Jane Austen For Beginners

by Robert Dryden

  Austen’s understanding and representation of the genders is progressive and pioneering for her time. Darcy, who is arguably the most popular of all of Austen’s male characters, is attracted to Elizabeth’s intellect. She challenges him and he likes it. Clearly he is not used to this treatment from the majority of women he meets. He falls in love with Elizabeth because he finds in her a companion who is outspoken, free-thinking, and independent. These characteristics were not common or encouraged in women of the late eighteenth century. The invention of an Elizabeth Bennet is evidence that Jane Austen was forward-thinking. Darcy’s receptiveness and desire for a smart woman provides evidence that times are changing. In sync with marriages in all of Austen’s novels, these couples are friends, lovers, and companions. Pride and prejudice are connected with traditional thinking about marriage. Austen shows the degree to which pride and prejudice are obstacles for these characters. In the end, though, they are not insurmountable.

  These marriages may be stepping stones in English society for a more progressive and liberal way of thinking, but we can’t ignore the fact that the patriarchal order is still very much in effect. The marriage between Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas reminds us that not all women can be cavalier like Elizabeth Bennet (or Jane Austen) and turn down a proposal of marriage. Charlotte is an example of the norm in English society. Her decision is practical. Charlotte is well aware that she might not have another chance at marriage, and the consequences of spinsterhood far outweigh the consequences of a loveless marriage.

  Other reminders that the patriarchy is still alive and well include Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet’s desperation to see her daughters get married regardless of the match demonstrates the urgency for women in this society to marry. Marriage is a woman’s primary goal, and Mrs. Bennet can think of nothing else. Mr. Bennet appears to value his daughter’s intelligence and free thinking when Elizabeth refuses Mr. Collins’s proposal, but his elation at his daughter’s wealth as a result of her marriage to Darcy suggests that for him as well, the criterion of love in marriage is secondary to wealth. That said, we can’t scold him too harshly; from his point of view, his modest assets will not begin to support all of his daughters when he is gone. Elizabeth’s alliance with someone of Darcy’s stature and wealth will ensure that none of his daughters will ever be wanting for material support.

  Pemberley represents a middle ground, a hybrid between tradition and the future of England. It functions in the text as a symbol of the progressive love that Elizabeth and Darcy share. Additionally, it represents progressive thinking. In order to achieve their love, both partners have had to shed many layers of pride and prejudice—the trappings of a society so rich in stifling patriarchal tradition. The couple’s triumph and union make Pemberley a positive symbol of a new Great Britain. But in the same breath, its grandeur, history, and material value remind us that it is connected with tradition and the landed ancestry of old England.

  Finally, the dark conflicts that plagued Darcy and forced him to play the role of the Romantic hero have been resolved. His dark and brooding persona that initially kept him on the margins of society has evolved into that of a well-adjusted gentleman, who is generous, warm, and filled with love. Darcy is a man of feeling and strength, but in the early stages of his interaction with Elizabeth, he was secretly tormented—torn between the desires of his own heart and the desires and responsibilities of his society. The interior struggle he endured is a testament to his drive and desire to be true to himself. Throughout his journey he is often misunderstood, but that is of little consequence to him. His internal battle with the pride and prejudice of his society shows us that he is capable of change. When Elizabeth first meets him, Darcy is incapable of doing right by her because he couldn’t reconcile his own feelings. And the same can be said for Elizabeth. But as the couple emerges in union at the end—in spite of the pride and prejudices of their society—the Romantic hero and his heroine have done justice to their own hearts. Having been rejected once, it is no small feat that Darcy is able to propose a second time. It is also impressive that Elizabeth is able to stand up to the likes of Lady Catherine and prove herself as a woman of courage and substance. As a result, we gentle readers can come to no other conclusion but that Darcy and Elizabeth will certainly live happily ever after.

  Chapter 4

  Mansfield Park

  Mansfield Park is considered to be Austen’s least humorous and most complicated and serious novel. The themes she presents are similar to those that appear in her other books: social class issues that involve waxing and waning fortunes, honorable middle-class characters who demonstrate positive social traits, suspect characters from the gentry who show us a contemptible side of England’s elite, and a changing of the guard between some members of the middle class and some of the gentry. Taking place between 1783 and 1793, Mansfield Park also allows us to look outside of the provincial world of Austen’s tiny English communities to catch sight of and access some of the wider world of the late eighteenth century—the aftermath of the American War of Independence (as it is called in Great Britain), the dawn of the Napoleonic Wars, the Industrial Revolution, and the expanding British economy in the colonies. Austen even manages to weave into her plot information about a slave plantation on the island of Antigua. Part of Austen’s greatness is that while she is writing about a seemingly small, provincial world in England, the statements she makes about Fanny and the inhabitants of Mansfield Park provide social commentary that transcends the focused stage of the novel’s setting. This point about Austen’s work in part explains her immense popularity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The stories she weaves about her isolated communities are universal and still relevant. We identify with Austen’s world on a broad scale and also on a basic human level. No one understands human nature like Jane Austen.

  From the first paragraph of the novel, Austen has a keen eye on social class distinctions. The intermingling of social-class stations is achieved when Fanny, the second eldest daughter of Mrs. and Mr. Price of Portsmouth, is sent to Mansfield Park to live with her landed and wealthy aunt and uncle, the Bertrams. This move is intended to take some of the burden off of Fanny’s mother Frances, who already has eight children, but most importantly it sets the stage for the novel’s great juxtaposition: Austen contrasts poor Fanny’s ethics and morals with those of her four elite cousins. We might expect that with such good breeding and privileged upbringing, the Bertram family would be far superior to Fanny in manners and morals; however, this could not be further from the truth. In her depiction of social-class distinctions, Austen demonstrates that in manners, morals, religious faith, and commitment to marrying for love and not rank or wealth, Fanny far outstrips her noble cousins.

  In Fanny, Austen creates a character who is steadfast to a fault in her principles. By juxtaposing Fanny with members of the Bertram clan at Mansfield, Austen is able to make the somewhat radical argument that many of the members of England’s gentry are immoral, lazy, licentious, disrespectful, unfaithful, and spoiled. In her representation of Mansfield Park, Austen comes close to arguing that segments of the gentry are rotten to the core. The baronet, Sir Thomas Bertram, wishes to instill strong morals and principles in his children, but son Edmund aside, his efforts are largely failing. The eldest boy Tom has a penchant for drinking and gambling, the eldest daughter Maria is extremely flirtatious and eventually unfaithful to her husband, the youngest Bertram daughter, Julia, elopes with a man who has suspect morals, and Lady Bertram is perpetually lazy, vague, and mentally out of it.

  Adding substantially to the coarse behavior at Mansfield Park are the characters Henry and Mary Crawford, who are connected to the area because Mary is sisters with Mrs. Grant (the wife of the current parson at Mansfield Park). As the reader gets to know him, we discover that Henry is a rake, who flirts incessantly with every attractive woman he encounters, including both Bertram sisters and with Fanny. The character of Mary is a bit more complicated. On the one
hand, she is a female version of her brother; she has a sharp tongue, is flirtatious, manipulative, materialistic, and shallow. On the other hand, however, Mary can be viewed as a precursor to a feminist personality. She speaks her mind, argues with men, is highly intelligent, and ignores the conventions of a woman’s dutiful role in society. In the context of Austen’s novel, Mary contributes mightily to the misrule at Mansfield Park. But from a modern point of view, we might reconsider our opinion of Mary Crawford and view her as a strong female.

  As an example of misrule among members of the gentry at Mansfield Park, Austen takes a page from Shakespeare and weaves into her text a play within her novel. That is, in the latter portion of Volume I, Sir Thomas is forced to depart from England for many months in order to tend to financial matters at his property on the island of Antigua. While he is away, a friend of Tom’s, a Mr. John Yates, arrives on the scene and proposes to the group that for their own amusement they stage a play called Lovers’ Vows, by Elizabeth Inchbald. To modern audiences, this activity seems rather tame and constructive, but because Inchbald’s play is considered risqué and contains flirtatious scenes, its appropriateness is questioned. The play within Austen’s novel is significant for three reasons: first, since the misrule occurs when the head of the Mansfield Park household is not present, Austen may be taking a cue from history and drawing a parallel between events at Mansfield and events in Great Britain during the time that she is writing (not the time during which the novel takes place). Since Austen is writing during the Regency period when King George III was largely absent from the throne, Austen might be implying that just as misrule is unleashed at Mansfield Park when the father is away, so misrule is unleashed in the kingdom when its ruler is absent. That is, with no significant role model at the head to provide guidance, moral fortitude is waning and excessive behavior is on the rise. Secondly, the play demonstrates how quickly the characters are willing to participate in an activity that Sir Thomas would disapprove of; even Edmund is seduced into the idea by Mary Crawford. And finally, the play shows us that despite all the temptations and easy opportunities to have a lapse in judgment, Fanny is unyielding in her exemplary behavior. The other characters endlessly insist that she must participate in their production. In spite of extreme peer pressure, however, Fanny resists at every turn. And as a result, she is generously applauded by Sir Thomas when he returns from the West Indies.

  Sir Thomas’s journey to Antigua is another event in the novel that, small though it may seem, has significant historical and thematic value. Antigua functions as an example of the colonial efforts and opportunism of Great Britain in the Americas and around the world. By the 1780s, Great Britain had long since become dependent on colonial resources. The Triangle Trade, which had begun in the late sixteenth century, would continue into the early nineteenth century. There is much opportunism taking place in the colonial realm, and (as the example demonstrates), landed characters at home in England have become dependent on the colonial realm to sustain their landed estates. We also see here in the late eighteenth century that (in spite of major losses in America) Great Britain is emerging worldwide as a colonizing empire. Thus, when Sir Thomas departs for Antigua in order to straighten out his affairs because his property is making “poor returns,” the reader can assume that the Bertrams are in possession of a sugar plantation that is currently not prospering due perhaps to disruption by the aftermath of the American War of Independence.

  In his book Culture and Imperialism, the scholar Edward Said is one of the first to discuss the significance of the Bertrams’ West Indian property. As Said says, the capital needed to sustain Mansfield Park inside of England is gained outside in the colonial realm. Members of the English gentry can prosper at home in their privileged lifestyles precisely because they are brutalizing and enslaving others outside of England around the world. The critique obviously implicates Jane Austen in the conspiracy that is British imperialism. Value judgments aside, Austen’s example of Antigua in Mansfield Park is a conduit out of provincial England and into the wider world of European empire-building.

  The presence of the British Royal Navy in the pages of Mansfield Park also contributes to the thematic content about morals and ethics, in addition to providing a tapestry that ties the novel into an historical context. Since the action takes place in the 1780s, we witness a period in British history where the navy is at an extremely low point in resources, manpower, and morale. We can attribute this primarily to the loss of the war with America. Momentum would not begin to build again until 1793 when the navy gears up to do battle with Revolutionary France in the Napoleonic Wars. Austen has great familiarity with and insight into the British Navy, but that is not surprising when we remember that her two brothers Francis and Charles both had distinguished careers in the navy. Francis, in fact, would eventually reach the position of Admiral of the Fleet (but that’s another story).

  With Austen’s ready knowledge of the ins and outs of naval life, we find how family fortunes wax and wane in concert with naval fortune and misfortune. In Mansfield Park we see examples of two very different kinds of naval identity: on the one hand, we see a navy that is downtrodden and depressed. Mr. Price of Portsmouth is disabled and alcoholic, a ne’er-do-well, who is not able to find his way back into naval employment, and who has not amounted to much in or out of naval life. We also see that his son William Price has extreme fears that his career in the navy might be a bust. When we meet him, he is at the rank of midshipman—an introductory position for an officer in training. As William laments when he comes to visit his sister at Mansfield Park, he will be “nothing” if he is not able to get a promotion to lieutenant. Finally we hear about a character called Admiral Crawford, who is the uncle of Mary and Henry Crawford. The Admiral may be a high-ranking member of the navy, but his manners and morals are apparently very low. He has been a terrible influence on his niece and nephew (who we have already learned have extremely bad manners). Fanny and Edmund spend much time contemplating Admiral Crawford’s corrupting influence on Henry and Mary. For a considerable portion of the novel, Mary’s bad manners are Edmund’s greatest regret.

  Hinting that brighter days are ahead for the navy, William Price does finally get his promotion from midshipman to lieutenant, and surprisingly it is Admiral Crawford who arranges it. In an apparent changing of the guard, Mr. Price and Admiral Crawford are dark and suspicious characters, but young William is a bright light, full of life and adventure. He represents Britain’s and the navy’s positive future. Fanny gets to see William in his new lieutenant’s uniform as he departs Portsmouth Harbor; the newly minted officer is depicted as dashing, proud, and optimistic. In spite of all the negativity that resides in the pages of Mansfield Park, Austen does see to it that moral and ethical goodness finally win the day. Amidst the moral decay that is emitted by low and high character alike, Fanny and Edmund rise up and finally recognize their mutual love for one another. Edmund fully acknowledges his calling for a career in the clergy, and Fanny fully supports it. Fanny is attracted to substance—no matter the social standing. She has been in love with Edmund practically from the first day she arrived at Mansfield Park. Her devotion has been constant, her faith unwavering. As we have seen, such honorable, steadfast behavior is highly valued in Austen’s world. And so Fanny and Edmund will triumph in the end, marry, and live happily ever after. And idealistically, their union will be based on love and not rank or wealth.

  • • •

  The first paragraph of Mansfield Park introduces a tale involving the three Ward sisters, who meet with different fates on the marriage market. The middle sister, Miss Maria, has the good fortune to catch the eye of a baronet, Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park. She becomes a lady and lives a life of comfort and security on an English country estate. The eldest sister (unnamed) finds a union with a man who has what Austen considers a most honorable profession: the clergy. She marries the Reverend Mr. Norris, a friend of Sir Thomas Bertram and clergyman at Mansfield Park. Mrs.
Norris will have no great fortune, but she and her husband live in the grand estate’s parsonage and are comfortable. Finally there is Miss Frances, the youngest sister, who has no luck on the marriage market and ends up in a middle-class position; she marries an uneducated and unconnected lieutenant of marines, who is one of the poorest characters in any Austen novel. She has not chosen well. Due perhaps to the fact that the novel takes place in the early 1780s (between the war with America and the war with Napoleon’s France), Mr. Price’s tenure in the navy occurs during a time of relative naval inactivity. As mentioned, his career has been poor, he has no prospects for future success, and he drinks; he also has a temper and, due to a prior injury, walks with a limp.

  The disparity between the fortunes of Maria and Frances, coupled with the fact that Sir Thomas isn’t able to assist Mr. Price in his naval career, create a rift between Maria and Frances, and for a time, all communication between them ceases. The divide persists for eleven years, until Frances finally writes to Maria requesting help. Mrs. Norris, who finds herself in the middle of the rift, suggests that one child be sent from Portsmouth to Mansfield Park to ease the burden carried by Frances. The goal, according to the Bertrams, is to provide the child with an education and a “proper” introduction to society, so that she might be married without needing lifelong support from her family or relatives. Social class issues, already apparent in the novel, are accentuated when Sir Thomas and Mrs. Norris vow that a distinction should always be clearly demarcated between Fanny and the Bertram children. Fanny is treated perpetually as less than her gentry cousins. In this sense the story has much in common with Cinderella.