Mansfield Park And Mary Crawfo Essay Research

Mansfield Park And Mary Crawfo Essay, Research Paper

The Character of Mary Crawford

It can be useful to examine the values and ideas of a novel through the character

and portrayal of one character. Mary Crawford is a character central to the themes and

events of Jane Austen s Mansfield Park. At all significant points in the play, barring only

Fanny s rescue from her parents, she is either present or involved. Through such a

character, a great deal about the morality and ideas so central to this book can be revealed.

However, examination of a character and the way that character is portrayed can become

especially useful when comparing a book to a film based on the same material. Through

the changes, or the similarity, in the portrayal of the character, it becomes again possible

to examine the values behind the production. Patricia Rozema s version of Mansfield

Park, made in 1999, projects modern values onto character living in the early 19th

century. This projection, however, is more appropriate then one might imagine, and is

almost necessary to make the character necessarily despicable.

Mary Crawford is a vitally important part of the story of Mansfield Park. She

provides one of the key complications in the plot and is essential in it s role as a study of

character and morality. She is also key in her role as a contrast to Fanny Price, the more

amiable of the female characters.

Before one can fully understand Mary s vital role in the unfolding of events at

Mansfield Park, it is first important to understand exactly who Mary is and where she fits

in to the story. The story revolves around the family that occupies the vast estate of

Mansfield Park. Years earlier, they had taken into their care the daughter of Lady

Bertram s sister, who had married below herself and now had many children and no

money. The girl, Fanny, had grown from the age of ten, in the household of Sir Thomas

and Lady Bertram, and their children Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia. Some years later,

when Fanny reaches seventeen, the position at the parsonage of Mansfield Park is taken by

a Mr. and Mrs Grant. Mrs Grant, it seems, has two half-siblings by her mother s second

marriage, a Mr. Henry Crawford and Mary Crawford. The Crawfords come to live with

their half-sister, who introduces them to the Mansfield family. They become part of the

Bertram s closest circle of friends. Edmund Bertram, with whom Fanny has forged a

special friendship and has likely fallen in love, quickly finds himself attracted to the charm

and beauty of Miss Crawford. Julia and Maria Bertram, who has lately become engaged to

a rich fool nearby, both find themselves captivated by Henry Crawford. Maria moves

forward her marriage after realising that she has no hope of Henry reciprocating the

feelings.

Henry, however, feels strongly toward Fanny and eventually proposes. She refuses

him on the basis that she senses certain character flaws. Upon her refusal, Fanny is sent

away from Mansfield to live, once more, with her family in Portsmouth. When she again

refuses Henry, he removes himself to London, where he again meets up with Maria, now

Mrs. Rushworth, with whom he begins an affair. The whole scandal is discovered, and

Edmund goes to see Mary, who claims that it is not the action that is to be reproached, but

rather the discovery; and she largely blames Fanny for not agreeing to marry Henry,

claiming that he would not have acted in such a manner would he know to be risking the

affection of Fanny. Edmund then relinquishes his attachment to Mary, and returns to

Mansfield Park to later marry Fanny.

Mary is of importance for several reasons. One of the more simple and obvious

reasons for her inclusion was as a love interest for Edmund. A major theme in the story is

the struggle Fanny faces in the love she feels for Edmund, who does not reciprocate her

feelings. In order to make this struggle seem acute, Edmund must love another. Thus

Mary is introduced.

Mary is vastly different to Fanny. She is outspoken where Fanny is quiet. She is

sophisticated where Fanny is almost naive. For Edmund to appreciate Fanny s positive

qualities it becomes important for him first to value characteristics opposite to hers. When

Edmund finally discovers the true evil in Mary s character, he had scarcely done

regretting Mary Crawfords and observing to Fanny how impossible it was that he should

ever meet with such another kind of woman, before it began to strike him that a very

different sort of woman might do as well. 1 Therefore it seems that Mary s character is

fixed as she must be the total opposite to Fanny.

But Mary Crawford serves a much greater purpose in the novel then merely as

Fanny s competition for the affection of Edmund- her character also offers a striking

comment on morality. She is used in the novel to illustrate those of a certain moral code

and is utilised in the film to a

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