Mansfield Park: in defence of Fanny Price

Of Jane Austen’s novels, Mansfield Park is the least popular. I’ve been rereading the book lately. In this blog post, I’ll respond to the common complaints, one by one.  
“Fanny Price is insipid.” 
She is quiet and introverted. 
Compared to some other Jane Austen heroines, especially Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, Fanny may not have the same vivacity and charm, but at the same time, her circumstances are different. Readers who complain that Fanny is quiet and boring usually forget that she’s sent to live with her rich relatives since a child, and always conscious of her own place. 
From the start, Sir Thomas makes it clear that she would not be equal to her cousins: 

““There will be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris,” observed Sir Thomas, “as to the distinction proper to be made between the girls as they grow up: how to preserve in the minds of my daughters the consciousness of what they are, without making them think too lowly of their cousin; and how, without depressing her spirits too far, to make her remember that she is not a Miss Bertram. I should wish to see them very good friends, and would, on no account, authorise in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation; but still they cannot be equals. Their rank, fortune, rights, and expectations will always be different...”” (Ch.1) 

Mrs Norris is always there to remind Fanny of her own place: 

““The nonsense and folly of people's stepping out of their rank and trying to appear above themselves, makes me think it right to give you a hint, Fanny, now that you are going into company without any of us; and I do beseech and entreat you not to be putting yourself forward, and talking and giving your opinion as if you were one of your cousins—as if you were dear Mrs. Rushworth or Julia. That will never do, believe me. Remember, wherever you are, you must be the lowest and last; and though Miss Crawford is in a manner at home at the Parsonage, you are not to be taking place of her. And as to coming away at night, you are to stay just as long as Edmund chuses. Leave him to settle that.”” (Ch.23) 

She can make no claims, and can never put herself forward. She is raised among snobs—Sir Thomas is kind but condescending towards her, and her cousins except Edmund think that her ignorance of geography and languages and her lack of accomplishments is due to stupidity, not lack of education. 
In such circumstances, how can she be as active, vivacious, and fun as Elizabeth Bennet? Or Mary Crawford? 

“Fanny is not as fun as Mary Crawford.” 
To some extent, I don’t disagree—Mary Crawford is more fun, she is clever and a good judge of character, and charming in her straightforwardness. 
But so what? I for one make a distinction between being fun and being interesting. Mary might be more fun, but Fanny has sensitivity and self-reflection, and also a richer mind. Mary might be perceptive of people, but she doesn’t have Fanny’s sensitivity and depth of feeling to appreciate nature nor feel anything when visiting a house (Sotherton).  
Fanny can sit in quiet and contemplation, whereas Mary gets restless. An example is when they visit Sotherton, Mary can’t sit for long and gets restless and needs to get up to go.   
When Maria and Julia go away, she turns to Fanny, because she always needs excitement, needs someone to talk to. 
Later, when Edmund is also away: 

“What was tranquillity and comfort to Fanny was tediousness and vexation to Mary. Something arose from difference of disposition and habit: one so easily satisfied, the other so unused to endure; but still more might be imputed to difference of circumstances.” (Ch.29) 

All these things show that Fanny has a richer mind. Look at what Edmund says to her:  

““I am worn out with civility,” said he. “I have been talking incessantly all night, and with nothing to say. But with you, Fanny, there may be peace. You will not want to be talked to. Let us have the luxury of silence.”” (Ch.28) 

This is something he can’t do with Mary—she is shallow, so she has to fill the emptiness with talk talk talk. 
In addition, people say that Fanny is boring, but look at this passage: 

““This is pretty, very pretty,” said Fanny, looking around her as they were thus sitting together one day; “every time I come into this shrubbery I am more struck with its growth and beauty. Three years ago, this was nothing but a rough hedgerow along the upper side of the field, never thought of as anything, or capable of becoming anything; and now it is converted into a walk, and it would be difficult to say whether most valuable as a convenience or an ornament; and perhaps, in another three years, we may be forgetting—almost forgetting what it was before. How wonderful, how very wonderful the operations of time, and the changes of the human mind!” And following the latter train of thought, she soon afterwards added: “If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.”
Miss Crawford, untouched and inattentive, had nothing to say; and Fanny, perceiving it, brought back her own mind to what she thought must interest…” (Ch.22) 

It is clear in this passage that she is the interesting one, and Mary can’t follow her and has nothing to say. 

“Fanny is a prig—she makes a fuss about others acting in the play.” 
People who make this complaint don’t seem to think of the context and the rules of the time (Mansfield Park was published in 1814). In No Name, Wilkie Collins also writes about the impropriety of private theatricals, especially when 2 young unmarried people play the roles of lovers. You can’t judge it by modern standards. 
That being said, most of the opposition to Lovers’ Vow comes from Edmund, who openly and repeatedly condemns it. Fanny mostly doesn’t support it because she knows Sir Thomas wouldn’t like it, and it’s not right to do something he wouldn’t approve of, in his absence. 
Mostly, she’s disappointed in Edmund for opposing the play and then agreeing to act in it—he appears inconsistent, and in a way, it’s like he lets the others win.

“Fanny is judgmental.”  
This criticism is mostly because she seems judgmental towards Mary Crawford. What if she’s just a good judge of character? 
Note that the people who use the word “judgmental” for Fanny like Mary, and don’t seem to realise that Mary is actually the judgmental one, who makes sweeping generalisations about the entire Navy and all of the clergy, merely because of the Admiral (her uncle) and Dr Grant (her brother-in-law), and a few things she has heard. 
Mary is also a snob—whilst approving of Fanny’s character, she’s still conscious of the fact that Fanny is beneath her brother, and later, she congratulates her for being liked by Henry. 
Most importantly, Fanny is being called judgmental, but she notices everything and always sympathises with the underdog—she notices Maria’s avoidance and helps Mr Rushworth learn his lines, feels bad for him when Maria and Henry go off without him and he goes back to fetch the key for nothing, notices Henry playing with Maria’s and Julia’s feelings, and feels sorry for Julia for being slighted by Henry. 
In contrast, Mary might step in when Fanny’s scolded and accused of ingratitude by Mrs Norris, but doesn’t help anyone, and doesn’t care when knowing that Henry plays with Maria and Julia without caring about either of them. I do like that she recognises that Maria is also at fault for being intimate with someone else when she’s engaged, it’s not all Henry’s blame, but still, she doesn’t care. 
If you read the book carefully, you can see that Fanny is most critical of herself—she has self-reflection, thinks that she is shy, weak, timid, awkward, nothing special, ponders over her own actions, wonders if she’s ungrateful or unfair, and so on.
It should be noted too that Fanny doesn’t explain to Sir Thomas her reason for refusing Henry, so as not to incriminate Maria and Julia, and she accepts the consequences herself. 

“Fanny is weak and passive.” 
She is physically weak indeed, but mentally strong. Think of the pressure from every side, but she still says no to Henry Crawford. 

“Fanny marries her cousin, ew.”
This complaint is judging the story through modern lens, and should be disregarded. 

“Fanny should choose Henry Crawford.” 
I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: anyone who thinks so misunderstands not only Mansfield Park but Jane Austen in general. 
Anyone who truly understands Jane Austen knows that she distrusts charming men, disapproves of men who play with women’s feelings, and doesn’t believe that a woman’s love can reform a man. 
For a large part of the book, Henry plays with Maria’s and Julia’s feelings, going back and forth between the 2, charming each of the Miss Bertrams at one time and slighting the other another moment. For example, on the trip to Sotherton, he sits at the front with Julia, neglecting Maria, then afterwards goes with Maria, having fun with her, leaving Julia behind, then on the way back, sits again with Julia on the carriage.  
During the play rehearsals, he flirts with Maria and gives her lots of attention, hurting Julia’s feelings and thinking nothing of the engagement, but without any intention of proposing to her and persuading her to break off the engagement with Mr Rushworth. 
Later, when Maria has got married and gone away: 

“Her two absent cousins, especially Maria, were much in her thoughts on seeing him; but no embarrassing remembrance affected his spirits. Here he was again on the same ground where all had passed before, and apparently as willing to stay and be happy without the Miss Bertrams, as if he had never known Mansfield in any other state. She heard them spoken of by him only in a general way, till they were all re-assembled in the drawing-room, when Edmund, being engaged apart in some matter of business with Dr. Grant, which seemed entirely to engross them, and Mrs. Grant occupied at the tea-table, he began talking of them with more particularity to his other sister. With a significant smile, which made Fanny quite hate him, he said, “So! Rushworth and his fair bride are at Brighton, I understand; happy man!”” (Ch.23) 

He is clearly a douchebag, having no remorse. 
I don’t say it’s impossible that Henry falls in love with someone like Fanny—in real life that happens often. But she has every reason to distrust it, and even Mary, the popular Mary, doesn’t think it would last either: 

““… I know that a wife you loved would be the happiest of women, and that even when you ceased to love, she would yet find in you the liberality and good-breeding of a gentleman.”” (Ch.30) 

There’s another detail I forgot after my first reading of Mansfield Park several years ago: Henry declares his feelings to Fanny right after telling her about her brother’s promotion to Lieutenant, thanks to his doing. It is distasteful—it is like he wants to manipulate her and pressure her into accepting him, to avoid being accused of ingratitude. Afterwards, he makes her more uncomfortable by showing up at dinner, instead of leaving her alone for some time to calm down and decide. 
Not only so, Henry speaks to Sir Thomas about his intentions, despite Fanny's reaction. 
All these actions show that, despite his declarations of love, and his belief, Henry doesn’t have the sensitivity to care about Fanny’s feelings. It baffles me that some people may claim to be a Jane Austen’s fan and think Fanny should end up with Henry. 

In short, this is my response, once and for all, to the idiocy that has been said about Fanny Price and Mansfield Park.