands should pass away or be seriously injured. Like Mrs. Norris, when they no longer have someone to support them and their lavish habits, how will they fare?
Literature Rocks 