What Do I Want To Do?

This is a question I seem to be asking myself the closer we get to the end of the semester. If I concentrate on what I need to do, then maybe I will get it done. Then, along comes someone or something which not only breaks my concentration, but manages to side-track me. Fanny, as she waits at Portsmouth to come home to Mansfield Park, is anxious for her time away to be over. She hears from Mary Clark, Henry Clark shows up (she doesn’t really want anything to do with him) and it takes a while for Edmund to write to her but when he does, her days are spent waiting for the post to come in. Fanny has found her place in life and when taken away from it, she makes do and gets some good done like getting closer to her sister, Susan. When she finally goes back to Mansfield Park, she sees to it that her sister gets a little help in finding her place in the world too. Susan takes Fanny’s place by their aunt Bertram. Fanny has had the correct vision of the Clark’s (that they were selfish and only interested in what they felt was good for them) from the time she met them, but being considered “not high class” makes it difficult to get others to see the truth behind it.

Fanny waits it all out, supposedly with patience, but deep down, I believe she was truly heart-broken that her cousins could have their pick of the husbands but she had to settle for Henry, who was detestable in her eyes. In the end though, Fanny gets what she desired most the whole time, Edmund. Austen tells us through this story that there are many things wrong in the world, but with perseverance and patience, wrongs can be righted. Not all things work out as they should, because of the different decisions that are made by others, but social class and racism can be overcome.

Each of the characters in this book are asking “What do I want?” As Fanny waits to return to Mansfield Park, I’m sure there were times that she asked, “What do I do?” Throughout the book, there are echos of “What should I do?” from Fanny. She holds many of her tears, as she sees everyone else getting what they want, but do they deserve it? A prime example of that would be the situation with Julia and Mr. Rushworth. She wanted to marry him because he had money, then she tires of him and meets Mr. Yates. She runs off with Mr. Yates and forsakes her husband! In my opinion, that was not smart.