Jane Austen discussion
Mansfield Park 2017 Discussion
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vol 3, ch. 13-end
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SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.
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Aug 27, 2017 08:59AM

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She and Edmund may not want to invigorate the Bertram line. Maria and Tom are most capable of doing that. So, we have to look at what does Fanny want? She wants Edmund and I personally think she will be perfectly happy. It is all she has ever wanted.

Louise,
Your idea of a pairing of Tom and Susan sounds like in intriguing web FF! If I had any turn for writing stories, I'd write it myself and give you credit for the idea.
I like Fanny, but I don't think she or Edmund are lively enough to crave exhilaration in marriage.
Edmund's has had his experience with with excitement via his attraction/fling with vivacious and sophisticated Mary Crawford.
I think that experience will make him content and happy with Fanny.


I'd never thought of Susan and Tom...


I wasn't trying to say that. I reread what I said above about Edmund and Fanny as a couple after his interest in the exciting Mary. I was trying to say that would be happy to NOT be on the emotional roller coaster" with Fanny as a calm marital partner. Stability and reliability of Fanny.


I am aware that my written communication is not always clear.
I thought maybe i a gave an impression of Edmund and Fanny going wild and crazy after Edmund was hot for Mary and had to give her up!

perhaps. i would have found it more interesting if he had married Mary and Fanny had married Henry. a Fanny/Edmund marriage seems very dull to me. I can imagine their parishoners making haste to get out of the way when they see them coming.

Thanks Lona for the reference. I've added it to my wish-list.

The reason I felt/feel the Fanny-Edmund relationship very unconvincing (if not unsatisfactory) is that while a great chunk of the book is dedicated to Edmund's and Mary's feelings for each other, Fanny's & Edmund's relationship is summed up in 1 page more or less. He behaves like a loving brother to Fanny until the penultimate page and then we reach the end. OK, definitely there is safety, trust & dependability, but zero sexual attraction. Fanny seems to be unable to cope with more passionate feelings.

I know what you mean, it's hard to see Edmund and Fanny romantically, and the brother/sister, first cousins dynamics makes it even harder. But perhaps Austen wanted to show a different kind of love? A successful marriage based on mutual respect and friendship rather than sexual attraction. If only we could ask her...!

I am sure that after P&P, JA wanted to experiment in her literary laboratory & write something different with a totally different kind of heroine in a different world with different aspirations and relationships. :)

Or maybe it's like a camera pulling back, so fewer details are sketched in.

I'm not in the Edmund/Mary or Fanny/Henry camp.
I'm happy for Fanny, but I agree that JA rushes the end of her novels. It's as if she's sick the novel and doesn't want to spend any more time on them.
I feel sorry for Mary. Having known a really good young man whom she realizes would have been a good husband, I think may have raised her hopes in what she wants in a marriage. She's so committed to the fashionable life, she may not find the a man who would be like Edmund as a husband among the fashionable set. She may have to "settle" for a man from that set who will not fulfill her desires for the type of marriage she hopes for, having known Edmund and "settle" for a "fashionable" marriage.

I like the wry humour of Austen's voice at the end. You could say she gives a reason for her quick endings in declaring that she is "impatient to restore everybody, not greatly in fault themselves, to tolerable comfort and have done with all the rest." And that, I suppose, is exactly what she does. She gives everyone who deserves it (by their goodness or their repentance) their happy ending, ties up all the story lines swiftly and neatly, and promptly banishes the 'bad' guys.
I find it a satisfying ending, the ironic humour of the author prevents it from being too sentimental or moralistic. Austen gets the tone just right for me.


I agree. Even though Fanny gets her happy ending, I think Austen is too much of a realist to suggest that marriage (even a happy marriage) is the only important thing in a woman's life. As you say, personal moral growth is the most important theme that she's exploring; a happy ending in the form of marriage is just the icing on the cake.

Sir Thomas realised he had not been the parent he should have been, especially in allowing Maria to marry a man she did not love.
Julia was repentant and sought her father's forgiveness for her elopement, and returned to the family fold.
Tom was a reformed character after his illness and became "useful to his father, steady and quiet, and not living merely for himself".
Edmund realised he had been Mary's "dupe", and awakened to the true value of Fanny's character.
Austen doesn't tell us explicitly how Fanny changes, but I see her growth coming from the shedding of her self-doubt and low self esteem as a result of the family finally treating her as a daughter, and not as a subservient outsider.

Agreed.
Poor Henry and Mary, I guess, did not experience any growth.

https://seasonsofhumility.blogspot.co...
For folks who can't get enough Mansfield Park discussions...

I love the idea of Tom/Susan too. Please someone put that idea to paper!

Thanks for the recommendation. I read it and it is well done. Fanny is herself, a passive aggressive wet blanket, but she comes along and develops and so does Henry. There is not a lot of incident, it's mostly people talking to one another, and Realizing Things.



+100 to the capitalized "Realizing Things". ;) And yea.. Fanny is mostly a wet blanket.

Oh that's funny, I could access the work just fine without registration, hope you can too! I've read Sherwood Smith's version and thought it just alright... perhaps because I wanted a Fanny-Henry ending so bad... so I looked past the convenient serendipity in the plot. Reading Everingham (the piece I had recommended) was more satisfying, as the characters felt truer to Mansfield Park.


In my variation, A Contrary Wind: a variation on Mansfield Park, Fanny spends time with Henry, but doesn't end up with him. Henry is a beguiling, very vital character, but I think he and Fanny are oil and water.

SHe doesn't really show a different kind of love though, because we are only told that Edmund eventually decides to marry Fanny in the Last few pages, there is no sign in the course of the novel that he has any romantic interest in Fanny. IT's a bit like poor Marianne in Sense and Sensibility - we are assured that she is content to marry Brandon, in the end, but again, nothing up until that point gives any indication of that.

I don’t really have anything to add to the discussion. I agree that the point of this story is not about the HEA. Morality, wealth, family and status are themes, and it does make it an interesting read.

The tiny amount of time spent on Edmund considering Fanny as the object of his affection is what makes it what makes it unconvincing to me too.


To me, Henry Crawford has always seemed like someone who wants the chase, but would quickly get bored with the prize. Fanny and Edmund may seem dull, compared to other Austen pairings, but they are temperamentally suited to one another.



Louise,
I think you’ve just laid out for us why the pairing of these couples are good ones.
Theses are so much better pairings than Lizzie and Darcy!