Revisit Mansfield Park Read online

  Revisit Mansfield Park

  How Fanny Married Henry

  Sarah Ozcandarli

  Copyright © 2014 Sarah Ozcandarli

  All Rights Reserved

  For Altan, because I love him,

  And it was his idea

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Introducing Fanny

  Henry Falls in Love

  A Marriage Proposal

  A Turning Point

  Henry's First Letter

  Correspondence

  Another Visit

  More Letters

  A Crisis, Part I

  A Crisis, Part II

  A Love Letter

  The Wedding

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1, Revisit Mansfield Park Book II

  Notes

  Preface

  Mansfield Park seems (to me) to be the only one of Jane Austen’s novels that has a what-if moment, actually two what-if moments. They both belong to Fanny Price; she has two opportunities – one positive and one negative – to change the outcome of the story. The opportunity for a happier outcome is the one I wanted to write about.

  For those readers who need to refresh their memory of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, the first three chapters summarize Fanny's story from Volumes I, II, and III, up to her what-if moment, and highlight those details from Mansfield Park that are most relevant to my story.

  This year is Mansfield Park’s 200th birthday, and everyone is talking about it. I have learned so much I didn’t know, accumulated so many opinions to think about, and gained ever more respect for Jane Austen and her work.

  Introducing Fanny

  At an early age Fanny Price was taken from the poverty and neglect of her own home in Portsmouth, to be brought up by her mother's sisters, who lived in greater wealth and gentility at Mansfield Park in Northamptonshire. This benevolent idea began with her mother's eldest sister, Mrs. Norris, who was full of busyness and the management of others, but preferred saving money to spending it. All expenditure and activity must be credited entirely to Sir Thomas Bertram, the husband of Mrs. Price's younger sister, Lady Bertram, and a man of good principles and good income, with a fine family of two sons and two daughters, and plenty of room for a young cousin. Mrs. Norris was determined that Fanny Price should grow up knowing that she was not “a Miss Bertram,” not at all the equal of her cousins, an attitude that did nothing to alleviate Fanny's shyness, timidity and natural reserve, nevertheless, Fanny grew from an awkward girl of ten to a pretty girl of fifteen, with rather less trouble and misadventure than she would have known in Portsmouth. Living in Mansfield, she was seldom thought of in Portsmouth, except by her eldest brother, William, with whom she kept up an unreserved correspondence, which grew in importance to both brother and sister after he began his career in the Navy and their correspondence became William's principal intercourse with the Price family as well.

  Though Sir Thomas was a careful and an anxious parent, he was not by nature endowed with those skills that inspire children to do well and do right for the gratification that goodness and right bestow. He did not know how to inspire affection or to give it, consequently his relations with three of his children – Maria and Julia and Tom (the eldest, who would be Sir Tom in time) – were not what he would have wished, had he been able to understand what they were. His daughters were apt to hide their pleasures from him, though their pleasures would not have earned his disapproval, and because he did not seem to love them, they did not love him. They preferred their aunt Norris for the flattery she lavished on them, which Sir Thomas mistook for the affection he knew not how to give. By the time Maria and Julia were out in society they appeared to be without fault, and therefore believed themselves to be faultless. The eldest son, Tom, was thoughtless, expensive, and preferred races, cards, hunts, and yachts to home; he was, therefore, seldom seen there. Edmund was unlike his brother and sisters; though he enjoyed pleasure and pleasantries, he did not live for them. He was to become a clergyman, destined for the two livings within Sir Thomas's gift, and he was as happy in this choice of career as he was suited to it. Edmund and Fanny were perhaps the two people at Mansfield Park who understood each other most clearly, and loved each other most dearly, though in Edmund's heart there was nothing of romance in his affection for his cousin. Of Lady Bertram it is hard to know what to say that is not too critical and yet is critical enough. She was more concerned for her pug than she was for her children, more concerned that she would be fatigued on her sofa than that her husband would be in danger and discomfort on board a ship from Antigua bound for England, yet her soft voice and vague affection were of great service to Fanny in making Mansfield Park, at least in the environs of Lady Bertram's sofa, a calm and comfortable place.

  Fanny's natural temper was to love and be loved, but when she was transported from Portsmouth, where she had been of the greatest importance to one older brother and six younger brothers and sisters, to an entirely new life in Mansfield, where she was of no use to anyone at all, this abrupt change caused her, quite naturally, to feel inferior to her older and more sophisticated cousins, a feeling that should have dissipated in time, but that her aunt Norris was determined to teach Fanny that she was inferior to her cousins, and her seemingly forbidding uncle contributed more to Mrs. Norris' lesson than he intended. Fanny was sensitive, and perhaps took the lesson too much to heart, but as the lesson itself was wrong, she must be excused for learning what she was taught. As well as making Fanny feel foolish, when, in fact, she had excellent sense, and making her feel she was dull, when truly her company was a great pleasure, her natural desire to love those with whom she lived was inhibited by her desire to protect her heart from the kinds of hurt she felt too often in her early days at Mansfield Park. She learned early to love her cousin Edmund, for he took the trouble to know her, and she learned slowly to love her aunt Bertram, who was in no way forbidding, but as none of the others seemed to want her affection, and her cousins Maria and Julia and her aunt Norris plainly rejected it, Fanny learned to protect and guard her feelings, though she was still so tender-hearted that she would grieve for Mrs. Norris when Mr. Norris died, though Mrs. Norris showed no sorrow herself. In all other respects she was a model of good conduct, sweet in manner, with excellent understanding, and punctilious in the knowledge and performance of all duty. Fanny received much less praise than she deserved; but her cousin Edmund noted her efforts and praised them, and he also received all her confidences. Her health was not robust but she was not sickly; only, without her regular exercise riding the old grey pony, and later Edmund's mare, she was not strong and had no stamina. Living quietly in the country agreed with her and she grew to love Mansfield Park, though she was never entirely free from fears of embarrassment or mortification, usually caused by the unjust critiques of Mrs. Norris or the sometimes frightening formality and dignity of Sir Thomas.

  At this time several changes in the neighborhood altered Fanny's life considerably: one, Sir Thomas left England for a year to manage his property in Antigua, two, the Rev. Mr. Norris, the rector of Mansfield and the husband of aunt Norris, died, leaving the living vacant for Dr. and Mrs. Grant, and three, Henry and Mary Crawford came to the parsonage, Mary in search of a home, and Henry for a long visit.

  The Crawfords were brother and sister to Mrs. Grant, the children of her mother's second marriage. Their parents died when they were children, and as children they had a home with Admiral Crawford, their father's brother, but when his wife died, the Admiral preferred to keep his mistress at home with him, rather than his young niece; therefore Miss Crawford sought a more respectable home with Mrs. Grant. The Crawfords were young people of fashion and wealth; Mary had a fortune of £20,0
00 and Henry an estate in Norfolk, Everingham, worth £4,000 a year.

  Sir Thomas' going made rather less difference to daily life at Mansfield Park than the arrival of Miss Crawford and Mr. Crawford at the parsonage. While Sir Thomas was at home, and preoccupied by worries concerning his property in Antigua, and his son Tom's debts and associates and expensive occupations, he had little appetite for visiting and dining out, and had not vigorously sought the acquaintance of Dr. and Mrs. Grant. With Sir Thomas in Antigua and the Crawfords in residence, Mrs. Grant, desiring to make her home comfortable and amusing to her London-bred sister, did seek the acquaintance of the Bertrams and soon the two families were meeting every day at the park or at the parsonage. There were dinner parties, singing parties, impromptu dancing parties, and walking and riding-on-horseback parties. Few of these festivities included Fanny Price, who though now eighteen, was not yet introduced into society. Fanny stayed at home with Lady Bertram, performing most of her aunt's household duties and keeping her aunt company in her indolence and idleness. This was no hardship to Fanny; she preferred being useful to being in company, and was genuinely fond of her aunt.

  Maria Bertram was nominally engaged to Mr. Rushworth, a young man of much wealth – £12,000 a year – but very little brain, and only waiting for Sir Thomas' return and formal approval. Maria's engagement seemed to designate Henry Crawford as Julia's suitor; instead both sisters seemed equally inclined to fall in love with him. Henry had not a handsome face, but his person and his manners were very attractive, so much so that his conversation more than made up for his face, and Maria and Julia, who at first declared him to be plain, so very plain, soon changed their opinions and would no longer allow him to be so described. Henry's declared intention was not to fall in love, but that need not prevent him from causing either or both the Miss Bertrams to fall in love with him. Despite Maria's promise to Mr. Rushworth, she was soon receiving Henry's pointed attentions happily; Julia was equally attracted, and also accepted his gallantry with pleasure.

  Mary Crawford had early acknowledged to Mrs. Grant her desire to marry well and her pleasure at being in the neighborhood of a baronet and a Member of Parliament, and, more particularly, his eldest son. Much to her dismay, Mary discovered that she did not care for the future Sir Tom; she preferred his younger brother, Edmund. When she learned that Edmund was destined to be a clergyman, a profession for which Mary had no respect, she tried to like him less, but only liked him more and more. Edmund and Mary earnestly loved each other, but gained no satisfaction from their feelings, for Edmund did not believe that Mary would accept him, were he to ask, and she knew not how she would answer, thus they withstood many months of suspense, anticipation and depression, united not only in their feelings, but also in their confidant, who was Fanny. Edmund talked to Fanny of his feelings, and later Miss Crawford talked to Fanny of her feelings, and Fanny became aware of her own feelings: she thought she was in love with Edmund too.

  Though her opinion of Henry Crawford was never solicited, Fanny did neither like nor respect him. She saw through his gallantries towards her cousins, noted that he created jealousy between Maria and Mr. Rushworth and between Maria and Julia, and perceived that all his flattery must be to gratify mainly himself, as he seemed to have no real feelings for either Maria or Julia. Fanny acknowledged to herself that Miss Crawford was good-natured and charming, and especially kind to her, but even so, she could not entirely approve her. Often her wit caused Fanny a twinge of guilt, even as she smiled, for Miss Crawford's little jokes often implied some disrespect towards the object of her wit. And there was no getting around the fact that Miss Crawford spoke contemptuously of the clergy and wished to dissuade Edmund from his chosen career. Edmund did not seem to feel these jibes as Fanny did, and perhaps Fanny felt them more on that account.

  When the season shifted to autumn, Tom Bertram welcomed to Mansfield Park a friend, the Hon.[1] Mr. Yates, who had lately been staying with a theatrical party, which had been interrupted in their acting by an untimely death in the family. Mr. Yates' obsession with acting was soon communicated amongst his new friends, and they too became possessed by the desire to be acting.

  After an absence of more than a year, Sir Thomas wrote from Antigua to say that he would be returning in November, about three months hence. As if they were determined to enjoy themselves as much as possible before their stern, serious father returned to extract all gayety from the family party, Maria and Tom, with the support of Mr. Yates and Mr. Crawford, and after much discussion of comedy and tragedy, chose to act Lovers' Vows. Although Edmund was steadily opposed to acting in general, and Lovers' Vows specifically, for its story of seduction and illegitimacy, he was unable to convince his brother and sisters that acting would violate Sir Thomas' sense of decorum, that it would be inconsiderate of the danger to Sir Thomas while he was at sea on his return to England, or that it would be improper for Maria, engaged to Mr. Rushworth, to be embracing Henry Crawford in Act I of Lovers' Vows. Edmund's opposition was in vain; his brother and sisters were determined to disregard the impropriety, if any, and threw themselves into theatricals with all enthusiasm.

  Julia was the first to be made unhappy in the theatre. When Henry Crawford expressed his preference for Maria to act Agatha, to be his partner in the most intimate scenes of the play, Julia could no longer pretend that she was not in love with Henry, or that he was in love with her. She withdrew from the scheme generally, was lonely and gloomy, and consoled only by the attentions of Mr. Yates. Mr. Rushworth was the next to become discontented. He was made jealous by the too frequent rehearsals of Act I, in which Maria and Henry played, and replayed, their scene of reunion and confession, with much embracing and clasping of hands, and he was frustrated in his attempt to learn his own part, which required two-and-forty speeches, approximately forty more than his little brain could hold, even in shortened form. Though Fanny disapproved of the theatricals on her uncle's account, and was far too shy and timid to act before an audience, she was one evening entreated by Tom and Maria, and even Mr. Crawford and Mr. Yates, to take a small part in the play, and their entreaty was supported by Mrs. Norris' contribution that Fanny was ungrateful and obstinate to refuse to oblige her cousins, considering who and what she was. Fanny was saved from the horror of acting Cottager's wife by the intervention of Edmund with Mrs. Norris, and Mary Crawford with her brother, and with Miss Crawford's support Fanny survived that unpleasant evening, only to learn the next morning that Edmund had decided that he must act a role in the play, so that Mary Crawford should not have to act opposite an acquaintance of Tom's, who was a stranger to her. Soon all the actors were confiding their discontents to Fanny and though no one seemed to be happy (excepting perhaps Maria and Henry) they were all infected by a sort of feverish excitement; they were rehearsing all day and all evening, until one afternoon, when all three acts were to be rehearsed together, the players were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Sir Thomas.

  Henry Falls in Love

  All Edmund's scruples as to the propriety of private theatricals in the absence of his father proved to be exactly what Sir Thomas felt himself. But for Sir Thomas' desire to be happy and at home, his own declaration that he had “come home to be happy and indulgent,”[2] he might have expressed more of the displeasure that he truly felt. But Sir Thomas' long absence had changed his way of talking and being with his family; he was more affectionate, more interested in their concerns, and more perceptive of their feelings. The next morning Edmund gave Sir Thomas a fair summation of the entire scheme, without justifying his own involvement, saying “We have all been more or less to blame, excepting Fanny,”[3] and Sir Thomas, wanting not to see how much he had been forgotten in his absence, by his sons and daughters and their friends, contented himself with clearing the house of anything theatrical and burning all the scripts.

  It was now Maria's turn to be unhappy as she waited for Henry Crawford to come forward and declare himself to Sir Thomas as Maria's lover, to ask for her father's ap
proval of their engagement and marriage, and to save her from the tedium of a life with Mr. Rushworth. When Henry finally came to the park two days after Sir Thomas' return, Maria watched hopefully as the man she most fervently loved was introduced to her father, but her keen anticipation was instantly abashed as Mr. Crawford began to make his adieus, for he was leaving Mansfield Park to join his uncle in Bath. His attentions to Maria had not been sincere, whereas she was very much in love with him, and her agony as she realized all this was severe. She was, however, too proud to show her true feelings, or to later sacrifice her conquest of Mr. Rushworth. When Sir Thomas went to visit Mr. Rushworth at his own home, Sir Thomas found himself disappointed by Mr. Rushworth's lack of intellect, knowledge, or sense, and he agreed wholeheartedly with Edmund's assessment: “If this man had not twelve thousand a year he would be a very stupid fellow.”[4] Noting Maria's frequent coldness to Mr. Rushworth, Sir Thomas conferred with Maria, kindly offering to act for her, and to release her from the engagement if she was not happy, but she assured her father that she was pleased with her prospects and wished for no delay. The wedding took place almost immediately, for Maria was eager to escape her home and family, and desirous of a larger income than her father's. During the marriage service, Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris were prepared to be tearful and sentimental, but their handkerchiefs and salts were not needed at the sight of the bride and groom, for Maria despised her husband, and he was entirely unaware of the danger of his position. Then the newly-married Rushworths proceeded, with Julia as companion for the bride, to Brighton, where there were amusements enough to keep them busy until they could proceed to London for its season.

  Mansfield Park was now almost empty and silent, compared to the autumn of hustle and bustle and acting. Fanny and Edmund were the only young people at home, and for Fanny this was pure happiness. Sir Thomas' gravity did not bore her as it bored her cousins Maria and Julia, and a quiet evening reading to her aunt or talking of serious subjects such as the slave trade in Antigua, was perfectly agreeable to her. Sir Thomas was pleased with Fanny's satisfaction in their quiet family party; it had not escaped his notice that his daughters preferred noisy amusements to tranquil ones, nor that they preferred young men and society to their own family.