Mansfield Park

Summary

Mansfield Park follows Fanny Price, the timid daughter of a poor, overburdened family in Portsmouth, who at ten is taken in by her wealthy aunt and uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park in Northamptonshire. Her other aunt, the officious and mean Mrs Norris, never lets her forget her dependent status, and her cousins Tom, Maria and Julia treat her with indifference. Only her cousin Edmund, a younger son destined for the Church, is kind to her, and she grows up loving him silently. When Sir Thomas goes to Antigua to deal with problems on his plantation, the young people's discipline loosens. The fashionable Henry and Mary Crawford, brother and sister of the vicar's wife Mrs Grant, arrive in the neighbourhood. Henry flirts with both Bertram sisters, although Maria is engaged to the rich, stupid Mr Rushworth; Mary attracts Edmund, despite her disdain for the clergy. During a visit to Rushworth's estate at Sotherton, the couples pair off in the grounds. The young people then stage the risqué play Lovers' Vows, which Fanny and at first Edmund oppose, until Edmund is drawn in to act opposite Mary. Sir Thomas returns unexpectedly and ends the theatricals. Maria marries Rushworth. Now in favour, Fanny is given a ball, and Henry, at first meaning only to amuse himself, falls in love with her and proposes. Fanny refuses him, believing him unprincipled, and Sir Thomas, angry at her ingratitude, sends her back to her parents' cramped, noisy home in Portsmouth to reflect. Henry visits her there and seems to improve. Then news comes that Tom Bertram, after a drinking bout, is dangerously ill with fever, that Maria has run off with Henry Crawford, and that Julia has eloped with the foolish Mr Yates. Mary Crawford's worldly response to the scandal finally opens Edmund's eyes. Fanny returns to Mansfield as its comfort. Maria, abandoned by Henry, lives in exile with Mrs Norris. Tom recovers and reforms. Edmund comes to love Fanny, they marry, and they take the living of Mansfield parsonage.

Top Lessons

• Principle over charm

  Fanny's quiet judgment proves sounder than the Crawfords' brilliance. Austen asks readers to value constancy and conscience over wit and attraction.

• Education shapes character

  Sir Thomas realises too late that his daughters were taught accomplishments but not principle. The novel examines what upbringing really instils.

• Comfort built on exploitation

  Mansfield's wealth depends partly on Antigua, and Fanny's question about the slave trade meets 'dead silence'. Modern readers ask what the novel acknowledges and what it leaves unspoken.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Tom Bertram's dangerous illness, a fever following a fall and heavy drinking at Newmarket, brings the family close to losing its heir and is treated as a moral as well as physical crisis, with his slow convalescence nursed at home. Fanny's own frailty, including headaches after cutting roses in the heat, and her decline in health in noisy, ill-ventilated Portsmouth, connect environment and well-being in a way typical of the period. Dr Grant, the gourmandising clergyman, dies of apoplexy after three great dinners in a week, an Austen joke about diet and stroke. Lady Bertram's languor and Mrs Norris's officious 'doctoring' give comic notes on Regency invalidism.

• Vol. I, Ch. 7

  Fanny's headache after being sent out to cut roses and walk in the heat.

• Vol. III, Ch. 13–14 (Ch. 44–45)

  News that Tom has fallen dangerously ill with fever after a drinking bout and a fall; his return home and nursing.

• Vol. III, Ch. 7–8 (Ch. 38–39)

  The noise, dirt and close air of the Price household in Portsmouth affect Fanny's health and spirits.

• Vol. III, Ch. 17 (Ch. 48)

  Dr Grant dies of apoplexy after three great institutionary dinners in one week.