Looking and Seeing in Mansfield Park (Volume I)

There doesn't appear to be anything that's interesting about Fanny Price in Volume I. When her aunt, Mrs. Norris meets her in Northampton, the narrator describes the ten year old girl as “small, with no glow of complexion, nor any other striking beauty...and shrinking from notice” (10). Other than her countenance appearing to be pretty when she speaks, the reader is not immediately drawn to Fanny's physical appearance. Her girl cousins, Julia and Maria Bertram, find her uninteresting, “cheap,” and lacking a want of “genius and emulation” (15). Only Edmund is sensitive to Fanny and willing to cope with her shyness and newly found experience of making a home outside of her immediate family. The similarity of Edmund and Fanny's kind, gentle, and “excellent nature” allows the two to naturally seek out the other for help (12).

As with most of Austen's novels, it can be very predictable to discern how the apparent differences, disagreements, and distances will be reconciled in the end. However, Mansfield Park contains a variety of irregularities that are out of their natural order, so to speak. Fanny leaves her home to be raised by her aunt and her husband; Lady Bertram cares “more [for] her pug than her children;” Fanny's upbringing is influenced by a mixture of Lady Bertram's indolent, extravagant behavior while Mrs. Norris' “spirit of activity” and concern for money contrasts the behavior of her other aunt; Fanny's heart becomes divided in two between her brother William and cousin Edmund; and perhaps the most difficult part is how to raise Fanny properly and make it clear she is not a Bertram, while making her cousins not think to lowly of her and realizing that their “rank, fortune, rights, and expectations, will be always be different” (9). In other words, how to make a family member feel welcomed to a new home and environment while still preserving the distinction that they can never fully be a part of that environment?

Perhaps a possible answer is marriage. Marriage prompted by attractive good looks, financial security, as is the case with the Crawfords, could afford a kind of inheritance to a new place or home. They are charitably welcomed to Mansfield Park, and are subsequently paired up with possible suitors. But Henry and Mary Crawford's arrival also upsets the plans of others, namely Mr. Rushworth and Miss Bertram's engagement. Even Fanny has a difficult time trying to adapt to the arrival of the Crawfords. For example, Fanny “has great pleasure” looking at Miss Crawford and admiring her beauty (50). When her harp arrives, the narrator notes, it “added to her beauty” as her playing it near a window surely becomes “enough to catch any man's heart” (52). Fanny judges physical and moral beauty different than others. While the other women think Mr. Crawford handsome, Fanny does not agree (81). And “she [Fanny] was a little surprised that he [Edmund] could spend so many hours with Miss Crawford and not see more of the sort of fault which he had already observed” (52). Whenever Edmund becomes concentrated on Miss Crawford, he forgets about Fanny, and also of the Miss Crawford's rude behavior. How can that be?

Perhaps, Edmund is an example of those of whom Julia speaks of when she says, “Those who see quickly, will resolve quickly, and act quickly” (49). Part of what this novel seems to concern itself with is who sees what, and what are people looking at or admiring and what kinds of actions or feelings do those observations prompt? Edmund may be too quick to act on his feelings for Miss Crawford because he doesn't take time to cultivate them; his feelings for her are prompted by instinct. On the other hand, he has spent time and leisure with Fanny that he “knows [her] looks too well” and is able to discern when she has a headache (57). But unless human interactions and activity were to slow down, then perhaps we don't have to worry about seeing quickly and acting quickly. But is this even possible? Can we only find time and leisure in the natural world because change seems to be much slower there?

It seems like that's the case with Fanny. She looks to nature for moral guidance and appreciation- “Here's harmony! Here's repose!” (89). If people attended more to Nature, they would be “carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene” (90). Fanny suggests that such an appreciation suggests that there is something outside of ourselves that warrants our merit, and can teach us to become better judges of character and morality. But only if we do not see too quickly and are not distracted by the urging request to hear another song (90); then can we experience harmony, something that Austen suggests, “all painting and all music” leave behind (89).